LIBERTY PLAYS SPOILER ON SENIOR DAY

BOX SCORE RADFORD, Va. – Behind four players in double figures and a 12-0 run over the first three minutes of the second half, Liberty defeated Radford, 73-56, in the Big South regular season finale and Senior Day on Saturday afternoon from the Dedmon Center.

The Highlanders (13-18, 7-9) finished as the fourth seed in the North and will play Winthrop, the South's fifth seed at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Liberty ends the season as the North's fifth seed and it will play host and the West's fourth seed Coastal Carolina at 8:00 p.m.

All games of the 2013 VisitMyrtleBeach.com Men's Basketball Tournament will be played at The HTC Center in Conway, S.C.

"It's disappointing because we had a first-round bye in our sights. Everything broke our way, but we didn't take care of what we needed to do." Radford head coach Mike Jones said. "We are looking for more consistency in a number of different areas."

Liberty's Davon Marshall led all players with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point land. Tavares Speaks and John Caleb Sanders added 16 points and a game-best eight rebounds apiece for the Flames, with Sanders dishing out a game-high five assists.

Rashun Davis paced the Highlanders with 17 points on 6-of-12 from the field and 4-of-5 from the line. Javonte Green added 15 points, a team-high six rebounds and three steals.

Liberty took 30-26 lead at halftime following a closely contested first half, which saw five ties and three lead changes and Radford holding the largest lead of six.

The Highlanders jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind a pair of triples from Rashun Davis and R.J. Price. Liberty, which hit 40.7 percent of its shots, chipped away and tied the contest at 10 apiece with 13:11 on the clock.

An old-fashioned 3-point play by Speaks gave the Flames their first lead of the contest with 9:33 remaining in the half and pushed it to as many as four (18-14), courtesy of a 6-0 run.

Radford, which shot 26.7 percent, battled back to grab a brief, 23-22 advantage on Green's 19-foot jumper from the top of the key. Coming up with an answer, the Flames tallied eight of the final 11 points to take the four-point lead into the break.

Radford's Davis and Liberty's Tomasz Gielo tallied a half-high eight points apiece. The Highlanders held a slight 22-20 advantage on the glass, led by Green's four. LU's Gielo matched Green with four boards. Gielo finished with 10 points and six boards.

Following a Green free throw to start the second half, Tavares Speaks sparked a 12-0 run with six points to open up a tight ball game and give Liberty a 42-27 lead just 2:55 into the second half.

The Flames pushed their lead to as many as 17 (54-37) midway through the second half. Radford whittled Liberty's lead to eight on two straight possessions, but each time the Flames hit key buckets to regain their double-digit margin.

Liberty edged Radford on the glass, 39-36, while points in the paint were even at 24. The Flames shot 47.8 percent (22-46) from the field, 53 percent from long range (9-17) and 80 percent from the charity stripe (20-25).

The Highlanders struggled from the field (19-61 / 31 percent) and long range (3-18 / 16.7 percent). Jalen Carethers chipped in with six points and six rebounds and R.J. Price added nine points and two steals, but hit just 2-of-15 from the floor.

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