ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Trailing 65-64 with 7.3 seconds remaining, Amir Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) drove the length of the floor and hit a right-handed layup with 1.5 seconds left to give Radford a 66-65 victory over UNC Asheville Saturday evening at the Justice Center.
“It's incredibly rewarding for a coach to see the joy on the faces of our team after such an outstanding win,” said Radford second-year head coach Brad Greenberg.
Along with it being their sixth straight win and seventh consecutive triumph on the road, the Highlanders move into first place alone in the league standings with VMI's setback at Coastal Carolina earlier in the day. The victory also clinched a first round home game for Radford (15-10, 12-2) in the 2009 Big South Tournament.
“To be 7-0 on the road in conference play is something that just doesn't happen very often.”
Joey Lynch-Flohr's (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) layup with 1:21 to go capped a 12-4 run to give Radford its first lead since the 17:06 mark of the first half. Reid Augst answered Lynch-Flohr's layup with one of his own 24 ticks later to make it 63-62 UNCA, but Kenny Thomas' (Richmond, Va./Highland Springs) putback with 22 seconds on the clock gave the advantage back to the Highlanders, 64-63.
“At the risk of repeating myself, this was another gutsy win. We fought back several times and finally got the lead in the last minute,” commented Greenberg.
With just over seven seconds to go, Sean Smith had a chance to finish off a three-point play and give UNCA (12-14, 8-7) a two-point cushion, but he missed the free throw and Thomas grabbed the rebound for Radford and found Johnson for the game-winning drive.
“I can't explain the feeling I have right now,” said Johnson. “Coach told me to call timeout if I could, but after Kenny got the rebound, I saw a lane, so I pushed it up the floor and had the angle I needed to get to the basket.”
Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) recorded his 13th double-double of 2008-09 with 15 points and 14 rebounds to lead four Highlanders in double figures. Lynch-Flohr added 14 points and nine boards, while Thomas and Johnson also went over the 10-point plateau with 14 and 10, respectively. To go along with his scoring total and last second heroics, Johnson handed out seven assists to become the 17th player in conference history to record 400 career set ups.
UNC Asheville canned 10-of-17 buckets (58.8 percent) from downtown in the opening 20 minutes of action, including one by J.P. Primm at the buzzer to stretch the Bulldogs' advantage to 39-31 at the half.
Primm along with Sean Smith and Reid Augst hit three 3-pointers each in the period. Primm led all players at break with 13 points, while Lynch-Flohr paced the Highlanders with 10.
Radford opened the second half on a 10-4 run to cut the deficit to 41-39, but the Bulldogs' responded with a small flurry of their own to stretch the margin back to as many as eight on separate occasions.
Both teams finished with a 41 percent shooting clip, but it was Radford that controlled the rebound column, 40-32. Senior Eric Hall (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) was also impressive on the glass for the Highlanders with seven boards in 16 minutes of the bench.
Like Radford, the Bulldogs placed four in double figures led by Primm's 17 points in 26 minutes as a reserve. John Williams was one behind Primm with 16, Smith added 14 and Augst scored 11.
After UNCA's impressive showing from deep in the first half, the Highlanders held UNCA to just 1-of-6 from behind the arc in the final stanza.
Radford will continue its final road swing of the 2008-09 slate with a 7:30 p.m. contest at Charleston Southern Monday evening.
NOTES: Radford is off to its best start in Big South play since the 2000-01 season, which was also the last time it recorded 12 conference victories in a campaign… To go along with their current six-game spurt, the Highlanders have won seven straight road games... The last time Radford strung together seven consecutive triumphs away from home was during the 1978-79 season… Eric Hall moved into T-6th on Radford's all-time blocks list.
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