Longwood falls to 1-4 in Big South play with tip-in loss at USC Upstate

Ahmir Langlais capped a late USC Upstate rally with a tip-in with one second to go, and USC Upstate (6-11, 1-3 Big South) took down Longwood (13-7, 1-4 Big South) 73-71 on Wednesday night.

Langlais was one of four Spartans to score in in double figures as Upstate rallied from down 14, but he did most of his damage after halftime. He had 11 of his 13 in the second half, and Miguel Ayesa added three second-half triples on his way to 11 points.

The Spartans shot better than 50 percent from the floor on the evening, which was enough to offset four Lancers scoring in double digits.

Jesper Granlund and DA Houston led the way with 13 points apiece for Longwood, and Johnathan Massie added 12. Szymon Zapala chipped in 11 points and tied Massie with a team-best nine rebounds.

“If we don’t change our approach to be urgently focused on executing and playing at an extremely hard and high level, we can’t expect the results to change,” Aldrich said. “We get up 14, and we’re casual. We leave shooters open. We foul three-point shooters. We let guys catch the ball in the post. There’s a ball screen defense breakdown, and a lob and a foul and an and-one. These are fundamental breakdowns that—there has to be more urgency. Buck stops with me, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to get us there.”