HUNTINGTON, W. Va. – Despite a game-high 23 points from redshirt senior Kymesha Alston (Hampton, Va./Manhattan), Radford fell short at Marshall, 70-66, in a New Year's Eve matinee at the Cam Henderson Center.

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With the game tied at 60-60, the Thundering Herd (8-4) used an 8-2 spurt and held off a late comeback attempt by the Highlanders (1-10) to hold on for their sixth straight victory.

Alston tied a career-high with her 23 points, going 6-of-14 from the field and 11-for-14 from the free throw line. She also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and recorded a career-best five of Radford's 14 steals.

Freshman Ashley Buckhannon (Wytheville, Va./George Wythe) contributed her second straight double figure performance with 15 points, hitting all three of her three-point attempts. Juniors Kaylyn Crosier (South Charleston, W.Va./South Charleston) and Jewell Kinlaw (Madison, Ala./Northwest-Shoals CC) chipped in with 12 points apiece.

Marshall was led by Tynikki Crook's 13-point, 11-rebound double-double. Chantelle Handy and Mystee Dale contributed 12 and 10 points respectively.

After falling behind by 11 in the first half, Radford never let the game get out of hand and stayed within striking distance, trailing by eight at the break.

Coming out of the locker room, Radford traded buckets with Marshall over the first eight minutes of the second half.

Trailing 56-50, Buckhannon almost single-handedly gave the Highlanders their first lead of the game at the 6:47 mark. Scoring the final six points of an 8-0 run, Buckhannon gave the Highlanders a 58-56 lead with her third trifecta of the game.

The Thundering Herd took a 60-59 lead on a Dale layup at 4:40. Following a free throw by Buckhannon to tie the contest, Dale and Kendra King scored back-to-back buckets to give Marshall the lead for good.

Alston followed King's basket with a pair of charity tosses to get Radford within two (64-62), but Handy responded when she drained an 18-foot jumper at 2:17.

The Highlanders made one last push, cutting it to three with 21 ticks on the clock, but King hit one-of-two free throws and Radford could not find the basket the rest of the way, despite Marshall missing its last three free throws. The Herd only hit 6-of-21 (28.6%) charity tosses for the game.

The Highlanders shot 43.9 percent (25-57) from the floor and 50 percent (3-6) from three-point land, while the Herd hit 49.2 percent (31-63) of their shots from the field.

Marshall controlled the glass, 41-34, including 21 offensive rebounds that led to 26 second chance points.

Both teams shot 50 percent or better in the first half with Marshall (51.4 percent) taking a 41-33 lead into halftime. MU's Tynikki Crook and Radford's Alston led all scorers with 11 points apiece. The Highlanders also received eight points apiece from Buckhannon and Crosier.

Radford fell behind 8-2 in the first 3:18 of the first half, but battled back to get within three points on a pair of occasions, the last at 11:54 (16-13) on a steal and lay in by Kinlaw.

The Thundering Herd turned up the defensive pressure during an 8-0 spurt to take their largest lead of the half, 24-13, at the 9:47 mark. Marshall took advantage of Highlander miscues all half, scoring 20 points off of 14 turnovers.

Sparked by a long Buckhannon triple, Radford used a 7-1 run late in the stanza to make it a four-point game (35-31) with 3:20 left before Marshall pushed its lead to eight by halftime.

Radford begins the New Year on the road when it faces Gardner-Webb on Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Highlanders' Big South opener.