November 20, 2009

Box Score

FARMVILLE, Va. - The Longwood University women's basketball team defeated Utah Valley University 73-51 on Friday night in Willett Hall on campus in Farmville. The Lancers had a 30-29 lead at halftime before going on an 18-1 run early in the second half. Freshmen accounted for 33 points, with Chelsea Coward/Mechanicsville (Hanover) leading the Lancers with 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Senior Becky Fernandes/Fort Belvoir (Bishop Ireton) added a career-high nine assists with seven points and four rebounds in the win. The Lancers return to action on Sunday, November 22, when they travel to Kennesaw, Georgia to take on Kennesaw State University at 1:30 p.m..

The first half was close with five ties and nine lead changes. Junior Krystal Garrison/Fredericksburg (Courtland) gave the Lancers a 3-2 lead after nailing her first shot of the game. Coward added a pair of three-pointers, the second with 7:53 remaining in the half, to give Longowod the 22-19 lead. Neither team had more than a three point lead throughout the first half. Junior Mallory Short/Richmond (Mills E. Godwin) made a pair of layups in the final 90 seconds of the first half as Longwood took a 30-29 lead in to halftime.

UVU's Julie Smith made a jumper one minute in to the second half but the Longwood defense forced the Wolverines to go without another field goal until the 10:36 mark. The Lancers went on an 18-1 run during that time with seven different players scoring, led by five points from Coward. Longwood did not let up and extended the lead to as many as 23 points after a jumper by freshman # Heather Tobeck#/La Porte, Texas (La Porte). A three pointer by # Lindsey Martin#/Mechanicsville (Atlee) pushed the final score to 73-51.

Longwood's bench scored 35 points in the game with Coward and # Morgan Smith#/Williamsport, Md. (Williamsport) contributing 15 and 13 points respectively. Tobeck scored 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting and also blocked four shots. Short tallied 10 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. The Lancers went 18-for-27 from the floor in the second half and shot over 50% from the field for the first time in nine games. The nine assists by Fernandes were the most by a Longwood player since Keiva Small assisted on nine baskets against VCU during the 2007-08 campaign.

As a team, Longwood had 18 assists, the most by the Lancers since February 1, 2008 when they had 19 against Texas-Pan American.

UVU shot 60.0% from the floor in the first half and went 4-for-6 from three. The Lancer defense held them to 26.9% shooting in the second half. Kayla Burningham led the Wolverines with 12 points while Julie Smith added 10 points and six rebounds. Asumi Nakayama scored nine points on 3-for-8 shooting from three and contributed three assists.