FARMVILLE, VA. – Campbell closed the game on a 25-7 run and defeated Longwood 75-67 Saturday at Willett Hall. Reco McCarter scored 11 of his 23 points in the decisive spurt as the Camels started the Big South schedule with back-to-back wins for the third-straight year.
Campbell (8-9, 2-0) trailed by as many as 13 and was down 60-50 when Karl Ziegler scored with 7:40 to play. However, the Lancers missed 9 of their final 10 shots and McCarter started a 19-3 burst when he slammed home his own miss with 6:29 to play.
McCarter then fed Antwon Oliver on an alley-oop dunk and Kyre' Hamer drove to the bucket to cut the gap to 60-56 with 5:06 remaining. Ziegler's drive with 4:45 to go proved to the Lancers' last make from the field.
Hamer again scored in the paint to trim the gap to 63-58. After Ziegler missed the front end of a 1-and-1, McCarter connected on a 3-pointer from right of the key and the deficit was just two (63-61) with 2:50 to go.
Quinton Ray and Darius Leonard executed a pick-and-roll to tie the game at 63 with 1:53 to go on Leonard's lay-in. Leonard then tapped in a Hamer miss to give Campbell its first lead since early in the first half (65-63) with 1:00 to play.
Tristan Carey then missed a 3 from the right wing and Hamer was the first of three Camels (along with McCarter and Ray) to hit both ends of 1-and-1 chances in the final 39.6 seconds to seal the victory.
McCarter made 7-of-12 from the floor, including 2-of-6 from 3-point range, and canned 7-of-10 from the line to go along with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Leonard finished with 10 points and 8 boards, while Leek Leek and Andrew Ryan had 9 each.
Campbell shot 63 percent (17-27) from the floor in the second period, 46.2 percent (24-52) for the game, and out-rebounded Longwood 39-28.
Longwood finished the night 22-of-56 from the field (.393) and shot 9-of-24 in the second period. Carey scored 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting (6-of-15 triples) and grabbed 9 rebounds. Ziegler finished with 16 points and 7 boards, while Leron Fisher (11) and Jeylani Dublin (10) also reached double figures for the Lancers (5-12, 0-2), who dropped their fifth-straight contest.
"It was just a matter of getting defensive stops, clean rebounds and going down on the other end and making some baskets down the stretch," said Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan. "Our guys just dug in and guarded better in the second half."
Carey scored 18 first-half points and the Lancers closed the period on a 10-2 run to take a 36-28 lead at the break. The 6-foot-4 guard hit 7-of-13 shots, including 4-of-9 triples, and grabbed 7 rebounds before intermission.
Campbell made 4 of its first 7 shots – all threes – and led 12-7 early on, but Longwood finished the half with an 18-2 advantage on points in the paint.
Longwood shot 13-of-32 (.406) in the first period, 4-of-12 from 3-point distance, and committed just two turnovers. The Camels made only 7-of-25 from the field (.280), 6-of-17 beyond the arc and 8-of-11 from the line before half-time.
The Lancers dropped to 4-3 at home and have yet to defeat a Division I opponent in Farmville. Campbell improved to 3-5 on the road heading into Tuesday's 7:00 p.m. start at Liberty.
