The Rotunda

Issue date: 12/2/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: longwoodlancers.com

Last Tuesday, Head Coach Mike Gillian and Longwood's Men's Basketball team competed in their first game of the South Padre Island Invitational against the University of Richmond Spiders in Richmond, Virginia. Then 0-4, the Lancers were hoping to take down their second Atlantic 10 Conference opponent in two years. Last December, the Lancers took down the Colonials of George Washington University, one of the more impressive victories since becoming Division 1 certified two years prior.

Last Tuesday however, the Lancers fell to 0-5 after a last-minute collapse led to a 65-52 defeat. The Lancers led 34-33 at the half, as well as 48-39 with only eight minutes to play before the Spiders would go off on a tearing 24-6 run to close out the game. In the first five games of the season, sophomore Antwan Carter (16.3 ppg) and redshirt senior Dana Smith (15.0 ppg) have carried most of the scoring load for the Lancers and continued to do vs. Richmond. Smith finished the game with 16 points and Carter added 15. Each pulled down seven rebounds as well. Sophomore Martiz Washington also contributed with 9 points all of which came from behind the arc.

One of the upsides to the Lancers play this season has been their turnover margin (+1), with a ratio of 13.5 to opponents 14.5 a game. Against the Spiders however the Lancers lost the turnover battle for the first time this season, committing 19 turnovers to Richmond's 16.

Richmond's pressure 3-2 zone and full court trap off of made baskets kept the Lancers from getting into a solid groove on offense, but were able to keep the game which featured nine ties and eight lead changes close thanks to offensive rebounds that were converted into second chance points.

In the second half the Lancers started off slow turning the ball over three times in the first two minutes that gave the Spiders a 6-0 run to start the half. With the score 39-36 in favor of Richmond with 15:33 to play, the Lancers responded with a vigorous run of their own. After Carter made of two free throws cutting the deficit to 39-37, Washington connected for his second field goal from beyond the arc to give the Lancers their first lead of the half at 40-39. Immediately following it was the Lancers turn to convert turnovers to points, when a Kevin Swecker steal led to an old-fashion three point play for Aaron Mitchell, a play that proved to be a momentum boost for Gillian and company.

Continued...

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