University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Radford
Bulldogs Fall in Big South Semifinals 94-86 to Radford
03.05.2009 | Men's Basketball
RADFORD, Va. - Top-seeded Radford advanced to the Big South Conference championship game but had to hold off a determined UNC Asheville comeback to win the game. The Highlanders got a career-high 35 points from Kenny Thomas to outlast the Buldogs 94-86 before a close to capacity crowd of 3,669 at the Dedmon Center Thursday night.
Sean Smith scored 21 points as Asheville went 13-of-18 from the thre-point line to almost pull out the victory against Radford. The Highlanders will play second-seeded VMI on Saturday at 4 p.m. for the championship.
Asheville (15-16) torched the nets from downtown connecting on 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) in the second half and 13-of-18 for the game. The Bulldogs knocked down seven straight treys at one point. Matt Dickey added 14 points for the Buldogs, while John Williams finished with 13 points and six blocked shots. Reid Augst added 12 points.
The game was tied 20-20 with eight minutes left in the first half when Radford went on a 12-2 run. Eric Hall had dunks on consecutive possessions and Joey Lynch-Flohr had four points on offensive put backs during the run.
Williams' dunk with 2:47 was the Bulldogs first field goal in 5:13 and cut the deficit to seven points, 34-27.
Radford shot 47 percent in the first half as the Highlanders took a 41-31 lead into halftime. Asheville shot just 33 percent in the opening period.
The Bulldogs trailed 65-51 with 10:08 left then they started to heat up from outside. Smith and Dickey each hit two three-pointer on the next four possessions to spark a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 74-68 with 7:15 remaining.
Lynch-Flohr fouled out with 5:17 remaining and Radford leading 78-73. Augst hit a three-pointer on the next possession to bring the Dogs to with two at 78-76 but that was a close as Asheville would get.
Radford had the lead back to five points at 81-76, when Artsiom Parakhouski fouled out with 2:55 left to play. Williams only made one free throw to make it a four point game. Once again Radford pushed the lead back to seven. Augst made it 86-83 with 52 seconds left but Radford closed the game on a 7-3 run.
"I give UNC Asheville credit, they played well. Coach Biedenbach is a great coach. He moves his team around like guys on a chess board," said Radford coach Brad Greenburg. "Hats off to UNC Asheville for the shooting they displayed in the second half. It was remarkable. They were just unconscious. We had a lead that looked safe and it wasn't."
"It was really a great basketball game from the fan's standpoint," said UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "We did everything we could. Radford deserved everything they have gotten this year. Brad Greenberg deserved the coach of the year award. They are a good team and he did a lot with them. We needed to get a couple of good breaks, but I am really proud of our team. We just needed a little size on the front line to neutralize a lot of things. We did well for the most part, but it just wasn't good enough.”
