A program record 10 Big South wins, a trip to the Big South Championship semifinals and an end-of-season surge in which they won nine of their final 12 games – and Longwood men’s basketball isn’t done yet.
Continuing another record-breaking season under third-year head coach Griff Aldrich, Longwood accepted an invitation to the 2021 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and will take part in the three-day tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., on March 22-24.
The Lancers will kick off the three-round, single-elimination tournament in Monday’s quarterfinal round against Pepperdine at 5:30 p.m. at the Ocean Center. That game, and all ensuing Lancer games in the tournament, will stream live on FloSports.com and WVHL 92.9 Kickin’ Country FM in Farmville.
Joining Longwood and Pepperdine in the eight-team tournament will be Army, Bellarmine, Bowling Green, Bryant, Coastal Carolina and Stetson. A win in the quarterfinals would vault the Lancers to the tournament semifinals on March 23 against the winner of Army and Bellarmine and put them one win away from the title game on March 24.
The postseason bid is Longwood’s second in the past three years, following the trip to the 2019 College Basketball Invitational which was the program’s first-ever postseason tournament of the Division I era. Now the Lancers will return to the CBI where two years ago they validated that historic bid with a first-round win over Southern Miss to earn a trip to the tournament’s quarterfinals in Chicago, Ill.
This year’s Lancers will enter the CBI with one of the most successful resumes of the program’s Division I era following a 2020-21 season in which they went 10-10 in Big South play, earned a No. 5 seed in the Big South Championship and a first-round bye, and advanced to the tournament semifinals for only the second time after upsetting No. 4 UNC Asheville 77-61 in the quarterfinals.
Armed with one of the Big South’s top backcourts – headlined by All-Big South point guard Juan Munoz, Big South All-Freshman Team selection Justin Hill, and do-it-all team captain DeShaun Wade – the Lancers finished the regular season with the Big South’s top defense, holding opponents to a league-low 64.3 points per game.
Share
AFP
