Mired in a midseason stretch dominated by a grueling road gauntlet and a heart-breaking triple-overtime home loss, Longwood University’s men’s basketball team has heard Head Coach Griff Aldrich repeatedly implore a commitment to aggressiveness, competitiveness and focus, a Longwood Athletics press release cited. On Wednesday night, Jan. 8, at Charleston Southern University, the Lancers showed Aldrich all three.

Led by a combined 32 points from former Amateur Athletic Union teammates Juan Munoz and JaShaun Smith and a defensive performance among the Lancers’ best to date, Longwood controlled the game from the opening tip and ran away from the host Buccaneers 74-56 Wednesday for its first Big South win of the season, the release continued.

“This is the team we’ve been looking for,” Aldrich said in the release of his Lancers, now 6-10 overall.