BOX SCORE

LEXINGTON, Va. – After being held to its lowest scoring half of the season, VMI, the nation's top-scoring team, grabbed control with a 30-7 second-half run and defeated Radford 71-58 in Big South men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall.

Despite the loss, Tolga Cerrah (Ankara, Turkey) led all players with 15 points and 15 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Jareal Smith (Savannah, Ga. / Johnson) and Jeremy Robinson (Balimore, Md. / Tallahassee Community College) also added double figures for the Highlanders with 13 and 10, respectively.

“Tolga was outstanding today,” said Radford (5-20, 2-13 Big South) head coach Brad Greenberg. “We played an excellent defensive first half, but had one stretch midway through the second half where they turned our lead into a double-figure deficit and we never recovered.”

After Evan Faulkner (Sandy Hook, Ky. / Elliott County)'s trey gave Radford its largest lead, 40-34, the Keydets responded with their game-changing run to stretch the margin to 17 (64-47) with 5:37 to play.

Both teams struggled offensively in the first 20 minutes of action as they found themselves deadlocked 28-28 at the break. Trailing 26-19 following a 13-4 VMI (14-11, 7-8 Big South) run, the Highlanders closed the final 3:02 of the period on a 9-2 spurt.

Michael Sparks paced five Keydets in double figures with 15 points off the bench, including five of his club's 10 3-pointers. Stan Okoye finished with 14, D.J. Covington and Nick Gore contributed 11 each and Austin Kenon had 10.

“Sparks and Gore gave them great production off the bench,” Greenberg said.

After being held to 28.6 percent in the first half, VMI finished the contest shooting 36.5 percent, while limiting Radford to just 33.9 percent.

In addition to 14 steals, Radford finished with a 45-41 edge on the glass.

The Highlanders return to the Dedmon Center Tuesday evening when they host Presbyterian in their home finale at 7 p.m.