It’s something that is undesirable to say the least for those associated with Longwood basketball – the team is going through the second-longest losing streak in Mike Gillian’s 10-year-long tenure as head coach, and the longest since the 19-game drought that ended the 2004-05 season. The past week was highlighted by two road losses, one an 88-68 drubbing at the hands of High Point, and the other being a 76-65 triumph by Gardner-Webb.
In the HPU game a week ago, freshman Michael Kessens tallied a game and career-high 22 points, but the takeaway was a continuation of the same issues plaguing the Lancers (3-20, 0-9) this season: A halftime deficit that ballooned in the second and defensive struggles that contributed to that meltdown. While the team actually improved their shooting percentage from the field in the second half, a 41-57% improvement for the Panthers proved to be the difference as High Point outscored Longwood in the second half by a 53-30 margin. Along with Kessens’ 22, junior Tristan Carey added 15 of his own. One of the most telling statistics from the game was the 19-3 advantage in offensive rebounds for the Panthers, who never trailed during the game and moved to 10-10 on the year.
“We controlled the tempo in the first half … and then made some mistakes versus their full-court defense that gave them some easy scoring opportunities,” Gillian said Tuesday. “Still, we were in that 10-12 point range around the 10-minute mark [of the second] and made some mistakes that led to some scoring chances for them.”
At Gardner-Webb, Longwood made their first seven shots and it seemed as if the struggles of the past month-plus were coming to an end. A lead for Longwood lasted throughout a significant portion of the first and led 35-31 with two minutes left, but a 7-0 Runnin’ Bulldog run at the end of the half made it 38-35 at the half.
Things didn’t get better from there as the Lancers went through a stretch of over eight minutes midway through the second half where they didn’t get a single point, while Gardner-Webb took advantage of that time frame and scored 14 points to attain a 62-46 lead with less than six minutes to play. Longwood closed the gap late but it wasn’t enough, as the Lancers dropped their 13th game in a row. Kessens’ 21 were good enough for a team-high, while redshirt sophomore Jeylani Dublin and Carey added 14 and 13, respectively. GWU outshot the Lancers 54-50 from the field, as the Lancers went 2-for-13 from behind the arc.
“We pretty much controlled the game, got to the second half and missed some shots. That’ll happen sometimes,” Gillian said.
When asked why the team has faded down the stretch in six of nine league games to date, Gillian responded “The other teams have made some better plays than we have.
“You have to stop the other team from scoring [and] you’ve got to put the ball in the basket on the offensive end. That’s what it comes down to.”
Longwood ranks last in the nation in scoring defense, giving up an average of 82.1 points a night. Defensive struggles are nothing new for the squad; they ranked last in the country in that statistic as well (84.4). Gillian says, “Coaches and players put a lot of time and energy and effort and pride into what they’re doing. Anybody who questions their effort or their commitment to being good doesn’t know anything really or chooses not to look into the effort they’re trying to put in to be good for themselves, the team, the athletic department and the university. These guys have done everything we’ve asked them to do; they continue to do that. Their attitude’s good. We have good gameplans going in each one and the coaches are doing a good job. We just need to play a little bit better…
“Anybody else who categorizes it any other way without being around it all the time really is speculating.”
When asked his thoughts on the streak, he said, in part, “We have to win one game … It would be no different than if you were talking about a 13-game winning streak.”
Longwood hosts VMI tonight at 7 p.m. in the annual Greek Night promotion, and will then travel to Winthrop on Saturday. In related news, it was announced on Monday that LU would travel to play UT-Martin of the Ohio Valley Conference on Feb. 23 for the last-ever edition of BracketBusters.
