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For the Longwood women, the 2024-25 basketball season was more than a step forward. It was a giant leap.

A defense that nearly led the nation in steals. Twenty-plus wins for just the second time in two decades. A No. 2 seed and run to the championship game of the Hercules Tires Big South Championship game. Not bad for a team that won just nine games a year ago and was picked to finish seventh in the conference pre-season poll.

The only downside of a great run: how painfully close it got them to a conference championship and a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. That dream will have to wait, after a tight, high-octane battle between two teams who split their regular-season matchups broke High Point’s way in the final minutes, sending the Lancers home with a 59-53 defeat in the title game of the 2025 Hercules Tires Big South Tournament Sunday.

The heartbreak was palpable when the final buzzer sounded, as Big South Coach of the Year Erika Lang-Montgomery walked down the bench to offer comfort to each of her players, disappointment etched in their faces. The traveling contingent of Longwood fans applauded heartily as players accepted the runner-up trophy.

“Obviously things didn’t go the way we wanted them today, but nonetheless with our disappointment, I am still incredibly proud of the young women that I get to coach every single day,” Lang-Montgomery said. “We had an amazing season.”

Longwood women given a chance

It was all the harder for knowing they’d given themselves a chance, battling the regular-season league champs toe-to-toe and leading much of the game. The Lancers had played their best basketball of the season in the tournament and put themselves in a position to win Sunday, but just ran out of gas over the final five minutes.

Malea Brown led Longwood with 14 points, Amor Harris had nine, and Kiki McIntrye and Frances Ulysse scored eight each for the Lancers, who made six straight 3-pointers to start the game, but committed a season-high 25 turnovers and saw their shooting touch fade down the stretch.

Longwood advanced to the championship game in a thrilling, back-and-forth semifinal win over Radford on Saturday that saw the Lancers dominate the fourth quarter to pull away late. In the final on Sunday, they led by 1 heading into the fourth quarter but couldn’t close out the game against a talented Panther squad.

The Lancers will depart Johnson City disappointed, but ultimately proud of a 22-11 (11-5 Big South) season that showed tremendous growth, thrilling Lancer fans for being largely unexpected heading into the year.

‘I love their competitive spirit’ 

“I have a bunch of young women that love to compete, I love their competitive spirit,” Lang-Montgomery said. “I love who they are as people. These are high-character women I get to spend time with every day. We had an amazing run earlier in the season where we learned a lot about ourselves. Coming from a season where we won nine games last year… It says a lot about the direction that our program is going.”

While they fell short of the program’s second-ever trip to March Madness, the Longwood women have more than contributed to an era of winning Lancer basketball with much to celebrate. Between the men’s and women’s programs, current Longwood seniors have been able to cheer on Lancer teams in four Big South championship games during their four years on campus, and three NCAA Tournament appearances – from the men and women in 2022, and the men again in 2024.

Longwood, after making just 29% of its 3-point attempts on the season, hit its first six 3-point tries in the first half. The first one didn’t clang out until just 21 seconds before intermission, but Brown grabbed the rebound and followed with a layup that gave Longwood a 35-32 lead at the break.

The Longwood women held the lead through a back-and-forth third quarter, but High Point seized the advantage for good with 5:02 remaining. The Lancers still had a chance to tie, down 3 with 30 seconds remaining, but an offensive foul ended the possession and High Point closed out the contest at the free throw line.

‘It was honestly a blessing’

“We knew going into this game that it was going to be a battle for 40 minutes,” Lang-Montgomery said. “I was hopeful we’d have enough in the tank that would get us over the hump. But to High Point’s credit, they were fighting for something too and they came out and played well.”

Harris and Otaifo Esenabhalu made the all-tournament team. And while it was little consolation, McIntyre’s two steals gave her the all-time Big South single-season record. This year’s Lancers finished ranked fourth in the nation in steals per game, with McIntyre ranked second nationally individually.

“It was honestly a blessing,” McIntyre said of her Longwood career. “I had so much fun, such a supporting community.”

The good news is the Longwood women, on the heels of a great season, will have lots of talent coming back – and motivation to take the next step.

“Hopefully we’ll have the majority of our team returning,” Lang-Montgomery said. “They’ve left their legacy, and now it’s up to the ones returning to keep it going. We want to see Longwood back here again and again in the years to come.”