BOX SCORE

RADFORD, Va. – Three Radford players – Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus), Laz Trifunovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) – posted double-doubles to lead the Highlanders to a 109-91 win over VMI in a Big South conference men's basketball game on Thursday night at the Dedmon Center.

Radford (10-7, 6-2 Big South) had three players hit double-doubles in its last meeting with VMI – March 7, 2009 in the Big South tournament championship.

Against the nation's highest scoring team, the Highlanders had their largest scoring output since 114 against the Keydets on Feb. 14, 2006.  Radford shot 58 percent from the field for the game (45 of 78), including 61 percent in the second half.

VMI (5-12, 1-7) led the nation entering Thursday's game with 89.9 points per game.

“This was a good win,” head coach Brad Greenberg said.  “It was a solid performance, we played good defense and we had two excellent games from Art and Laz.”

Parakhouski led the Highlanders with 30 points, his fifth career 30-point effort and fourth of the season.

After missing his first field goal try of the game, Parakhouski hit seven of his next eight attempts, all before the 8:48 mark of the first half, and staked the Highlanders to a lead they didn't give up.

Parakhouski, who entered the game fourth in the nation in scoring average (23.1), finished shooting 12 of 17 from the floor and grabbed 11 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season.

Trifunovic scored a career and Radford-high 27 points and pulled in 14 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.   The junior forward added eight assists.

“This is great for us,” Trifunovic said of the win.  “Every time we've lost a game in the conference, we've bounced back and won.”

Trifunovic scored 25 second half points on 11 of 15 shooting, after scoring just two in the opening 20 minutes.

“I never would have thought that I would scored that many in one half, but we won by as many as we did, so it doesn't matter,” Trifunovic added.

Lynch-Flohr, who had 10 points and seven rebounds by halftime, finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in his third double-double performance of the season.

Freshman Gorkem Sonmez (Istanbul, Turkey/St. Mary's Ryken (Md.)) added a career-high 14 points, hitting three of his five attempts from the 3-point line.

Amir Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) became Radford's all-time leader in assists with his five.  Johnson, who has 514 career assists, helped on Parakhouski's dunk at 12:25 to pass Anthony Walker (510, 1993-97).

“It felt good to get there, and I didn't even realize how close I was [to the record],” Johnson said.  “But this was a big game for our frontcourt and we can't get anywhere without them.

“They allow us to just play the game.  I'm happy with what we did tonight.”

Freshman Stan Okoye led VMI with a career-high 23 points on 10 of 15 shooting.  Okoye, who led four Keydets in double figures, added 10 rebounds for a double-double.

VMI outscored Radford's bench 57-30, with Keith Gabriel (16) and Hunter Houston (15) hitting double digits off the bench.

Parakhouski scored 19 points in the opening period, staking the Highlanders to their largest first half scoring output of the season and a 52-36 lead at the intermission.            

Radford, which averaged 27 first half points in the previous two games, got seven of its first ten of the game from Parakhouski and never looked back.

Of the Highlanders' 52 points, 24 came in the paint.  For the game, Radford outscored VMI 64-34 in the lane.

Radford extended its lead to 20, at 69-49, on Lynch-Flohr's layup with 15:09 left in the second half and took its largest lead (28) at 107-79 on Trifunovic's basket with 2:56 remaining.

“It's important that we try to build on this win, and play well against Liberty on Saturday,” Greenberg said.

Radford hosts the Flames in a game televised by Mid-Atlantic Sports Network at 6 p.m.