Women’s Basketball Gets Back On Track
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Longwood’s women’s basketball team welcomed the Charleston Southern Bucs to Willett Hall on Thursday night.The Lancers led from whistle to whistle as they defeated the Bucs 71–59. During the postgame show with Scott Bacon on WVHL 92.3fm, head coach Bill Reinson talked about how talented this team could be and said, “hopefully, this win will boost their confidence.” Longwood definitely needed the win to propel them through the rest of the season and into the Big South Conference Championship Tournament in March. The win snapped a 6 game losing streak for the Lancers squad.
What you need to know:
For the first time in several weeks, the Lancers were close to 100% healthy. Raven Williams, Daeisha Brown, and Khalilah Ali, who have all missed time throughout the season, were active for the game.
Raven Williams set the tone in the first half as she made consecutive three pointers to help Longwood jump out to an 8–2 lead to start the game. Williams finished the first half with 12 points (3 treys), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. The second half was much of the same as the sophomore out of Richmond finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Dae Dae Brown was not her usual self as she is dealing with a knee injury (on the Coach’s Corner, Coach Reinson said she was basically playing on one leg). However, the sophomore still finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. She didn’t have a stellar shooting night (4–14) but contributed in other ways. The Richmond lefty was able to attack the basket and draw fouls. Brown finished the night 8–10 from the charity stripe. As a player, Dae Dae is phenomenal driving to the basket and drawing contact/finishing. What’s impressive is that she’s listed at 5'3" which is probably being generous.
Khalilah Ali returned for just her 3rd game after missing 2. The second year player finished the game with just 7 points but contributed to the stellar rebounding night with 8 boards in just 20 minutes.
Kyndal Skersick finished the game with 15 points on 5–9 shooting (no triples), a rebound, and 3 steals. Skersick will be a huge benefactor of the team being close to full strength as she typically excels from the perimeter.
The stat of the night had to be rebounding. The Lancers pulled down 51 boards and 24 on the offensive end. 51 rebounds is the most this season ahead of 48 at William and Mary in the second game of the season. 24 offensive boards is also a season high.
Longwood has a tough stretch to close out the season as they play 5 of their last 6 against teams ahead of them in the standings. The good news is that 4 of the 6 are at home in Willett Hall. If Longwood could string together some wins, they could really affect the championship tournament seedings.
