RADFORD, Va. – Senior Kenny Thomas (Richmond, Va./Highland Springs) led all five Radford starters in double figures with 20 points as the Highlanders cruised by Brevard College 74-55 in their men's basketball season opener Friday evening at Peters Hall.

In its first appearance at Peters Hall since Feb. 24, 1981, Radford pushed the lead to as many as 34 points at the 17:25 mark of the second half, when Thomas was fouled on a made three-pointer from the top of the arc. His free throw gave Radford a 51-17 lead.

Thomas connected on 7-of-13 tries from the field, including 5-of-7 attempts from long range. He knocked down three of his treys in the first six minutes of the contest.

Radford's Martell McDuffy (Laurel, Md./DeMatha) contributed 13 points, while preseason all-conference selection Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) and Artsiom Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) each added 11 and Amir Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) tallied 10 points and a career-high six steals. Lynch-Flohr led the Highlanders on the glass with eight rebounds.

In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Highlanders were 10-of-16 from the floor, pushing the lead to as many as 14 on an up-and-under bucket from senior Eric Hall (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) at the 10:58 mark, which extended a 14-2 Radford run.

Radford held Brevard to a scoring drought of more than seven minutes midway through the first half, and extended the lead to 20 on a McDuffy three-pointer from the right wing with 5:24 left.

The lead ballooned to 28 points just before halftime when Phillip Martin (Roanoke, Va./Roanoke Catholic) found Johnson at the free throw line, who took it all the way to the basket and laid it in to give Radford a 44-16 lead with 41 seconds remaining.

Brevard got a 23-point effort from Jonathan Whitson to lead all scorers. Whitson hit on nine of his 15 tries from the floor, and scored 10 of Brevard's 17 first-half points. His three-pointer with 1:10 remaining in the contest trimmed the Tornados' deficit to 18, the smallest since the 5:24 mark of the first half.

Radford shot 58.6 percent in the first 20 minutes of action, including 4-of-6 from downtown before finishing the contest with a 48.1 percent clip overall. Defensively, the Highlanders held Brevard to 37.7 percent from the floor and forced 24 turnovers, while recording 13 steals and five blocks.

Whitson also collected eight rebounds to lead the Tornados.

The Highlanders host Bridgewater (Va.) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.