Box Score

RADFORD, Va. – Phillip Martin's (Roanoke, Va./Roanoke Catholic) three-pointer with 1:14 left put Radford ahead and Amir Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) hit four free throws in the final 19 seconds to seal the Highlanders' ninth-straight win, 69-64, over High Point on Wednesday at the Dedmon Center.

Following a bucket from Jourdan Morris to give the Panthers (9-19, 4-13 Big South) a 64-62 lead with 1:29 left, Martin drained the go-ahead three on an open look from the right side 15 seconds later to put the Highlanders (18-10, 15-2) in front for good.

“I'm not known for shooting threes,” Martin said. “But when the ball came to me and the defense collapsed, I was so open that I had to pull it.”

“It was such an emotional game that I didn't know how much time was left when I shot, or how important it was until we huddled on the timeout.”

Johnson scored his only four points of the game following the bucket to ice the victory for Radford, which already clinched the 2008-09 Big South regular season title. Radford's 15 league victories tied the conference mark for wins in a season.

“When you set the bar at a certain height, you want to keep raising it,” said head coach Brad Greenberg. “We didn't play as well as we'd like, but we figured out a way at the end. We did some good things, made clutch defensive plays, and forced turnovers late in the game when we had to.”

Martin, one of four Highlanders in double figures, finished with 12 points and was 4-for-4 from the field.

Senior Kenny Thomas (Richmond, Va./Highland Springs) led Radford with 21 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Junior Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) chipped in 15 points, including 7-of-8 from the line, and junior Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) added 11 points and eight rebounds.

High Point was led by a game-high 25 points from Nick Barbour, including 4-of-8 from three-point range.
Radford, which went to the line 37 times compared to High Point's seven, hit 70.3 percent of its chances (26-of-37).

The Highlanders limited the Panthers to 38.2 percent shooting from the floor for the game, while making 45.5 percent of their tries.

In a game that included five lead changes, Radford was up 33-32 at the break on the strength of Martin's runner in the lane four seconds prior to intermission.

The Highlanders led 37-36 nearly five minutes into the second half but a putback underneath from Cruz Daniels sparked a 10-2 run that put the Panthers back out in front. High Point pushed the advantage to 44-37 at 13:07 on back-to-back threes from Jacob Iati and Barbour.

Radford slowly chipped away at the deficit and closed it to a pair with 6:40 remaining when Thomas forced a steal at half court, and took a feed from Lynch-Flohr for a layup to make it 55-53.

Then, following a High Point turnover less than a minute later, Lynch-Flohr shoveled a pass inside to Martin, who knocked down the driving layup from the left side to tie the game at 55-55.

“Our guys have been in a lot of close games and they're resilient,” Greenberg said. “We've been able to win our share of these close games, so I think when we get into these kinds of situations, the players have a vision that they are going to figure out a way to win.”

Radford, winners of 14 of its last 15 games, closes out the regular season on Saturday against Liberty at the Dedmon Center. Seniors Thomas, Eric Hall (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) and Jamar Jenkins (Chapel Hill, Tenn.) will be honored prior to the 6 p.m. tip.