Longwood defeats Charleston Southern, 77-56

Longwood pulled away in a 77-56 win over Charleston Southern on Saturday to stay undefeated at the Joan Perry Brock Center.

The defense didn’t give up many open looks, and Longwood (13-4, 1-1 Big South) nearly led wire to wire while holding Charleston Southern (4-11, 0-2 Big South) to 30.6 percent (19-62) shooting from the floor.

“I thought our approach was much better through the whole game,” said Longwood coach Griff Aldrich. “We had a few dips, but for the most part, I thought our guys were pretty locked in. I think it showed defensively. I didn’t think they got many open looks. To hold a team to 30 percent shooting and 18 percent from three, it’s a real credit to those guys competing on the defensive end.”

On offense, Longwood used stretches of crisp play and ball movement to pull away during the game. In addition to having 10 players score, six players had an assist in the game.

Michael Christmas tallied a team-best 15 points, but he wasn’t alone. Szymon Zapala and DA Houston added 13 points apiece, and Walyn Napper chipped in 12.

“It was a very good team effort,” Aldrich said. “Mike was solid again. It was good to see threes go in for us and him. Szymon had a really solid game, I thought. Walyn again scored it well, and DA had a nice performance as well on the offensive end.”

For Charleston Southern, Taje’ Kelly led the way with 19 points, and DJ Patrick added 15.