Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It may be January, but it’s still Christmas-time in Farmville. Graduate forward Michael Christmas scored a career best 27 points to lead the Longwood men to an 85-76 win over visiting UNC Asheville. 

Christmas drained a career high six triples en route to his career high in points, but he also stuffed the stat sheet with eight boards and three assists.

“I’ve been struggling lately, so it feels good to have this little explosion today,” Christmas said after scoring 20 points for the first time this season. “We wanted to come in here and play our basketball that we’ve been preaching for the whole time now since June. We just try to play hard, play aggressive. We were playing aggressive on the offensive rebounding, and then trying to get stops and keep playing to our principles.

“A lot of Christmas’s points tonight came from the ball moving and somebody making a nice pass,” said Longwood Head Coach Griff Aldrich. “The ball was really moving in the second half.”

While Christmas rained in threes, he had plenty of help. Elijah Tucker added 14 points, Colby Garland had 13, and Kyrell Luc put in a double-double with 11 points and a career best 10 rebounds.

“We always want to play as a team, since it gets everyone going and gets us connected,” Christmas added. “We say we want to be the most connected group overall, and that helps us get wins.”

 Winning the rebounding game

Longwood (13-5, 2-1 Big South) pounded the offensive glass, gobbling up 24 offensive rebounds that paved the way to 26 points. Christmas had a big hand in that, snaring five of them, while Elijah Tucker and Kyrell Luc added four offensive boards each. The Lancers outrebounded Asheville 48-23 on the night.

“Two things I would say,” Aldrich said. “We really won the rebounding game. Asheville is a very good offensive rebounding team, and they weren’t tonight. Part of that is they made a lot of shots, but in the second half they shot 42 percent. But they didn’t get many extra chances.”

The hustle and grit helped the Lancers offset a night where they only shot .387 (24-62) from the floor while UNC Asheville (10-6, 1-1 Big South) shot better than 50 percent from the deck.

Asheville had four players score in double figures. Jordan Marsh, the reigning Big South Player of the Week, had a team-best 15 points before fouling out, and freshman Kameron Taylor added 14 points. Josh Banks had 12 points and Toyaz Solomon finished with 10.

But the story was Christmas and the glass. He had 12 points, and three offensive rebounds, in the first half as the two sides were in a track meet. Asheville led by six, but Christmas guided Longwood’s response each time, and the Lancers took a 46-45 lead at the break thanks to 12 offensive boards that turned into 17 points.

After halftime, the Lancers threatened to break the game open. Luc ignited a 9-2 run with a tip-in, and then Christmas capped it with a three for a 58-49 lead with 14:05 to go.

Asheville answered behind Marsh, Banks and company, and the Bulldogs took the lead on a Taylor layup to make it 68-67 with 7:11 to play.

Luc found Tucker for a slam dunk, and Christmas canned another three, and Longwood led 72-68 and never trailed for the rest of the night.

Asheville pulled within one, 72-71, a few possessions later, but Christmas hit his sixth three of the night on the ensuing possession to put the lead back to two possessions.

“When your teammates believe in you, it’s a big thing,” Christmas said. “That’s the whole thing with our whole group, us being connected and having a belief in each other. That’s how we go out and play.”

 Longwood men playing with confidence

“Our guys are playing with confidence, and when we play competitively and aggressively, I think we are a really good basketball team,” Aldrich said. “I told the guys that we beat a really good basketball team tonight, but I think there’s a lot of areas for us to get better. And that’s exciting because that tells you you’re ceiling is a lot higher.”

The Longwood men hit the road and head to Winthrop for a stretch of four road games out of the team’s next six contests. Tip is set for 2 p.m. in Rock Hill, and the game will air on ESPN+.