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USC Upstate’s Cassie Gallagher knocked down a baseline jumper with 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime as the Spartans nipped the Longwood women, 62-60, in the final regular-season game for both at the Joan Perry Brock Center on Saturday.

Following a 30-second timeout, Amor Harris hit the front rim on a fall-away jumper from the left block as time expired.

Despite the loss, Longwood (20-10, 11-5) finished second in the Big South standings and will likely rematch with the Spartans in the quarterfinals of the upcoming conference tournament. Official announcement of the pairings for the tournament will be at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday.

“I thought we had a really good game plan,” said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. “We knew they want to they work on feeding their post either directly from the wing or high-low and so we really put an emphasis on our scout of taking that away or limiting those opportunities for them. But they are a team that doesn’t always shoot the ball very well from the perimeter, but they did a great job of getting Cassie Gallagher shots and she knocked him down today.”

Gallagher scored a game-high 25 points and hit seven 3-pointers for the Spartans (9-20, 6-10).

Longwood women rally to force overtime

The Lancers trailed by as many as seven points halfway through the fourth quarter before coming all the way back to force overtime. Harris gave her team a 57-55 lead with 2:14 reming in regulation before Jeni Levine drained a 3-point with 22 seconds left to help the Spartans regain the lead.

After a Longwood timeout, Otaifo Esenabhalu drew contact in the paint and rattled home the second of two free throws for a 58-all tie with seven seconds to play. The Lancers gave the two fouls they had available and Upstate was unable to get a shot off as time in ran out in the quarter, leading to Longwood’s first overtime game since the 2022-23 season.

Neither team scored in the first three minutes of the extra session. Lele Tanuvasa grabbed the rebound of a Levine triple and put it up in and in to push the Spartans ahead 60-58 at the 1:58 mark.

Kiki McIntyre then stripped Levine of the ball steal and found Malea Brown ahead for a layup and the tie with 1:26 to play, and that’s how it stayed until Gallagher’s jumper.

McIntyre finished with 14 points, five assists and four rebounds to go with nine steals on a day that she was honored pregame for breaking the Longwood single-season steals record.

“She just has always had a knack for getting her hands on the ball,” said Lang-Montgomery. “Tying up defenders just being in the right place at the right time. And so it’s something that she’s worked on throughout her career. She didn’t just come here and start doing it She was doing it at St. Leo as well.

“For her to have that night, doing something that she does so well on her senior night, that’s a great way to go out.”

Longwood seniors honored before the game

McIntyre, Brown and Mariah Wilson were recognized prior to the game as seniors playing for the final time at home.

Like the previous contest between the two in January, a one-point Upstate win, Saturday was close throughout, featuring seven tie scores and 12 lead changes. The Longwood women received offensive contributions from all 10 players who saw game action, helping them stay with the Spartans, who shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half, while connecting on 5-of-8 shots in the fourth quarter.

Harris and Brown scored nine points and Esenabhalu tallied seven for the Lancers, who also turned Upstate over 26 times on the day.

Now, Lancers set their sights on the Big South tournament, feeling that Saturday provided a taste of what’s ahead.

“This is a big week coming up. We want to be one of the the last two standing on you know next Sunday, but it’s going to require intentionality and focus better than it’s been all season,” Lang-Montgomery said. “Everybody’s 0-0 now, standings don’t matter. And so we just got to take it one game at a time and bring our best each night.”