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Radford Looks to Continue Impressive February Play Thursday against Presbyterian


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RADFORD, Va. --
Radford begins its final regular season weekend with a Thursday night Big South matchup against Presbyterian at 7 p.m. inside the Dedmon Center.

The Highlanders (16-11, 11-5 Big South) enter the final weekend of the regular season with wins in five of their last six games and a 10-3 record on their home floor.

Presbyterian (5-24, 2-14) has a 1-5 record in its last six entering Thursday night's game and will close out its second season of Big South competition this weekend. The Blue Hose and Radford both stepped out of conference on Saturday to participate in ESPNU Bracketbusters games and both gave the Big South its only wins in the event.

In Radford's Bracketbusters game, the Highlanders got a double-double from Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus), who scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Laz Trifunovic (Belgrade, Serbia) scored a team-high 19 points in a 76-68 win over UNC Wilmington at the Dedmon Center. Playing in their first-ever Bracketbusters contest, the Highlanders shot 56 percent from the floor (27-for-48) and made seven of their 10 tries from the 3-point line.

Following Saturday's win, Parakhouski, who picked up his nation-leading 22nd double-double on Saturday, was named Big South player of the Week on Monday. It was the fourth player of the week nod for the 6-foot-11 senior, the most for any player in a season in Radford program history.

Presbyterian got 14 points each from Walt Allen and Jake Troyli to hold off Jacksonville State 59-55 for a road Bracketbuster win on Saturday. In the second half, the Blue Hose saw a 15-point lead shrink to 55-53 with 24 seconds remaining in the game when the Gamecocks capped a 17-6 run. Troyli hit four free throws in the final seconds to preserve the win for the Blue Hose.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Presbyterian, which shot 66.7 percent (14 of 21) in the first half and ended the game at 47.6 percent from the field.

During Radford's recent stretch of success, the Highlanders have won with defense. In five of the last six games, RU has held opponents to below 40 percent, while forcing double-digit turnovers in four of the six games.

Presbyterian, the lowest-scoring team in the Big South at 60.9 points per game, is shooting 43.0 percent on the season, the seventh-best percentage in the league. The Blue Hose are last in assist-turnover ratio, while Radford is second in the conference.

Radford, which sits a game behind Winthrop (12-4) in third place in the league standings, will host the Eagles in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. Mid-Atlantic Sports Network will televise the 4 p.m. game.
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