ASHEVILLE, NC - The road through the Big South for the Radford Highlanders has officially become a nightmare as Coach Vance's club was throttled by 32 points playing away to UNC Asheville, their fourth conference loss in as many games, all by double digits. For a team that was a respectable 4-7 coming into league play against a brutal non-conference schedule, this is definitely not what the first year head coach had in mind.
The game was over almost as quickly as it started when down 3-2, UNC Asheville went on a 12-0 run and were never threatened again. By halftime the lead had already swollen to 49-26 as the Bulldogs shot 50% from the field and attempted 18 more free throws than Radford. With the 2nd half never in doubt, both teams simply played out the string to a one-sided result.
C.J. Birley was UNC Asheville's top scorer with 24 points, 7'7 monster Theo Bean had 12 points and 15 rebounds, Carl Hancock added 13 points, Paco Nardi scored 11 points, and Cantrell Carmichael finished with 10 points.
Bamba Sweetney did have an amazing game for Radford with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists but no other starter tallied double figures for the Highlanders. Bench players Filiberto Bazin and Alan Gastel had 11 and 10 points respectively.
Firmly entrenched in the Big South basement, Radford will return home to face High Point (9-6, 2-2) who just cracked the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll at #17, giving the Big South two teams in that ranking along with #6 Winthrop. Another loss looks almost inevitable for the young Highlanders, but that's why they play the games. At least Coach Vance is telling his team that.
Radford Highlanders at North Carolina-Asheville Bulldogs
RADFORD, VA - After four consecutive defeats to start Big South play, Coach Vance decided changes had to be made. His solution was to dump the primary 2-3 zone defense Radford has played all season in favor of a man-to-man approach. The results were certainly positive as Radford easily handled High Point, who came in ranked 15th in the Mid-Major Poll, by a score of 76-58 for the Highlanders' first conference win.
The defensive change was evident early for a Radford team who had been conceding buckets at an alarming rate. Coach Vance's club opened the game on a 10-2 run, pushed the lead to double-digits at the 13:12 mark when a Thomas Coulter three pointer made the score 15-4, and went ahead by 20 points with 5:10 left in the 1st half when a Rashad Werner offensive rebound and put-back sent the score to 25-5. High Point would cut into that lead slightly in the final 5 minutes of the half, but nonetheless the score was 31-16 in favor of Radford at the break as the Highlanders held the Panthers to 25% shooting on 6/24 FG. Also helping the cause was a perfect 11/11 from the free throw line for Radford.
In the 2nd half, Radford was not nearly as stingy on the defensive end as High Point managed to reach their 1st half total of 16 points in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half and scored 42 points in total, but Radford's normally sluggish offense was able to keep pace and not let the lead diminish. In fact, Radford would be up by as much as 29 points in the 2nd half before one late High Point run pulled the final result to a still commanding 18 point win for Coach Vance's team.
As usual, Bamba Sweetney and Thomas Coulter led the way for the Highlanders as each player had 18 points. Point guard Harlan Bright only scored 5 points, but did dish out 10 assists. For High Point, Jeromy Sheridan led all scorers with 19 points, Gerard Padilla had 15 points, and Christian Pugh had 13 points.
Now with a conference win under their belt, Radford will look to build a winning streak as they welcome in the Liberty Flames (10-11, 4-2) who are currently in a three-way tie for 1st place in the Big South with Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern.
RADFORD, VA - Five consecutive defeats for Radford has now been followed by 2 straight wins as the Highlanders outlasted the Liberty Flames by a score of 60-50 in front of a small but raucous crowd at the Dedmon Center. With the 10 point victory, all 6 of Radford's Big South games have finished with double-digit margins. For Coach Vance's sake, now some of those games are W's.
The 1st half was nip and tuck all the way through. Radford shot 38% from the field while Liberty managed 1 percentage point higher at 39%. The difference was that Liberty turned the ball over 10 times compared to Radford's 3 turnovers. This allowed the Highlanders six more shots than the Flames and as a result, Radford took a 28-25 lead into halftime.
With 14:00 minutes left in the 2nd half, a Bamba Sweetney basket and foul shot gave Radford the games' first double digit lead at 39-28. The highest point of separation between the two teams was 13 points for Radford, but by the 4:00 mark of the 2nd half Liberty had scratched the lead down to 3 points. That was when Harlan Bright, a distributor rather than a scorer, nailed a clutch 3 pointer that broke Liberty's push and helped lift the Highlanders to another win.
The victory was a total team effort for Radford. Bamba Sweetney was the top scorer with 16 points, followed by Thomas Coulter and J.R. Cowen with 15 points. Harlan Bright had 7 points and 9 assists, and Adam Nevill added 6 points and 14 rebounds. For Liberty, their only double digit scorer was Felton Braxton with 16 points.
With two home victories under their belt, Radford now heads back on the road to play VMI (8-10, 2-4). If the Highlanders can knock off the Keydets, they would climb out of the Big South basement. That certainly seemed a distant possibility before this week.