Longwood University’s men’s basketball team defeated visiting Delaware State University 89-73 on Friday to improve to 4-0 for the first time in the Lancer program’s 15-year Division I era, off to the team’s best start since the 2000-01 Lancers opened the year 7-0 under then-Head Coach Mike Leeder. This year’s team is only the third Longwood squad in the program’s 41-year history to open a season 4-0, joining the 2000-01 squad and the 1979-80 team, each of which won 20 games and reached the NCAA Tournament, in Division II and III, respectively.

“We wanted to come out and attack and play with pace, try to move the ball and really take open shots when we had them,” said Lancers Head Coach Griff Aldrich, who is now 4-0 as a college head coach.

His approach led to a season-high 20 assists and a season-low 11 turnovers against Delaware State thanks in large part to the sure-handed play of junior point guard Shabooty Phillips who dished out seven assists without a turnover in his team-high 30 minutes of play.

Longwood redshirt senior guard Isaiah Walton poured in 21 points for his Big South-leading fourth straight 20-point game, while junior forward JaShaun Smith finished with a career-high 19 points.

The Lancers visited the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1-2) on Monday.