The Longwood women’s basketball team continued their slump last week, losing to Big South opponents Coastal Carolina and Campbell. Both games were tightly-contested, but the Lancers couldn’t pull out the wins. They now have a difficult home stand against three of the top teams in the conference: High Point, Liberty and Radford.
The Lancers continued their road losing streak last week, bringing their record on the road this season to 4-12. The team played close, against Coastal Carolina, eventually losing 62-66. It was a game where Longwood led by as many as 17 midway through the second. Coastal then slowly came back, tying the game with a little less than two minutes left before taking the lead a minute later and not giving it back. Senior Chelsea Coward earned a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 38 minutes. The team then played at Big South opponent Campbell, where Longwood lost by 11 in a game that was close until Campbell began running away with it with a little more than five minutes left in the second half. The team was led by freshman guard Daeisha Brown who racked up 23 points in 37 minutes of play. Senior Crystal Smith made her first appearance since injuring her ankle in the game against High Point. However, Smith was a non-factor in the game, going zero-for-five from the field and had one turnover in 23 minutes of play off the bench. Dur- ing Scott Bacon’s Coach’s Corner interview with second-year head coach Bill Reinson yesterday, Reinson said, “The only reason [Smith] played was because she got angry with me. I probably wouldn’t have played her, but she forced her way into the lineup.” Reinson continued to say how he was happy that she played.
Now the team has arguably the toughest part of their schedule with three home games against three top Big South teams including the confer- ence’s top-ranked team in rival Liberty on Saturday. Also, High Point looms large tomorrow. The Lancers fell to High Point, 83-66 on Jan. 24 and to Liberty, 91-58 on Jan. 26.
Smith still leads the team with 15.4 points a game, followed by Coward with 14.8 and Brown with 13.2. Coward also averages 8.5 rebounds per game.
