This year’s women’s basketball team might be considered a number of things. Injury plagued? Sure. Young? Definitely. No matter the reason, however, the Lancers’ slide has continued this week, stretching to four games, after a couple of conference losses, that drive the team further and further away from the .500 mark.
Against Liberty on Wednesday, Longwood (6-14, 3-8 Big South) found themselves unable to contain the Flames early and never were able to grab the lead. Daeisha Brown had a team-high 13 points and eight rebounds, and was 7-for-8 from the line.
Mickayla Sanders and Jaymee Fisher-Davis each had 16 points for Liberty. Liberty outrebounded the Lancers 51-27. Head Coach Bill Reinson said, “We played pretty well, offensively, for the first 20 minutes, but as has been the case, we struggled to score in the second half. Liberty shot the ball very well. We need to continue to improve our defense. Being shorthanded, [Brenna Robbins and Jaclyn Reagan] were asked to defend Liberty's post players and they battled them all night long. We need to get contributions like that from everyone every time out.”
High Point was the opponent on Wednesday and this time, the Lancers held their own for a much larger portion of the game. The Panthers led 35-32 at halftime and were looking strong until a 13-5 High Point run put the game out of reach midway through the second half.
Reinson did not mince words in his postgame interview, saying, “I think we have a lot of players who are healthy and playing, but we’ve got people who don’t show up every day and I think it affects everything else. We’ve played Liberty; we’ve played High Point, two of the better teams [in the Big South].
“Now we go on the road to face teams that we were shorthanded with the first time. I know I’m looking for a little retribution, so hopefully they [the players] are too.”
Those two road teams are Campbell and Coastal Carolina. Longwood lost to both teams at earlier in the year: Coastal Carolina, 83-53 on Dec. 28 and Campbell, 74-55 in Farmville on Dec. 30.
Photo By: Staff Photographer Laura Clarke
