It’s that time again. Call it a grudge match, call ita rivalry game, call it whatever you wish, but this much is clear – one of the most heated rivalries in the Big South restarts tonight in Farmville as Longwood welcomes Liberty into Willett Hall for the 12th time. It’s the first game between the two teams since last Feb. 19, when Longwood beat the Flames 102-101 in an instant classic, leading to the Longwood students storming the court afterward to celebrate with the team.
This time around, Longwood doesn’t look like the surging team they were at this point last year; they instead haven’t won in over a month and are 0-4 in conference play. Liberty, on the other hand, is the defending conference champion and 2-2 in the Big South and 8-11 overall. Antwan Burrus and John Caleb Sanders combine for 24 points a game on average, whereas Longwood guard Lucas Woodhouse is first in the conference for assists with 7.6 per game. With that said, here are three storylines to keep an eye out for tonight.
For starters, Longwood’s senior wing TT Carey will undoubtedly be the most talented player on the floor; he averages 17.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game and is knocking down shots from the field at a rate of .439. The popular co-captain has started every game and is also well-remembered for his performance in last year’s game against the Flames in Farmville. His 40-point, 12-rebound and eight three pointers were good enough for some recognition from ESPN and had an enormous impact on the game’s eventual result. Dale Layer, and the rest of the conference for that matter, knows exactly what Carey is capable of and has surely been preparing his team for the multi-faceted threat the LaSalle transfer brings. He was held scoreless over the last 11 minutes versus Campbell, but that probably won’t happen against Liberty.
First-Year Head Coach Jayson Gee will get his first taste of the rivalry tonight, and he adjusted his usual starting lineup recently to include Leron Fisher, Woodhouse, Carey, Damarion Geter and Jeff Havenstein. He installed Geter in place of sophomore forward Karl Ziegler, who’s been in the midst of a breakout year (13.1 points, 5.4 rebounds).
The move was meant to introduce the regular starters to Geter’s sheer power and tenacity, but came at the cost of losing a little bit of Ziegler’s deadly midrange jumper. The team adjusted well with a couple of decent performances and close losses to Campbell and High Point, but faltered against Radford on Saturday.
Geter and Ziegler are both great young talents with little downside, but it will be up to Gee to make the right decision based on who’s performed in practice and games lately.
The last four minutes will be pivotal to either team’s successes or failures tonight. Case in point, the two squads combined for 55 points after the last media timeout in last year’s game and the outcome was in doubt until the buzzer sounded. Liberty Head Coach Dale Layer has been in this position before and guided his team to the Promised Land last year.
Gee has been in a close game or two, but came out on the losing end of his most recent nail-biter, losing a 13-point lead at home to Campbell. Longwood looks like a team with untapped potential in spades and might just blow up against their rivals tonight – or they might not be ready and lose to Liberty in their home arena for the first time. All told, though, no fan should feel assured of any outcome until the clock reads triple-zero.
