After a neck-and-neck first half, the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs (GWU) (15-9, 7-4) surged forward by 11 points within the first three minutes of the second half, setting the tone for the rest of Tuesday’s game in an 87-78 loss for Longwood (7-17, 3-8).
The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Lancers for the second time (39- 22) and increased their three-point percentage from .263 (5-of-19) in their first meeting to .577 (16-of- 29) in Willett Hall.
“We started the game trying to shut down their inside game and their outside game was phenomenal,” said Head Coach Jayson Gee. “Once they got going with those threes, it made it extremely difficult to slow them down. To their credit, they knocked those shots down.”
The Lancers held Gardner-
Webb junior forward Jerome Hill to 20 points, compared to his 31 at GWU. Alongside Hill, four other Bulldogs scored in double-digits, including junior guard Adonis Burbage who only finished two points less than Hill.
The first half saw the lead change nine times, the largest lead held by Longwood was seven points with less than three minutes left in the first half; a gap closed by GWU to end the half up by one, including a last second three-pointer from junior guard Harold McBride.
“I was disappointed in the end of the half, we were up seven and didn’t do a great job of controlling the game down the half. That’s a guard situation and we didn’t get great guard play,” said Gee.
Coming out of the locker room, Longwood had four missed attempts before senior guard, captain Quincy Taylor made his first layup of the game. Taylor entered the half with one and
finished with 15 points.
Taylor said the team was “just
trying to get back in the game” and he “wasn’t as aggressive as (he) should have been” in the first half.
Longwood freshman guard Kanayo Obi-Rapu, recently suffering from plantar fasciitis, pain and inflammation of tissue under the foot connecting to the heel, had a career-night, scoring 15 points.
“(Kanayo Obi-Rapu has) definitely been better since his injury, he’d been hurt for the last few games. He’s been a lot better, playing harder and being more aggressive offensively,” said Taylor.
Opi-Rapu made .600 (3-of-5) of his threes, compared to the team’s .400 (10-of-25) average, and contributed two assists and two steals. According to Gee, Gardner-Webb was “certainly his best game,” though he wished his play came during a winning game.
“I thought Kanayo (Obi-Rapu)
did some great things. He did a great job of attacking the basket, scoring offensively (and) making some key shots. He played with the kind of aggression and abilities we believe he had,” said Gee.
Crediting the athletic training staff with his recovery, Obi-Rapu said his foot is fixed “for the most part” and he feels like himself again.
Longwood will head to the University of North Carolina- Asheville (11-11, 7-4) on Feb. 6.
“We’re going to be real hungry. We know we’re the underdog in every aspect. We don’t really believe it, but everybody else does. We’re going to know what we need to do to fight, obviously rebounding is a big deficit for us, but we make up for that with effort,” said Opi- Rapu.
This will be their second match- up this season, the first ending in a 74-64 win by UNC Asheville.
