RADFORD MEN HOST HIGH POINT SATURDAY TO FINISH TOUGH STRETCH

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RADFORD, Va. – Coming off another big road victory, Radford's men's basketball team looks to pick up a key win at home when it welcomes High Point to the Dedmon Center Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., following the Highlander women's game versus Longwood.

With its dramatic win over Liberty Thursday night, Radford (15-12, 8-7) pulled within one game of the fifth-place Flames, with the top five teams earning first-round byes in the Big South Tournament. Gardner-Webb sits into between the two teams in sixth place. High Point (17-9, 10-5) is now in third place, one game behind co-leaders UNC Asheville and Winthrop.

Saturday's game concludes a stretch of six matchups in a row for the Highlanders against a team in fourth place or better at the time and it represents the fifth time in six contests in which they've faced an opponent on at least a three-game winning streak.

SETTING THE STAGE

Series: Radford leads 22-18
Location: Dedmon Center
Time: 4:30 p.m.
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Game Notes

LAST MEETING
High Point took control midway the first half and pulled away to a 77-60 home win victory on Dec. 31. It was a five-point game at halftime, but Radford made just two field goals in the first nine minutes of the second half to fall behind 54-36. High Point shot 62 percent in the second 20 minutes, including 5 of 8 3-pointers. The Highlanders finished the game at just 34.5 percent, including 8 of 25 from long range.

Cameron Jones led RU with 18 points, while Brandon Holcomb tallied 11 points and eight rebounds and Justin Cousin had a career-high 12 points. Rashun Davis shot just 1 of 8 from the field.

High Point totaled 40 points in the paint and converted 16 RU turnovers into 19 points. John Brown and Jorge Perez-Laham led the Panthers with 14 points apiece, while Anthony Lindauer added 13.

HIGHLANDER HIGHLIGHTS
Radford finished at 51 percent from the field against Liberty, marking the fourth time in its six games in which it shot 49 percent or better. The Highlanders improved to 10-2 on the season after a loss, and are now 6-4 in games decided by four points or less and 10-5 when the margin is eight or fewer. It was their seventh victory of the year when taking the lead for good in the final 1:30 of the game and fourth when the game-winner came in the last six seconds.

Rashun Davis has three of those, along with two other game-deciding baskets that came with less than 23 seconds on the clock. With 1,253 points, he is 14 from tying for 12th on RU's career list and needs 61 to reach the top 10. He is now ninth in program history with 163 career steals and his 128 assists this year are tied for 10th in single-season history. Along with his 14.3 ppg, Davis remains first in the Big South at 4.7 assists and tied for second with 2.0 steals per game.

Cameron Jones' 19-point outing against Liberty was his 10th straight double-figures performance and right at his average of 18.9 during that span. For the season he is now at 14.5 ppg and ranks fifth in the Big South with 16.5 ppg during conference play. Jones' nine rebounds topped his previous career-high of eight on three previous occasions. He also shared the team-high in assists with four, marking the first time a Highlander has led the way in points, rebounds and assists in a game this season.

Ed Polite, Jr.'s 50 blocked shots are tied for sixth-most by an RU player in a season. The freshman has recorded at least two blocks in eight of the last 10 games, while grabbing at least six rebounds in each of the last 14 contests. He is up to third in conference play with 8.0 rebounds and remains second in blocks.

Radford is 13-6 against High Point at home, having won six of the last seven. After starting conference play 5-0 at home and 1-4 on the road, the Highlanders have dropped two straight inside Dedmon, while winning two straight on the road.

SCOUTING HIGH POINT
High Point posted its third straight win with an 88-80 decision at Longwood Thursday night. The Panthers snapped a two-game skid with a one-point victory at Coastal Carolina on Feb. 11 and followed up with a 22-point home rout of Charleston Southern last Saturday.

Brown ranks second in the Big South with 19.7 ppg and fourth in rebounding at 7.4 per game. The redshirt senior also leads the league in field-goal percentage at 59.9 and offensive rebounds per game (3.5) and is third in blocks (1.8). Brown has averaged 15.7 ppg during the Panthers' win streak with a high of 18 against Longwood.

Adam Weary led the way against the Lancers, scoring a career-high 26 despite shooting just 5 of 14 from the field. He made all 14 of his free-throw attempts as High Point connected on 32 of 35 as a team. For the season, Weary is averaging 12.2 ppg while shooting just under 50 percent from the field.

Lorenzo Cugini also averages in double figures with 11.3 ppg and shoots at 47 percent from 3-point range. Cugini and Lindauer have combined for 94 of the team's 144 3-pointers.

High Point leads the Big South in assists, averaging 15.5 per game, and six players have recorded at least 35 on the season. They totaled 19 assists on 25 made field goals on Thursday night.

In Big South play, the Panthers also rank first in 3-point percentage (39.6) and free-throw percentage (75.3), second in field-goal percentage (47.5) and tied for second in scoring (74.5). Defensively, they are fourth in points allowed (69.5), but eighth in both field-goal (46.1) and 3-point percentage defense (37.0).

UP NEXT
Radford begins the final week of the regular season with a trip to Buies Creek, N.C. for a matchup against Campbell Thursday night. Tipoff at Gore Arena, site of this year's Big South Tournament, is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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