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Radford University Athletics

Home Of The RadFord Highlanders RadFord Highlanders
Caleb Tanner
Radford Athletics Communications
77
UNC Asheville AVL 8-6, 0-1
80
Winner Radford RAD 6-7, 1-0
UNC Asheville AVL
8-6, 0-1
77
Final
80
Radford RAD
6-7, 1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
UNC Asheville AVL 37 36 4 77
Radford RAD 38 35 7 80

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

RADFORD DOWNS ASHEVILLE, 80-77 IN OT BIG SOUTH OPENER



Box Score (PDF)

GAME INFORMATION
  • Score: Radford 80, UNC Asheville 77, OT
  • Records: Radford (6-7, 1-0) | UNC Asheville (8-6, 0-1)
  • Location: Dedmon Center | Radford, Va.
 
RADFORD, Va. – The Radford men's basketball team rallied to pull out two close wins over UNC Asheville last season. In Thursday night's Big South opener, though, the Highlanders had to withstand a Bulldogs' comeback bid. They did so with Ed Polite, Jr., scoring the go-ahead basket in the final minute of overtime as Radford posted an 80-77 victory inside the Dedmon Center.
 
Caleb Tanner scored a career-high 24 points and hit 6 of 8 3-pointers to lead Radford, while Polite, Jr. provided the big plays in the extra period. Coming out of a timeout while trailing 77-76, Polite, Jr. drove the left side of the lane and converted an acrobatic floater in traffic to put the Highlanders in front with 19 seconds to play. Following an Asheville miss, Tanner was fouled and hit both free throws with two seconds on the clock. Justin Cousin then intercepted a long inbounds pass as the horn sounded, securing another.
 
The Highlanders ended the game on a 7-0 run after Asheville, which had rallied from 12-point deficit late in the second half, scored the first four points of overtime. Donald Hicks made one free throw and Cousin swished in a runner to make it a one-point game with 2:34 to play. Polite, Jr. came up big defensively, with emphatic blocks on back-to-back Bulldog possessions and a steal by Darius Bolstad set up the eventual game-winning possession.
 
Radford enjoyed its best shooting half of the season in the opening 20 minutes, hitting on 59 percent from the field, including 6 of 11 3-pointers. Tanner had three of them, tallying 11 of his points. However, Asheville countered with 48 percent shooting as the teams exchanged the lead 11 times, capped by a jumper from Christian Bradford just before the buzzer for a 38-37 Highlanders' edge.
 
The seesaw play continued early in the second half before Radford used a 17-5 spurt to open up an 11-point margin. Tanner drained his other three 3-pointers during the spurt, including a pair of well behind the arc, and capped it off with a runner off the glass that made it 60-49 with 8:38 to go.
 
From there, though, Asheville steadily chipped away at the deficit scoring five straight points to get within 69-68 with 1:27 on the clock. Baskets by Sterling Christy and Bolstad around one for the Bulldogs made it a 73-70 game before a 3-pointer by David Robertson with 13 seconds left sent the game to the extra period.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
  • Tanner was 8 for 11 from the field overall, setting career-highs for made field goals and 3-pointers. He surpassed his previous best scoring game of 17 earlier this season against VMI.
  • Polite, Jr. was just below his averages in points and rebounds, finishing with nine and eight respectively, but contributed a season-high four blocks, along with a team-high four steals and added two assists.
  • Bolstad posted his second straight double-figures game, totaling 10 points and grabbing six rebounds.
  • Bradford chipped in nine points and dished out a team-high six assists, giving him 13 helpers in the last two games.
  • Christian Lutete added nine points and Christy tallied eight off the bench as the Highlander reserves combined to outscore Asheville's 51-27.
  • Radford totaled 20 assists on 29 field goals, with each player who saw action recording at least one and seven players tallying at least two.
  • The 11 3-pointers as a team (on 23 attempts) tied a season high.
  • The Highlanders went cold shooting late in the second half to shoot 44 percent in the final 20 minutes, but were still at 49 percent overall for the game.
  • Radford also won the battle on the glass for the ninth time in 10 contests, finishing with a 40-38 edge. Christy added six.
  • The Highlanders improved to 34-5 under Mike Jones when scoring at least 80 points, improved to 5-0 at home this season, won its conference home opener for the second straight year and beat Asheville for the fourth time in a row, with the last three by a combined nine points, including two overtime games.
  • Ahmad Thomas, Robertson and MaCio Teague each scored 14 points to lead five Bulldogs in double figures. However, Thomas fouled out on the first possession of overtime.
  • Asheville had won 11 straight conference openers prior to this one.
  • Overall in the game, there were 17 lead changes and 10 ties.
 
QUOTABLE
  • "It's really unbelievable the last three games we've played with Asheville and really almost every game since I've been here seems to go like that. Getting up to near 40 points in the first half is a record for us. If we took care of the ball a little better in the first half it probably would've been a little different (score), but we took care of it a little bit better in the second half and just made one more play than they made at the end. I'm really proud of every guy that played in the game. I thought it was a total team effort and they were able to pull out a really big win. We had a big lead and lost it, but it's like getting knocked up against the ropes. We didn't get knocked out and came back and won the game, so there's conference if we're tested and facing adversity, we can still keep battling until the end and see what happens." ~ Radford head coach Mike Jones
 
UP NEXT
  • Radford continues its challenging start to conference play on Saturday, traveling to Rock Hill, S.C. to face preseason favorite and defending regular-season co-champion Winthrop. Tipoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. inside Winthrop Coliseum.
 
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