RADFORD, Va. – Despite 20-point performances from Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) and Martell McDuffy (Laurel, Md./DeMatha) and Amir Johnson's (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) fourth career double-double, James Madison rallied to defeat Radford 85-81 in non-conference men's basketball action Sunday afternoon at Peters Hall.

“We weren't able to stop them in the second half,” said Radford head coach Brad Greenberg. “They scored too often and too easily. We were able to take away their three-point shots, which were a big factor in their first half scoring, but we did not keep them from getting to the basket.”

Lynch-Flohr missed just one of his nine attempts from the floor and was 7-for-8 from the charity stripe to finish with a season-high 23 points, while McDuffy added 20 points, including an 8-for-8 showing from the line. Johnson tallied 16 points and 10 assists in 40 minutes of action and moved from seventh to fifth on Radford's all-time assist charts. Kenny Thomas also hit double figures for the Highlanders with 12.

“Amir played a strong game, he fatigued a little bit at the end and that may have contributed to a couple of the turnovers we had in the last few minutes against their press. Joey had a real strong game around the basket and both Martell and Kenny were pretty solid trying to make plays in the open court.”

Like the Highlanders, James Madison placed four in double figures, led by Kyle Swanston's 23 points. Juwann James finished with 19 points and six rebounds in his first game back from injury, while Julius Wells and Devon Moore chipped in 13 and 10, respectively.

McDuffy hit a pair of free throws to stretch the Highlanders' margin back to 11, 71-60, but James Madison responded with an 18-4 run to grab its first lead since the 2:15 mark of the first half. Thomas answered with a three-pointer at the other end to tie the contest, 78-78 with 4:01 remaining, and McDuffy put Radford back in front 46 seconds later with two more free throws.

Trailing 80-78, the Dukes scored the next six points of the game to grab the lead for good. The Highlanders had a chance to tie the score with 10 seconds left, but Thomas' long three-pointer came up short.

Both teams shot lights out in the second half and finished with a shooting percentage above 50 percent. To go along with their 65.4 percent clip in the final frame, James Madison finished 12-of-38 (42.9 percent) from three-point range.

After trading early buckets to find themselves deadlocked at 7-7, Radford reeled off 11 unanswered to grab its largest advantage of the first half, 18-7, on an Artsiom Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) jumper. The Dukes slowly chipped away at the double-digit deficit and took the lead, 34-32, with their fifth of six consecutive buckets from downtown.

The Highlanders closed the first 20 minutes of action on an 11-3 spurt capped off by a Johnson trey to head into the break up, 43-37.

Nine of the Dukes' 14 field goals in the opening half came from downtown, with Swanston canning six of his nine attempts from deep to lead all scorers at intermission with 18 points.

Johnson paced Radford in the first stanza with 12 points and six assists.

Despite the loss, Radford held a 29-26 edge on the glass.

Radford will enjoy a four-day break before returning to the court in a 7 p.m. televised (MASN) contest at George Mason, Friday, Dec. 19 in Fairfax, Va.

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