RADFORD UPENDS UNDEFEATED HIGH POINT, 66-61

BOX SCORE

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Da'Naria Erwin Spencer scored 14 second-half points and Victoria Hamilton iced the game with three late free throws as Radford women's basketball upended undefeated High Point, 66-61, Saturday afternoon at the Millis Center.

After the Panthers pulled to within one, 61-60, Erwin Spencer drove to the hole off a spin move and put Radford up by three, 63-60, with 19 seconds remaining.

High Point's Shamia Brown got fouled and missed the front end of her two attempts, the lone High Point miss from the stripe in the second half. On the inbounds play, Radford got the ball to Hamilton and she hit the three final points from the line to give Radford (11-10, 5-5 Big South) the victory.

It stood as Radford's season-best fourth consecutive win and third straight game shooting over 80 percent from the stripe (12-15).

The loss knocked the Panthers from the unbeaten ranks in the Big South (9-1) and dropped them to 14-7 overall.

“I was extremely proud of our composure tonight in a tough environment. We did a great job staying together as a team and we battled for all 40 minutes,” said head coach Tajama Abraham Ngongba.

Erwin Spencer led all scorers with 21 points, her third straight 21-point game, and also pulled down six rebounds. Hamilton finished with 16 points and nearly had a double-double with 9 rebounds. Five different players grabbed at least five boards on the evening.

La-She' Walker gave Radford 19 big minutes off the bench and accounted for 6 points, a new career-high. She also set new highs in steals (5), rebounds (7) and blocks (4).

Four Panthers tallied double digits, led by Brown's 19 points. Cheyenne Parker filled up the stat sheet, recording her 14th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds and also added 7 blocks and 8 steals.   Erin Reynolds also chipped in with 15 points and Tayler Tremblay had 11.

High Point scored the first six points to open the second half and evened the score, 34-34.   Erwin Spencer's jumper in the paint quickly put Radford back on top, 36-34 and never looked back.

Erwin Spencer then recorded six straight points on fast-break layups caused by three Radford steals. The short spurt gave Radford a 10-point advantage, 61-51.

The Highlanders would push their advantage to as many as 10 in the first half, 32-22 and 34-24, but High Point would close the gap with a 6-2 run to end the half, including a floater in the lane as the buzzer sounded by Tremblay.   Radford went into intermission, up 34-28.

Radford held a 12-2 advantage in bench points.

The Highlanders end their four-game road swing with a 7 p.m. tilt on Monday at Campbell.

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