Longwood’s season is over. After a valiant comeback, the Lancers fell to VMI 90-86 to move to 0-3 this year against the Keydets.

What was the difference? How about three technical fouls on the Lancers? The first was on Lucas Woodhouse for correctly questioning a call in the first half. Woodhouse would pick up four fouls in the first half and actually complete the game. The second of which was on Mike Gillian for responding against a routine call. This technical really killed the Lancers and their momentum midway through the second half as they were chipping into the lead. Honestly, the Gillian technical may have been the difference in the game.

The third technical was nothing short of bulls*it, as the referees called Karl Ziegler for “delay of game”. Simply put, without these three inopportune technicals LU likely would’ve won the game.

Tournament play is infectious, and you immediately see yourself playing in Dayton in these type of games, but honestly Mike Gillian let his team down tonight with a stupid, emotional technical that resulted in four points in one possession for the Keydets.

Michael Kessens did set a single-game Big South tournament scoring record with 36 points and also added 16 rebounds.

The season is over. We’ll regroup in November. The only question left is do we have the right leader? This team is promising with such young talent, but will that talent be ignored for the coaches favorite, like Nik Brown? Can this talent flourish or would it benefit more from a new leader.

It’s a tough decision. The end of the season was admirable, but it was despite poor coaching decisions. The player put themselves on their own back. Why did it take 60+ minutes of basketball this year to put a box and one on Stan Okoye?

I’ve wafted on the decision myself, but do you let Mike Gillian try to grow a program while banging his head against the same wall, all while being a lame duck, or do you find new leadership who can take this extremely talented group of young, core players to the next level?

This was icing on the cake after the Liberty win:

It was only a matter of time…

After the big win on Tuesday we’ve put our “REAL LU” rivalry t-shirts on sale for $5 off.

You can grab the t-shirt in either blue or white and show that the real LU really is Longwood University.

The sale will on last until the end of day on Sunday. You can purchase the shirts by clicking HERE

Be sure to check out the other LancersBlog gear while you’re there.

TT Carey had a career high against rival Radford

Maybe Longwood has a Saturday winning streak going? The Lancers took down Radford today 76-61 in front of a near capacity of 1,787 on Alumni Day.

Longwood dominated from the get go and were up 38-23 on the Highlanders at half time. Longwood actually never trailed the whole game. Basically Radford never even got close.

The player of the game had to be Tristan Carey who scored a career high 31 points and had 10 rebound. Lucas Woodhouse wasn’t far behind with a double-double himself with 12 points and 11 assists. The birthday boy, Michael Kessens, added 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Longwood moved to 5-22 and 2-11 in conference play. It was the first Division I win at home in over a year and the first Big South win ever at home.

The Lancers now prepare for their final home game against rival Liberty on Tuesday night. Liberty is 9-18 and 5-8 in the Big South after losing the High Point on Saturday.

Campbell is in the midst of a three game win streak with the return of guard Darren White to the lineup.

Where: Historic Willett Hall
When: Wednesday, January 8, 7PM
TV: Big South Network

LancersBlog GameThread

Longwood will look to get to .500 in conference play and get their first ever Big South victory on Wednesday as they welcome the Campbell Camels to town. Campbell has had their fair share of ups and downs this season but the Camels have really been hitting their stride lately.

Campbell was the preseason favorite for the North Division at a Big South Media Day. The Camels started the season 2-1 but then went on a brutal stretch where they lost eight out of nine games, including a demoralizing loss to non-Division I opponent Rio Grande. Absent for most of that stretch was 6’4 guard Darren White. The Danville native returned to the Camels lineup in late December and the black and orange have rattled off three straight wins.

White is a prolific scorer who has been averaging over 24 points per game in the Camels three game win streak. The streak is even more impressive when you notice that all three wins are against in-state rivals, including one of the nation’s most surprising teams East Carolina on the road. The Camels last win was a triple overtime thriller against Gardner-Webb in Buies Creek. White has played against Longwood once before as a freshman at JMU. He only scored two points in a 96-86 victory for the Dukes.

White may be the Camels biggest scoring threat but sophomore guard Trey Freeman leads the show for coach Robbie Laing. Freeman averages nearly 14 points per game and leads the Big South in assists with just over 6 per game. Freeman is sure to be a challenge for either both Lucas Woodhouse and Nik Brown Wednesday night. Other contributors for the Camels are Darian Hooker who is averaging over 10 points per game and VCU transfer Reco McCarter.

The Camels and the Lancers are somewhat familiar opponents as they’ve met six times since 2007. The series is currently tied at 3-3 and the Camels are 2-1 in Farmville. The two teams last met in  January of 2011 in Willett Hall, Longwood won 72-62 behind 20 points apiece from Jeremiah Bowman and Antwan Carter.

Matt Hayes was a winner of an Elwood bobblehead at the last Lancers Club Happy Hour at Home Team. Come on out Friday for another fun event.

Don’ forget that Lancers Club and the Longwood Alumni Association will be holding a pregame event at Home Team Grill on 1630 West Main Street. We had a Lancers Club Happy Hour there earlier in the year which was a great success. This event will feature plenty of free appetizers for everyone and will be a great chance to catch up with friends.

The DC event for the Georgetown game was great, so lets keep it going! The event will start at 6PM and run until 7. Tip-off for the game will occur at 7:30. We invite everyone to come to Home Team a little earlier if they wish or stay a little later to watch the game, if you weren’t able to get tickets.

There will also be other alumni events for road games against Liberty (January 22), Radford (January 16) and VMI (March 2).  All three of those events will be held at Macado’s in there respective city.

Go Lancers!