Nothing came free on Tuesday night, except for the t-shirts, as the Lancers fell 89-70 (6-19, 3-13) to the No. 6 High Point Panthers (9-15, 8-7) in Willett Gym on Longwood’s Pink Out game. After scoring in the first 8-of-9 possessions, the Panthers’ held the lead for all 40 minutes.
The loss exploited the weaknesses in Longwood’s defense as their losing streak extended to five straight with one game left before postseason begins. While head coach Bill Reinson complimented the team’s offense, he said the team’s defense “needed to improve without a doubt.”
“You have to play the entire game,” he said. “We pulled within six or eight at one point, then gave up two straight line drives and three offensive rebounds. We just needed to get over the hump, we didn’t do that. We haven’t done that in the last couple of games.”
Though the Lancers had six steals in the second, compared to zero in the first, they traded it for High Point’s dominant rebounding performance, winning 22 to Longwood’s 10. The Panthers’ 14 offensive rebounds allowed them to score 12 second chance points.
Sophomore guard Autumn Childress, adding two of Longwood’s six steals, believed the higher pressure came from the team “changing our face” and “not being defeated” after going into halftime eight points down and slapped with a 6-0 run immediately out of the locker room.
“It just wasn’t enough to keep them off the floor. I think offensive rebounding for them really hurt us, so our steals didn’t match to their offensive rebounds,” she said.
Four Panthers hit double-digits, including a 25-point game from the Big South’s leader in career points, junior guard Kaylah Keys. Freshman forward Haleigh Hatfield also had a big night, not missing a single shot from the field or line, and added 13 points.
A 13-1 run to finish the game sent High Point home with a 19-point lead over the Lancers.
“We were kind of down on ourselves, we’ve just got to pick it up. Even though we’ve been losing for a while now, we’ve got to stay positive,” said junior center Eboni Gilliam, who led Longwood with 15 points and eight boards.
When the buzzer sounded, ending another game that got away, it became time for the Lancers to look on to their next game against No. 5 Radford (13-11, 9-6), who they lost to 79-67 on Jan. 16. The team will travel Radford on Saturday, Feb. 16, playing at 2 p.m.
Reinson said, “Even though we’ve suffered five in a row, we still believe in the team. I just think we need to work harder in practice, so we can carry that over into the games.”
Sophomore guard Autumn Childress added 13 points and five borads in the Lancers' loss to High Point on Tuesday, February 16, 2016.
