The women’s basketball team hosted two home games last week splitting the decisions with a loss to Winthrop but a win against Radford.
Raven Williams started the Winthrop game off strong for the Lancers with a three pointer but Winthrop went on a 14-point run halfway through the first half. Longwood had contributions from Williams, Brenna Robbins and Kyndal Skersick that had the Lancers go into the half down 33-16. The Lancers came out of the half and cut the lead down to 18 because of Deborah Headen, who scored three straight pull-up jumpers. Winthrop would go on a 13-1 run, pulling away with the score 55-25. Skersick would hit a jumper followed up by free throws but Winthrop scored six more points taking their biggest lead of the night, 61-29. Winthrop won the game 63-35. Headen, Skersick and Williams tied with the game high of points with six a piece and Headen tallied the most rebounds on the team with six. The Lancers shot 24 percent from the field, eight percent from the three point line, and 88 percent from the free throw line.
The Lancers had better luck their second game of the homestand when they beat Radford. The game was closely contested from the tip-off, but Radford used an 11-3 run to push their lead to 21-13 halfway through the first half. Longwood answered with a 14-3 run of their own to take the lead at 27-24 with five minutes left in the half. The teams continued to exchange baskets with one another before both teams went into the break with Longwood leading 35-31.
Radford came out of the half scoring back-to-back baskets before the Lancers scored 11 straight points taking a 46-36 lead early into the second half. Radford came back and cut the lead to four, but then Headen and Skersick both contributed by hitting three pointers, putting Longwood in the lead 60-52 with under ten minutes to play.
The teams continued to go on runs against each other until Longwood scored eight of the last 13 points of the game leading them to a 76-70 win over their rival. Khalilah Ali scored her career high 16 points and recorded 10 rebounds for her fourth double double of the season. The team shot season highs of 53 percent from the field and 53 percent from the three point line, along with 89 percent from the free throw line.
Senior Day is this Saturday against Liberty University, and then the team will head down to Coastal Carolina University outside of Myrtle Beach, SC to play in the Big South Tournament.
