BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY (Courtesy Todd Drexler)
RADFORD, Va. – Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) scored 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and made the game-clinching free throw with five seconds left to lift Radford to a 64-61 overtime win over Charleston Southern in the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament on Tuesday night at the Dedmon Center.
Charleston Southern forced overtime for the second straight meeting between the two teams, outscoring Radford 10-2 in the final 5:10 of regulation.
Radford scored the first six points of overtime before the Buccaneers (13-17) hit two straight baskets to force back-and-forth play the rest of the way. Jamarco Warren's jumper with 30 seconds left made it a 63-61 game, but on Charleston Southern's next possession Jeremy Sexton's layup was short to set up Parakhouski's free throw, sealing the win for Radford.
The Highlanders (19-11) went 4-for-5 from the field in overtime, but were just 1-for-5 at the free throw line.
The second-seeded Highlanders move on to face third-seeded Winthrop on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Big South semifinals in Conway, S.C. Both semifinal games will be televised nationally by ESPNU.
Parakhouski, the two-time Big South Player of Year, didn't miss his first shot until the 5:19 mark of the second half, making nine of 11 field goal tries while going 6-for-9 at the free throw line on the way to his nation-leading 25th double-double of the season.
All-Conference selection Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) had his sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Laz Trifunovic (Belgrade, Serbia) finished with 14 points for Radford. The Highlanders shot 46.4 percent and assisted on 20 of 26 made field goals, but went only 10-for-17 at the free throw line.
Sexton had 18 points for Charleston Southern, leading four Buccaneers in double figures. Kelvin Martin had 15 points and Kenny Mitchell and Warrren scored 10 each. Charleston Southern shot 36.7 percent from the floor and made 10 of 13 free throws.
Lynch-Flohr made four of his first six shots and a pair of free throws, staking Radford to a 16-10 lead in the first ten minutes of the game. Later in the half, Amir Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Quaker Valley) pushed the lead to 28-18 on his 3-pointer with 2:57 left, and Parakhouski followed it up with a pair of baskets to cap a 7-0 run for the Highlanders that gave them a 14-point advantage.
Johnson pushed Radford's lead to 16 at the break, 36-20, on his steal and score with two seconds left.
Radford held Charleston Southern to 30 percent shooting (7-for-23) in the first half, while the Highlanders connected on 56.5 percent (13-for-23) of their shots. Each of the Buccaneers' seven made field goals in the opening 20 minutes came in the paint.
Down 38-24 with 17:12 left in the second half, the Buccaneers got the lead under 10 points with a 13-5 run, capped by Martin's bucket at the 13:40 mark to pull Charleston Southern within seven, at 42-35.
After the Buccaneers narrowed the deficit to six on Warren's jumper, Parakhouski hit a jumper from just inside the arc and Trifunovic made a layup to put the Highlanders back out in front by 10, 53-43, with 7:56 left. Johnson's assist on the play was the 600th of his career.
Charleston Southern scored the next six points and Warren completed a three-point play with 2:50 left to cut the lead to 53-50. Sexton knocked home a 3-pointer, Charleston Southern's first of the game, with 2:16 left to draw the Buccaneers within two, then Warren found Martin underneath for a lay up with 26 seconds remaining to tie the game, 55-55.
NOTES: Parakhouski moved into 10th place on the Big South's all-time rebounding chart … Parakhouski extended his double figure streak to 32 straight games … Parakhouski went over the 20-point plateau for the 20th time this season and 27th time in his career … Lynch-Flohr moved into 10th on Radford's all-time scoring chart … Radford's frontcourt trio of Parakhouski, Lynch-Flohr and Trifunovic have hit double figures in the same contest 13 times in 2009-10 … Radford improved to 22-22 in Big South Tournament play, including 14-8 in the quarterfinals … Radford has won six straight overtime contests, while improving to 9-2 under Greenberg … Greenberg recorded his 50th win as the Highlanders' head coach... Radford improved 9-1 in games where at least two players have recorded double-doubles.
POST GAME QUOTES
Radford head coach Brad Greenberg
"I'm glad we're moving on. Charleston Southern played a great second half. I thought we had it in firm control at halftime when the last couple of buckets gave us a 16-point lead. It looked like we could guard them, but in the second half they got real aggressive. Sexton got them going early in the second half. The basket got bigger for them and a little smaller for us. We struggled to score against their zone a little bit more. And they're getting better. They limit the number of times Art touches the ball, which certainly impacts our offense. And I thought Charleston Southern played a really really good game, especially the second half. We're moving on."
(On Blake Smith) He's had a tremendous freshman year. I'm probably harder on him than I should be, given what we expect him to do. I may have jumped on him a little too much today and made it a little worse when he struggled on one or two plays. But without Blake this year, I don't know where we would be. He has made 3's, he guards, he comes up with loose balls, rebounds up the lane, and he's our second best passer. He really is a good all-around basketball player. I'm hard on him because I think he's got such potential and I sometimes forget he's just a freshman.
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Radford guard Amir Johnson
(On defending Jamarco Warren) "He's a good player. He's crafty, he's fast, has all the moves, so I just wanted to stay in front of him and just try and keep a hand up on every shot he got. In the first half I did a pretty good job, but in the second half he got a couple of shots. I would say I did a pretty good job on him."
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Radford forward Joey Lynch-Flohr
(On overtime in the Big South Tournament) "It was scary. Terrified. Wanted it to end. Wanted to win. The game can't go fast enough when you're up and can't go slow enough when it's tied. It was just scary."
(On Jeremy Sexton's last drive into the lane) "Art came over and Laz came over. I think he had made the last 4 or 5 he took. It was good defense, but we caught a little break there."
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Charleston Southern head coach Barclay Radebaugh
“First, I would like to compliment our team on their character and for the way that they exhibited that character tonight at Radford University. We represented our university well tonight and I am very proud of their effort, resiliency, mental toughness and their willingness to compete. We didn't really play well in the first half but we played hard and in the second half we had things go our way.”
“Radford is a really good team and extremely well-coached. That was our third tough game that we had to try and prevail. The two games here could have gone either way. I think we have to ability to throw inside like they do and it is certainly beneficial late in the games.”
(On what he said at halftime) “Not one word. My team has character! I didn't have to tell him anything and I haven't had to tell them anything all year. We have had pretty good experience coming back. Unfortunately, we have had some deficits. I trust and believe in my team. They are extremely competitive with tremendous character. A lot of times I just let Kelvin Martin speak. That is a little bit more effective than me speaking. He is such an emotional guy that they will listen. ”
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Charleston Southern forward Kelvin Martin
(About the comeback) “The team decided we had a chance to win this game, so we were mentally prepared for the second half and we wanted to go out and give it a go. When we play a 2-3 zone it's hard to keep Joey and Art outside the paint and to prevent them from touching the ball. We didn't really do anything different in the second half, we just closed the zone out more and made sure they didn't touch the paint to make them look at the high post more.”
“We are disappointed as a team that we came here both times and lost in overtime. We just need to get better as a team and learn from this experience so that we can compete with any team. As my coach says, we have 99 percent of our offense coming back and we have guys coming up and we are ready for it.”
