BOX SCORE

RADFORD, Va. – Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, leading four players in double figures for Radford in a 75-58 Big South win over Presbyterian College on Thursday night at the Dedmon Center.

Parakhouski, who leads the nation in double-doubles, recorded his 23rd of the season with a 9-for-15 performance from the field and a 6-for-7 showing at the free throw line to help the Highlanders (17-11, 12-5 Big South) to their sixth win in seven February games.

Nine of his points came in a 27-9 first-half run for Radford, which took control after the Blue Hose (5-24, 2-14) had their only lead of the night, 17-15 at the 9:50 mark.

“We played a solid game against a hard-playing and well-coached team,” said Radford head coach Brad Greenberg. “Our defense in the last 10 minutes of the first half was very strong and that opened up the game for us.”

Three players – Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax), Laz Trifunovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Gorkem Sonmez (Istanbul, Turkey) – scored 10 points for Radford. Trifunovic added 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season.

Radford shot 55.2 percent in the first half (16-for-29), but finished at 46 percent from the floor. The Highlanders made seven of their 15 tries from the 3-point line (46.7 percent), including six of 11 in the opening 20 minutes.

The Highlanders out-rebounded Presbyterian 43-26, including 18-7 on the offensive glass, and assisted on 20 of 29 made field goals while committing a season-low seven turnovers.

“Tonight we moved the ball very well and made the extra pass, which led to a lot of high percentage shots,” Greenberg said. “We also did a solid job on the defensive boards.”

Chase Holmes scored 13 points off the bench for Presbyterian, Ryan Hargrave finished with 11 and Jake Troyli had 10. The Blue Hose hit 41.3 percent of their attempts from the field but went just 13-for-22 at the free throw line.

After Presbyterian took its only lead of the game on Hargrave's 3-pointer in the first half, Radford responded with its game-changing run that lasted 9:29, capped by Amir Johnson's (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) make from distance that gave the Highlanders a 17-point lead at halftime, 42-25.

At the start of the second half, the Highlanders went ahead 48-28 on Trifunovic's basket at 17:29 before the Blue Hose scored seven straight points to trim the Radford lead to 13. But Radford outscored Presbyterian 19-8 over the next 5:41, extending the lead to 67-43 on Blake Smith's (Charlotte, N.C./United Faith Christian) 3-pointer with 8:58 remaining.

Radford's largest lead of the night was 27 points, coming on Parakhouski's layup with 6:26 remaining to give the Highlanders a 74-47 advantage.

The Highlanders close out the 2009-10 regular season at home on Saturday afternoon against Winthrop in a 4 p.m. contest televised by MASN.