Men's Basketball 11/27/2020 4:43:00 PM

Men’s Hoops Takes on Norfolk State and James Madison

RADFORD, Va. – The Radford men's basketball team will travel to Harrisonburg, Va., for a pair of games on Saturday and Sunday. The first is against Norfolk State and the second is versus host James Madison. Both are slated for a 7 p.m., tip-off.

The Highlanders dropped a 77-62 contest at Virginia Tech on Wednesday afternoon. Dravon Mangum had an impressive Radford debut with 12 points, tying a career-high. Josiah Jeffers also tied a career-high with 12 points and two made 3-pointers.

The three freshmen that made their collegiate debut combined for 20 points, led by Fah'Mir Ali's 10 points. He also tallied five assists and four rebounds in his first career start. Xavier Lipscomb and Keishon Porter chipped in five points each.

Chyree Walker led the team with seven rebounds and also had six points in his first start as a Highlander against Virginia Tech.

Norfolk State and James Madison played on Friday afternoon and the Spartans outlasted the Dukes, 83-73. Norfolk State used a 10-2 run out of the final media timeout to break a tie and pull away late.

Norfolk State's Matt Lewis led all scorers with 27 points, knocking down four 3-pointers and taking advantage at the charity stripe converting 13 of his 14 free three attempts. The Spartans had three other players score in double figures with Vado Morse scoring 16.

Norfolk State returns 10 letterwinners from its 2019-20 squad that went 16-15 (12-4 MEAC) and secured the No. 2 seed in the MEAC Tournament before its cancellation due to COVID-19. According to research conducted by East Carolina University, the Spartans return the seventh-most letterwinners in Division I this season, led by Preseason Second Team All-MEAC pick Joe Bryant, Jr., who averaged 12.0 ppg and 3.8 rpg last season.

This will be the first meeting between the Spartans and Highlanders in over 20 years. The last time the two schools met was in 1999 as the Highlanders topped the Spartans, 85-80.

The Highlanders won the last meeting against James Madison with ease, 94-71, inside the Dedmon Center. However, Radford is 1-7 in games played in Harrisonburg and have not won there since 1985. Lewis Djonkam was Radford's leading returning scorer in last year's meeting between the two. He notched a season-high eight points.

The Dukes started a new era of basketball with a comfortable win on Wednesday afternoon, topping Limestone University in an 89-55 victory at home, prior to its first loss of the season on Friday.

The win was the first in the Dukes' new home and the first for new head coach Mark Byington, who arrived in Harrisonburg early in 2020 after seven seasons at Georgia Southern, where he tallied three straight 20-win seasons.

As a team, the Dukes broke their own program record for single-game steals with 21, besting their mark of 20, set against Wilmington College on Jan. 17, 1976, the year before the Dukes moved to Division I. The program mark since the Division I transition was 15, set on Dec. 5, 2012 against East Tennessee State and matched last season against Shenandoah.

JMU had four players score in double-figures against Norfolk State led by J.J. Matthews with 18 points. 12 of his points came from the charity stipe.

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