Longwood defeats Winthrop to win Big South, headed to NCAA Tournament

Longwood is headed to March Madness.

Lancer Nation let out a roar from Charlotte to The Ville, across Southside Virginia and far beyond. Justin Hill had a smile wider than High Bridge. Courtside afterward, players’ moms and dads and even a few alums shed tears of joy. Head Coach Griff Aldrich and President Reveley, who took a huge chance and brought Aldrich to Farmville four years ago, embraced for nearly a full minute.

Then, cheered on by hundreds of Lancer fans who made the journey, they cut down the nets at Bojangles Coliseum to celebrate an emphatic 79-58 win over Winthrop that officially made Longwood the first team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

Longwood finds out who it will play in one week, on NCAA Selection Sunday.

“Today just was a special performance by the Lancers,” said head coach Griff Aldrich. “This year’s just been incredibly special at Longwood.”

Hardly anybody in college basketball saw this coming. Not the 26-win season. Not the NCAA bid. And definitely not the absolutely dominating win over two-time defending Big South champion Winthrop that got them there.

Tournament MVP Isaiah Wilkins had 19 points and 8 rebounds, Leslie Nkereuwem added 11 and Longwood (26-6) outplayed tournament No. 2 seed Winthrop nearly from start to finish.

Wilkins, who transferred to Longwood hoping for a chance to play a big role in a big game, did just that. The six foot, 5 inch guard played both possessed and utterly cool at both ends of the court in a heart-and-soul performance that made him tournament MVP.

Wilkins has actually been to the NCAA Tournament before – when he played at Virginia Tech. But he said helping a place like Longwood experience March Madness for the first time would be special – and a part of his basketball career he’d never forget.

“Thank God I found somebody like Coach Griff to sweep me out of the transfer portal and allow me to play with this great group of guys and win this championship,” he said.

After jumping to a 17-6 early lead – a far cry from Saturday’s semi-final when Longwood was down 16 early – Longwood faced several Winthrop mini-runs but punched back every time. After the Eagles cut the lead to 17-10, the Lancers answered with 8 points in 63 seconds – a Nate Lliteras 3-pointer, and a Hill running jumper and 3-pointer spaced around two more defensive stops to go up 25-10.

Moments later it was Wilkins’ turn to take over with a pair powerful driving fast-break layups 15 seconds apart, followed by a DeShaun Wade 3 that extended the lead to 20 with 3:39 before intermission.

The Lancers were up 45-27 at the break. They shot 8-for-10 from 3-point range before halftime and had 22 points off turnovers to Winthrop’s two.

Winthrop chipped away at points in the second half.  But Longwood had come too far, and been through too many super-tight finishes all season, to lose its cool now. When Longwood forced a shot clock violation up 72-50 with 3:53 to go, the Lancer fans could feel it.

Lancer fans grew accustomed to hearth-thumping finishes this year, and against 13-time champion Winthrop, they figured it would be yet another battle. Instead, Longwood was in such total command they could start celebrating with several minutes to go. Even Aldrich let himself go – though not till the final minute.

The Lancer fans matched nearly in numbers – and definitely in volume – the stunned Winthrop commuters who had to travel a mere 23 miles for the final. As the clock wound down, they were deafening.

“I really believe Longwood is a special place,” said the fourth-year head coach, who inherited a program that had never had a winning record in conference and finished 7-26 the year before. “We have so many wonderful ingredients. We’ve got a lot of momentum. Forget the winning. The building blocks are there, of a great university, a great community, and I do want to say incredible support from our president. Taylor Reveley had a hare-brained notion to hire a former lawyer as a coach. But there’s been incredible support to build a sustainable program, not just a successful team, and that’s our goal.”

After the grueling three-game tournament, Longwood will have to rest and prepare to likely face one of the Top 10 teams in the country. But for now they’re savoring their unprecedented accomplishment.

It was an unforgettable day for Lancer Nation, and it wasn’t even done yet. Longwood’s women’s team has its own chance to make history and its first NCAA Tournament in the Big South championship game Sunday night.

“I don’t know if you can put it into words,” said Athletics Director Michelle Meadows. “It’s been a magical few days. Not only for our men and our women, our student-athletes and coaching staffs, but also for our fans that have come all the way down here. The energy here is just like it was in Willett Hall. It has been electric. We always talk about how these programs are not ours, they’re Longwood’s, they’re Farmville’s, they’re the Southside of Virginia’s. We want to build programs that they can be proud of, and I think we have done that.”