Longwood stayed unbeaten at home with an 80-76 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Thursday night in Farmville.
The Lancers (8-2) got 22 points and five assists from Colby Garland, and 19 points and 10 rebounds from Michael Christmas.
Evan Johnson had 23 points for UMES (2-10), which shot 57.9 percent for the game.
“Credit Maryland Eastern Shore,” Longwood coach Griff Aldrich said. “I thought they played really well. I thought they were very consistent. They were who they were throughout the game. I think they are going to win a fair number of games when they get back to playing in conference. They’ve had a hard schedule.”
The margin never got bigger than four points for either team in the second half.
UMES took a 74-70 lead with 4:24 to play, but Christmas grabbed his own miss and drew a foul. He sank both free throws before Garland drew a charge on the other end.
Then, Christmas tied the game after grabbing yet another offensive board and putting it home. Garland then knifed the ball free on defense and fed Angelo Brizzi on the break for a go-ahead dunk, 76-74, with 2:19 to go.
KC Shaw, who had 21 points for UMES, tied the game back up with free throws at 76 apiece, but Johan Nziemi tipped an offensive board to Christmas for a deuce to give Longwood the lead for good with 57 seconds left.
The defense compelled a miss, and then Garland grabbed the game-sealing offensive board to secure the win.
“As I told the guys, we’ve got to celebrate the win, but, at the same time, don’t accept in victory what you would not accept in defeat,” Aldrich added. “We, as coaches, get to see them in practice. We get to see them in workouts. We see who they are and who they can potentially be both individually and as a group. So for us, you just want so much more for them because they can play so much better, and I don’t think we hit the standard tonight.”
The Lancers stay home and host Mary Baldwin on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. The game will air on ESPN+, with Sam Hovan and John Feinstein on the call.
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Chris Graham
