Aside from the bands for Spring Weekend, Wednesday night’s game revealed Longwood’s ability to pull out an 80-79 home win after the Campbell Camels took them to the wire, making every second count.
As the net swished from his second free throw, redshirt-senior guard Tra’Vaughn White didn’t realize his final two points of 29 would determine the result. The baskets put the Lancers ahead by seven with 11 seconds left.
Back-to-back threes by Campbell freshman guard Chris Clemons and sophomore guard Troy Harper cut Longwood’s lead to one as the last seconds ticked away.
“(White’s) a phenomenal scorer and it took him awhile to play at the level he’s playing at, but I’m glad he’s at that level now,” said men’s basketball head coach Jayson Gee.
This marks White’s third-straight game as a scoring leader.
Three other players joined White in the double-figures – senior center Lotanna Nwogbo (16), sophomore guard Kanayo Obi-Rapu Jr. (11) and junior guard Darrion Allen (17).
While Obi-Rapu and Nwogbo have been consistently adding points to Longwood’s scoreboard, Allen hadn’t scored 17 points or more for the past seven games.
His standout performance, sinking 5-of-7 from the field and hitting all five of his free throws, came after being sick the past two days, according to Gee.
“For (Allen) to have that kind of effort after being sick like that says a lot of about his commitment to this team,” he said.
A 22-point effort by Clemons, eight of them occurring in the last 30 seconds, led Campbell to their near comeback. By that point, the lead had changed 10 times over the course of the tight game.
Until Longwood led by seven in the final minute, neither team was outside of two possessions of the other during the second half.
The game marked the return of senior forward Shaquille Johnson after an ankle injury put him on the bench for the past two competitions. Johnson tallied five assists, nine rebounds and five points on the night. Scoring less than his average (11.8 ppg), Johnson still managed to rally the crowd of over 1300 with a dunk, not to be outdone by the Air Elite Dunkers halftime show.
Nwogbo, currently tied for second in the Big South for number of double-doubles season, added another to his record tonight with 11 boards to balance his 16 points. Longwood’s big man is up to seven.
Moving forward, Longwood will look to build on this win on the road as they travel to face Charleston-Southern University on Saturday, Feb. 6. The Lancers lost 82-75 the first time around.
White felt the win was what the team needed and they’ll continue to work on their defense for the future games, including this weekend’s matchup.
“We really just need to get one (win) first, then we just start rolling from there,” said White. “We can score on any team in the conference, just defensively we’ve got to keep getting better.”
