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Longwood men’s basketball battled to the end, North Carolina Central muscled past the Lancers on Saturday afternoon 77-70 to end Longwood’s eight game home winning streak this year.

Keishon Porter led N.C. Central (5-8) with 20 points, and Po’Boigh King added 16 as all 10 players that played, scored for the Eagles.

Longwood (9-3) countered with four in double figures, with Colby Garland scoring a team-best 15 while Michael Christmas provided a steady 14 points. Elijah Tucker matched a season high with 13, and Kyrell Luc added 10.

However, NC Central disrupted Longwood for much of the contest. The Eagles also poured in 44 points in the paint, shot better than 50 percent from the floor, and forced 17 Lancer turnovers with a sticky defense.

“They played well, and we weren’t good,” said Longwood Head Coach Griff Aldrich. “We just don’t execute right now as a team. It’s my fault. I haven’t been able to figure out how to get these guys to really be locked in on doing what we do. Defensively, our positioning is bad. We’re staying with our men. We’re not connected. I haven’t been able to press the right buttons. It’s not the big things. It’s the details.”

Going back and forth

The first half featured plenty of back and forth action, with the lead changing hands 11 times to go with seven ties.

Porter powered the Eagles to a strong start early, scoring seven of the team’s first nine points. He keyed a 10-0 NCCU run with a free throw to give the home side an 18-12 lead that was its largest of the half.

Longwood answered with an 11-0 run of its own. KJ McClurg drained a three as part of a hot start for Longwood from downtown. The team was 4-6 from three in the opening minutes of the game.

That torrid pace slowed down though, and NC Central stemmed the tide with a triple from Floyd Rideau, Jr. before tying the score on the break one possession later.

King extended the Eagle lead to five before Garland got going for the Lancers. He hit a floater before swiping the ball and firing it to Michael Christmas for a three that made it 30-30 with 4:53 left in the half.

The two defenses then engaged and limited the teams to four points apiece over the closing stretch, with the game tied 34-34 after 20 minutes.

After halftime, NC Central took the lead on a Porter dunk off a Longwood turnover, and King banged a triple one possession later for a 39-34 advantage.

From that point on, NC Central never trailed.

Longwood pulled off a 7-2 run, and Luc tied the game at 41 apiece with 15:34 to go, but King immediately scored at the other end to re-establish the lead.

The Lancers kept hanging around, but North Carolina Central fended off each Longwood run that could have flipped the game late.

‘They weren’t going to give it to us’

“I would say Tennessee Martin, I would say Maryland Eastern Shore, I would say Binghamton, where it’s a free flowing game and the Lancers are not locked in on execution, and then in the last five minutes, we are,” Aldrich said about three late rallies Longwood has used to win games. “The other games we’ve gotten away with it, and tonight, they weren’t going to give it to us.

“The lessons are coming, and we’ve got to either learn them or not and suffer the consequences. And today, we had to suffer a consequence. Some of it is how are we going to respond to it? Is it going to hurt us enough for us to elicit a change?”

What’s next for Longwood men’s basketball?

The Lancers now head out for four straight on the road with trips to Campbell on Wednesday, Dec. 18, North Carolina Central on Friday, Dec. 20, SMU on Dec. 29 and Presbyterian on Jan. 2 to open Big South play.