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Defense and grit travel. Before heading out on the road, the Longwood Lancers packed plenty of both. Tuesday night, the Lancers (5-0) couldn’t buy a bucket on the road, but the defense and grit made sure that Longwood hung around at Binghamton.

Down the stretch, the defense and grit proved the difference in a 66-60 road win against the Bearcats (2-4), and KJ McClurg and Michael Christmas combined for 10 points on offense while trading turns hitting daggers in crunch time.

Longwood grabbed a season-high 20 offensive rebounds and won the battle on the boards 43-31. The defense also limited Binghamton to eight made shots in the final 20 minutes in a game that felt like a heavyweight bout throughout.

“I thought we played with more purpose on the defensive end in the second half,” said Longwood Head Coach Griff Aldrich. “We were a little bit more aggressive. We became the aggressor in the second half. I’m really proud of the grit and toughness of the guys to fight through and come back. Winning on the road is really hard. It’s a great win for us tonight.”

Thanks to the defense and grit, the final rounds went to Longwood. The Lancers outscored Binghamton 15-9 in the final seven minutes and hustled for every loose ball, rebound, deflection and 50-50 ball.

While the defense held Binghamton to 3-11 shooting in that span, the Lancers used the inside-out combo of Christmas and McClurg on the other end of the floor.

‘We just locked in’ 

“We just locked in on defense,” said McClurg. “In the first half we struggled a little bit. We had miscommunications. In the second half, we really wanted to come out and show that we could play defense and stop them. We knew the offense would come from that. That’s what we took pride in. I think we did a really good job in the last four minutes of really locking down.”

While Christmas made a habit of hitting run-ending shots throughout the night, his turnaround jumper to beat the shot clock with 1:19 to go gave Longwood a 59-56 lead. He had 14 points on the night to go with eight rebounds.

Gavin Walsh scored a layup for Binghamton, but Colby Garland found a wide open McClurg for a wide-open three, and the Morgantown native didn’t miss with 38 seconds left for a 62-58 lead.

“I’m going to give a lot of thanks to my teammates,” McClurg said. “I struggled a little bit from the floor today. Every time I shot, every teammate was like, ‘You’re going to hit the next one. You’re going good.’ We have a few point guards who really look for me. I can’t be who I am without them, and I’m glad to have them by my side to continue to push me to make those.”

The Lancer defense then compelled a miss, and McClurg coolly sank a pair of foul shots to help ice the game. He had a game-high 20 points, his second straight outing with at least 20.

In the first half, Longwood refused to let Binghamton pull away despite the Lancers shooting 29 percent from the floor. Binghamton shot 60 percent from the deck in the first half, but the Lancers countered with a dozen free throws and eight offensive boards.

After the Bearcats opened up a 30-22 lead on a Brian Callahan-Gold triple, Longwood slowly reeled Binghamton back in.

A trio of offensive boards helped, and Colby Garland found Johan Nziemi for a layup and foul that trimmed the lead to 35-33 at the halftime break. Nziemi stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, nine boards, two steals and three blocks.

After halftime, the two sides stayed attached at the hip, with nobody leading by more than seven.

Thanks to the Longwood defense, that was right in the team’s comfort zone.

Longwood Lancers head to Paradise

Now, the Lancers will head to the Paradise Jam for three games in four days, beginning with UAB on Friday, November 22 at 12:30 Eastern Time. The game will air on ESPN+.

“It all comes back to our execution,” said Aldrich. “I think we took a really good step tonight in locking in on trying to execute. Credit to Binghamton, a really good team. I think they are going to make a lot of noise in the America East. I was really proud of our grit and toughness to execute. If we can do that consistently, I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”