Sunday, February 11, 2024

Longwood responds, turns away Winthrop behind big nights from Massie and Christmas

 

Longwood forward John-John Massie booked a career-high 31 in the Lancers' Saturday win over Winthrop.  (Photo:  Longwood Athletics)

FARMVILLE, Va. – Following a close loss to USC Upstate Wednesday night and a series of prolonged Big South struggles, Longwood coach Griff Aldrich saw a glimmer of light. The Lancers played with good effort and competed at the level Aldrich expected from his side after it got off to a sizzling non-league start.

Saturday, despite the rainy and dreary conditions outside the Joan Perry Brock Center, that glimmer turned into a bright spotlight.

Longwood had two players register career-high point totals and tied its season-high for made threes in a game, silencing a late Winthrop run and taking an 84-74 decision before an announced crowd of 2,873.

“That was a great win for us,” Aldrich said. “Obviously, the conference slate has been a real challenge. We’ve had a lot of games where they’ve been close and we haven’t finished them. Thankfully, we had a big enough margin to withstand their end-game run.”

“I’ve been so proud of our guys. Their approach has really been phenomenal. It’s easy to be a champion, have a great attitude, and compete when everything’s going your way. It’s hard to do that when things aren’t going your way. That’s the true test of a champion and the true test of character.  I think our guys have done that, and because they’ve done that, they’ve put themselves in a spot to get better and be playing better.”

Longwood (15-11, 3-8 Big South) skidded out of the gates a bit. Winthrop (15-11, 6-5) raced out to an early 8-2 lead behind threes from Kasen Harrison and Sin’Cere McMahon. The Lancers countered with an 8-2 burst of their own, leveling the contest at the 10:45 mark. The visiting Eagles again stretched their lead as far as four, before the Lancers tore off a 7-0 burst from which the Eagles were never able to recover. Longwood closed the half on a 28-10 overall run to take a 42-28 margin to the interval.

Massie electrified the crowd while providing the bucket that set up that score, heaving a 65-foot try that banked in as the horn sounded.

“A lot went into that (result),” Winthrop coach Mark Prosser said. “All those things happened because they played harder than (we did).  They were more urgent than we were. It wasn’t anything more dramatic than that. When that happens, you can’t win at the Division 1 level. You certainly can’t win at the Division 1 level on the road.”

“We have goals. We have things that we lay out. We have things that we harp on. We didn’t meet a lot of our goals today. Give them a lot of credit. That’s a good team. When they’re shooting the ball well, it’s really difficult. Today, they had a lot of comfort. When you have that comfort level, shots find their way to go in.”

Much as they were the story of the game, Longwood forwards Michael Christmas and John-John Massie were the stories of the half. The duo combined to tally 30 of Longwood’s 42 in the period, hitting 10-of-13 tries from the deck and 5-of-5 from the line.  Lancer point guard Walyn Napper helped feed the pair, helping on five Longwood buckets in the first 20.

“I thought Walyn was phenomenal, particularly in the first half,” Aldrich said. “He was a true point guard. The ball was flying all over the place and he was just picking apart their ball-screen defense. It helped that we made shots. I thought that his ball-screen reads were outstanding. That really gave us a lot of life, too.”

Napper would collect his fourth foul before the 14-minute mark, leading the Lancers to employ D.A. Houston, their other steady veteran point guard. The Lancers responded, keeping a 10-plus point lead for much of the second half.

“It’s hard, because Walyn is, in many ways, our engine,” Aldrich said. “You saw in the first half how dynamic he is. I thought D.A. did an incredible job. Mateo Esmeraldo – a walk-on – gave us minutes in both the first and second halves. I really thought the guys continued to make plays and play with confidence. When Walyn was out – he’s normally playing 32 to 36 minutes and tonight he played 20 tonight. It was a huge team win.”

The comfortable Lancer cushion persisted until a late Winthrop surge. The Eagles, guided by Micheal Anumba’s veteran presence, made a charge from a 12-point deficit down to five in the span of 50 seconds, casting an uneasy feeling over the partisan Lancer crowd. Longwood allowed the crowd to exhale a bit on the ensuing possession, as Christmas fired home a dunk to extend the margin back to 80-73 and put away the Eagles.

“I’m really proud of the group that was out there at the end,” Prosser said. “That’s not enough. You can’t play hard for two (four-minute segments). It went from 19 to five quickly. I think we’re a team that has some potent offensive players. Eventually, I think we’ll score. Their shooting percentages were extraordinarily high. That makes it difficult to win, especially on the road.”

Massie and Christmas both lodged career-highs. Massie hit 8-of-9 shots, 3-of-3 from distance, and 12-of-13 from the line to finish with 31. Christmas connected on 8-of-15, including 5-of-7 from deep. The grad student finished with his career-best of 26. The Lancers hit 27-of-53 tries (50.9 percent) and 10-of-21 three-point tries (47.6 percent). Longwood hit 20-of-28 tries (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe.

“We don’t win the game if they don’t play the way they did,” Aldrich said of Massie and Christmas.

Harrison guided the Eagles with 20, booking 9-of-14 shots and 1-of-3 from both the line and distance. Kelton Talford added 18, including a 12-of-16 performance in which he drew nine Lancer fouls. K.J. Doucet tallied 15 and seven rebounds while Anumba scored 11 on 3-of-5 shooting and 4-of-6 from the line. The Eagles shot 47.7 percent (21-for-44) after heating up to 58.3 percent (14-for-24) in the second half.  Winthrop attempted a season-high 42 free throws and hit 27, eclipsing the prior season-high attempts number of 39 from their first game against Longwood.

Winthrop returns to action Thursday night at the Dedmon Center in Radford, Va., against Radford. Game time between the Eagles and Highlanders is set for 8:00 (Eastern), with television coverage over ESPNU. Longwood will be off for one week before heading to Clinton, S.C., to battle Presbyterian. Tip time in the Templeton Center will be 2:00 Saturday, Feb. 17, with streaming coverage over ESPN+.

LONGWOOD 84, WINTHROP 74

WINTHROP (15-11, 6-5 BIG SOUTH)

Talford 3-5 12-16 18, Doucet 3-7 8-11 15, Claxton 0-1 0-1 0, Johnson 3-7 0-2 8, Harrison 9-14 1-3 20, McMahon 0-3 2-3 2, Anumba 3-5 4-6 11, Timmerman 0-1 0-0 0, Diallo 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 27-42 74

LONGWOOD (15-11, 3-8)

Christmas 8-15 4-4 25, Tucker 2-7 2-2 6, Granlund 2-5 0-0 4, Napper 2-4 1-4 5, Houston 0-5 0-0 0, Massie 8-9 12-13 31, Richards 2-4 0-1 6, Zapala 1-1 0-0 2, Sunderland 0-1 0-0 0, Nziemi 2-2 1-4 5, Esmeraldo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-53 20-28 84.

Halftime:  Longwood 42-28. 3-Point goals:  Longwood 10-21 (Christmas 5-7, Granlund 0-2, Napper 0-1, Houston 0-4, Massie 3-3, Richards 2-4), Winthrop 5-19 (Doucet 1-5, Claxton 0-1, Johnson 2-4, Harrison 1-3, McMahon 0-3, Anumba 1-2, Timmerman 0-1). Fouled out:  Claxton (WU), Granlund (LU).  Rebounds:  Longwood 33 (Christmas 9), Winthrop 27 (Doucet 7). Assists: Longwood 14 (Napper 6), Winthrop 9 (Harrison 4). Total fouls:  Longwood 32, Winthrop 25. Technicals:  NA.

Points off turnovers:  Longwood 20, Winthrop 18.  Points in the paint:  Winthrop 32, Longwood 28.  Second-chance points:  Longwood 11, Winthrop 3.  Fast-break points:  Winthrop 6, Longwood 6.  Bench points:  Longwood 44, Winthrop 13.

 


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