Who’s Playing
Longwood Lancers @ NC Central Eagles
Current Records: Longwood 10-3, NC Central 6-8
How To Watch
What to Know
The Longwood Lancers and the NC Central Eagles will compete for holiday cheer at 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday at McDougald-McLendon Arena. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Wednesday, everything went Longwood’s way against Campbell as Longwood made off with a 77-55 win. The oddsmakers were on the Lancers’ side, but they didn’t give the squad enough credit as the margin was unexpectedly wide.
Longwood’s success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Johan Nziemi led the charge by earning 13 points plus five rebounds.
Longwood was working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. That’s a new trend for them: they were averaging 10.8 assists per game earlier this season, but in their last five matches they’ve averaged 18.6.
Meanwhile, NC Central was fully in charge on Tuesday, breezing past Mid-Atlantic Christian 112-67. With the Eagles ahead 55-34 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.
Longwood has been performing well recently as they’ve won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-3 record this season. As for NC Central, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 6-8.
Friday’s contest is shaping up to be a scrappy match: Longwood has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 36.9 rebounds per game. It’s a different story for NC Central, though, as they’ve been averaging only 32. Given Longwood’s sizable advantage in that area, NC Central will need to find a way to close that gap.
Longwood came up short against NC Central in their previous matchup on Saturday, falling 77-70. Can Longwood avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We’ll find out soon enough.
Odds
Longwood is a 3-point favorite against NC Central, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Lancers as a 2.5-point favorite.
The over/under is 145.5 points.
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Series History
NC Central has won 2 out of their last 3 games against Longwood.
- Dec 14, 2024 – NC Central 77 vs. Longwood 70
- Dec 20, 2023 – NC Central 79 vs. Longwood 70
- Nov 18, 2023 – Longwood 73 vs. NC Central 66
