A near-capacity crowd
filled Willett Hall on Saturday
evening to take on the home
opener for the men’s basketball
team. In a sloppy affair,
Longwood beat Division II
Mars Hill (MHU) 88-70.
The pregame was
punctuated by a replay of
Lucas Woodhouse’s gamewinning
three-pointer from
last Tuesday against Texas
Christian University.
With less than 10 minutes to
tip-off, most of Willett’s 1,807
seats were taken and there was
a unique atmosphere not often
felt in recent home openers.
MHU got the ball to start, but
an early Tristan “TT” Carey
three-pointer drove the fans
wild. The Lancers (2-1) were
up at the first media timeout
thanks to several strong moves
to the bucket by freshman
guard Darrion “DJ” Allen.
After LU’s decent start, Mars
Hill stayed with it and took the
lead on a couple of occasions.
Interior defense plagued the
Lancers early, with the Lions
scoring in bunches in the
paint. Longwood began to take
control after being under by
eight in the first half with a run
that included another Carey
dunk and a Leron Fisher threepointer.
The Lancers took an
eight-point lead into the locker
room at halftime.
The second half belonged to
Longwood, as their defense
sharpened up to the point
where Mars Hill went over
seven minutes without scoring
a single basket from the first
to second halves. The Lions
trimmed the lead to 11 with
13 minutes left, but LU pulled
away after that, dominating
almost every stat column
except for rebounding. 48 of
Longwood’s 88 points came in
the paint, but the Lancers were
out-rebounded 46-31. MHU
also had 24 offensive rebounds
to Longwood’s nine.
“I'm happy we got the win. I
was excited to see the amount
of fans at the game, which gives
me great hope and confidence
in [the idea that] we're going to
make this place a difficult place
to play,” Head Coach Jayson Gee
said after his first win in Willett
Hall. “And when you're turning a
program around, the one thing
you've got to do and have is
home-court dominance. And
I thought we established that
tonight with the crowd and with
the win.
“One of the things I've tried to
convince them [the players] is
it's not about the score. This is
the first season in this process;
we've got three seasons. In
the first season, you've got to
get your intangibles down. I
was disappointed that I didn't
think we fought hard enough,
and I thought we weren't as
disciplined, which I think [was]
exemplified in our foul trouble.
I've got the best player in the
league to my right with two
fouls in the first half ... I got after
them about that and just really
wanted to see them respond
and I thought we came out [in]
the second half and played our
defense that I thought blew
open the game.”
Carey’s 17 points were a
team-high, followed by 16 from
Woodhouse, 14 from Fisher and
12 each from Allen and Karl
Ziegler. Jeff Havenstein’s seven
rebounds were good enough for
a team-high as well.
“The fans were amazing,” said
Allen. “I feel like we played the
defense we had to play because
when we play our best defense,
it creates offense and it keeps us
going. I just let the game come
to me.”
Carey’s hot start continued,
scoring double figures in
his third-straight game. The
Player of the Year candidate,
however, wasn’t so quick to
celebrate, saying, “I think it
[my performance] could have
been better. I wasn’t at my full
potential. I was down at times,
I made my mistakes. I learned
from my mistakes and I’m just
going to put this one past me
and look forward to Brown.”
Carey’s week of a 24-point and
five-rebound average against
TCU and Mars Hill earned him
Big South Player of the Week
honors for the second time.
The team’s next game is
against Brown on Friday at 7
p.m. Over Thanksgiving Break,
the team will compete in the
Barclays Center Classic. They
play at Penn State on Sunday
and at St. John’s on Tuesday
before traveling to the campus
of Monmouth University to
play North Carolina A&T next
Friday and either Monmouth
or Mississippi Valley State on
Saturday. The St. John’s game
will be broadcast nationwide
on Fox Sports 1 with tip-off
scheduled for 7 p.m.
No. 24 Damarion Jeter goes for a slam dunk in the second half of the
men's basketball game versus Mars Hill on Saturday, Nov. 16.
