The Overtime Report: Liberty Prevails
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Jayson Gee is now 1–1 in Longwood’s rivalry versus Liberty.[/caption]
The Longwood University men’s basketball team couldn’t complete the season sweep of in-state rival Liberty University as the Lancers fell 90–76 in the Vines Center last night. The Flames and Lancers battled back and forth for the majority of the first half before Liberty pulled out to a 42–33 halftime lead. In the second half, the Flames maintained the margin as the Lancers rarely got within 8 points of the home team.
I guess the story of this game was the fact that Liberty’s talent simply outweighed the effort and energy of Longwood. It’s no secret that Liberty has a bigger, stronger, and more talented team. In order to be successful, the Longwood squad has to lean heavily on team defense, create turnovers, and the get quality play from the combo of Lucas Woodhouse and Tristan Carey. If the Lancers don’t perform well in just one of those areas, it is hard for them to win a game. As Coach Jayson Gee has previously explained, this team is fragile and it’s hard to win games if one thing is out of place.
Liberty did a good job of making their jump shots and absolutely dominated in the paint. The Lancers allowed the Flames to put up 50 points in the paint which ties for the worst this season (WVU Tech 12/4/13). Now, understand this: Liberty’s strength is their forwards while one of Longwood’s glaring weaknesses is their bigs. Liberty should dominate us but it seemed like Longwood defenders failed to oppose the Liberty forwards at all. Longwood did use a team effort to keep the rebound margin close as Liberty barely edged the Lancers 35–34. The Lancers simply couldn’t get over the hump in the second half as Liberty answered every Longwood run with a run of their own.
It is important to note that the energy and effort was in full display last night. Longwood hit the hardwood on several occasions to get to loose balls. The Lancers hustled the entire game. The coaches were constantly coaching the players up. The shots just weren’t falling. Well, Lucas Woodhouse was draining shots all night and TT Carey found his stroke later in the game but Longwood shot 41.8% from the field while Liberty posted a 57.6% clip.
When it comes to a rivalry, as a fan it is hard to throw your team’s current circumstances out the window. But the Lancers lost because this is a young team with a first year head coach. Adding to that, the previous regime operated under a more laid back and free team concept compared to the defense and discipline-driven Jayson Gee era. Liberty proved that they were more talented on their home court but it took a nearly flawless effort for the home team to beat the rebuilding Lancers.
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We have seen this team play really well this season and you have to think that they can get hot again. Coach Gee is going to work tirelessly to get this team to click in time for the Big South Basketball Championships. If he can get the guys to forget about the first two seasons and focus on this third season, Longwood shouldn’t have a problem competing.
Tidbits:
Liberty had 7 blocks compared to 0 for Longwood. That’s been a common occurrence all season but you’d have to think that stat will change dramatically in the future as Lotanna Nwogbo and Charlie Lockwood become eligible after redshirting.
Woodhouse was aggressive and shot the ball well (8–16 fg, 6–13 3fg). The Big South assist leader only tallied 3 dimes on the night. That was mainly because teammates failed to finish. I counted at least 4 routine shot misses off of Woodhouse passes.
Carey posted solid numbers but really struggled early on. He remained aggressive throughout the game and his shot came to him late as he posted 14 second half points. He ended the game with 20 points and 5 boards.
Leron Fisher had a poor offensive performance overall. The transfer guard failed to convert from 3 point land in 4 attempts. He did, however, play consistent defense and provided solid on ball pressure.
Karl Ziegler had a pretty normal night as he posted 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting and 5 rebounds in 36 minutes.
One thing that I can’t go without saying and I know I might be biased, but the Lancer Lunatics have to be the best student section in the Big South. The Lunatics made the trip to Radford earlier in the season and showed up to the Vines Center 100+ deep last night. From the opening tip, the Longwood student section was chanting “Let’s go Longwood!” You could hear them throughout the game with chants of “defense, defense,” and what I believe was a “We are louder!” chant. The Lancer Lunatics are a truly remarkable student section!
Also, if you weren’t able to watch the game on MASN or ESPN3 last night, you can watch the replay on espn3.com or on the Big South Network at bigsouthsports.com.
