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The Longwood women used prolonged runs at the end of each quarter to earn a 71-60 win over Presbyterian on the road at the Templeton Center on Saturday.

The Lancers, who halted a three-game losing steak with the win, sweeping the regular-season series from the Blue Hose, benefited from a 7-0 run at the end of the first quarter, 6-0 runs at the end of the second and third frames and a 10-3 spurt before the final buzzer.

“It was a game of runs,” said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. “Presbyterian is a good team that, despite their record, is still fighting for something and it showed in their play.

“I know today was their senior day and their senior Paige [Kindseth] had a big night for them. But I love our response. Even with their runs, we were able to make runs of our own.”

Longwood improved to 17-9 overall and 8-4 in the Big South with the victory, which saw it shoot 51.1 percent from the floor, knock down a season-best 22 free throws and place four players in double figures. It marked the fourth time in 2024-25 the Lancers drained more than half of their shots from the field in a game and the third time it happened in league play.

Harris, McIntyre pace Longwood women

Kiki McIntyre and Amor Harris paced Longwood with 13 points apiece, while Lili Booker and Otaifo Esenabhalu had 12 and 10 points, respectively, off the bench. Esenabhalu just missed her eighth career double-double, pulling down a team-high nine rebounds as the Lancers outrebounded Presbyterian, 31-26.

McIntyre added seven steals, four assists, three rebounds and a blocked shot in the win. With her first steal of the day, she become Longwood’s all-time leader for steals in a single season and now has 105 on the year.

“[She was really good] on a night where she wasn’t feeling well,” said of McIntyre. “She’s got some type of bug and wasn’t sure how many minutes she was going to play. But I thought she did great with her minutes tonight and she really showed a lot of poise against their pressure, handled the ball well and found people in the right places and was also able to score for herself.”

The Lancers’ runs helped them lead after each quarter, including following a Frances Ulysse layup off of a Jaci Bolden assist at the first-quarter buzzer made it 14-12.

The Blue Hose responded to take a 22-19 lead at the six-minute mark of the second quarter with a pair of Kindseth free throws. Kindseth finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds for Presbyterian (5-20, 3-9).

Malea Brown touched off the late second-quarter run with a layup in transition following a pass from Booker to cut the PC lead to 29-27 with 2:11 left in the half. Booker then tied it herself with a driving layup a minute later before Esenahalu gave LU the lead as the seconds ticked away in the half.

Moving and sharing the ball

“We talked about wanting to get back into moving the ball more and sharing the ball more and I thought we did that. 14 assists on 24 baskets is pretty good,” Lang-Montgomery said. “I also thought our bench came in and gave us some really good production — 30 points from our bench tonight.”

The Longwood women led by as many as six halfway through the third prior to a Shelby Fiddler basket punctuated a Presbyterian stretch that tied things at 39-39 with three minutes remaining in the quarter. The Lancers, however, scored the last six of the stanza for a 50-44 edge heading into the final 10 minutes.

Harris hit a jumper on the first possession of the fourth to push the lead to eight, but PC didn’t go away, getting back to within 61-57 on a Fiddler 3-pointer with 2:33 on the clock.

Longwood, which was 81.5 percent shooting free throws on the day, then put the game away from the line, hitting 5-of-6 down the stretch.

Longwood heads back on the road

The Lancers are back on the road Wednesday at Gardner-Webb Wednesday at 7 p.m.

It’s February, and everybody’s fighting for positioning, for seedingm, and we’ve got to continue our fight as well,” Lang-Montgomey said. “We’re playing for our own special something. We’re fighting and we want to keep taking it one game at a time and keep getting better.”