San Padre Island Invitational- Longwood vs. Bethune-Cookman

The Longwood Lancers are 0-5, while the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats are 1-3. The Lancers have played very close, hard fought games against Virginia, Navy, Columbia, and Richmond, despite falling in all of them. Old Dominion hammered them pretty solidly. The Wildcats were hammered by Old Dominion and VCU, but lost a sixteen point game to Mississippi State. Their win came over Edward Waters, a non-D1 team.

So where do we begin with the first game of the San Padre Island Invitational? The game begins at 1:00 Eastern. That's where. The game is available (with Bethune-Cookman announcers) here.

LIKELY STARTERS
Longwood (0-5, 0-0)
G Martiz Washington (6-0 So)
G Kevin Swecker (6-1 Sr)
G EJ Dawson (6-2 Sr)
F Dana Smith (6-5 Sr)
F Billy Robinson Jr (6-7 Sr)

Bethune-Cookman (1-3, 0-0)
G CJ Reed (6-3 So)
G Stanley Elliott (6-3 So)
G Jerry Jones (6-2 So)
F Tyrel Adams (6-6 Jr)
C Alexander Starling (6-9 Sr)

Here's a quick look at Longwood.

Martiz Washington just took Aaron Mitchell's starting spot in the last game. Mitchell is shooting 8.3 percent from three point range and 27.3 percent from the field. That's not good. Dana Smith is averaging 14.6 points per game and 6.8 rebounds. Antwan Carter is not a starter, but he leads the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, and 6.2 rebounds. They've been outrebounded by an average of nine per game. The Lancers are only shooting 39.7 percent from the field, and 23.2 percent from three point range, while their opponents are shooting 49.8 percent from the field and 45.2 percent from three point range.

Here's a quick look at Bethune-Cookman.

The Wildcats are led by Alexander Starling. He's shooting 61 percent from the floor. He is averaging 11.8 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. CJ Reed is the team's leading scorer, with 17.5 points per game. Reed also leads the team in assists with 16 of the team's 32. They are losing the rebound battle by just 1.5 per game, which is not too bad considering the competition. They have not been shooting well (40.6 percent), but they are holding their opponents down as well, to just 42.4 percent shooting. They have been playing slightly better than you might expect.

FINAL ANALYSIS

This should be a pretty interesting match-up. If you just casually look at the boxscores, Longwood appears to be a big favorite, but those don't seem to quite indicate everything. The stats seem to tell a little bit different story. However, Edward Waters may be helping Bethune-Cookman out a bit. Bethune-Cookman will have a hard time containing Carter. Reed could explode for Bethune-Cookman. The shooting will not be particularly good in this one, I expect. In the end, Longwood wins, in an interesting game. Longwood 71, Bethune-Cookman 64.