RADFORD,
Va.-The Presbyterian College men's basketball team fought hard against the Radford
Highlanders, who are tied for second place in the Big South Conference and
matched them in points in the second half. However, the Blue Hose couldn't erase
a 17 point first-half deficit and Radford eventually came away with the 75-58
win.
PC
(5-25, 2-15 BSC) was led by Jake Troyli's 10 points, all of which came in the
first half while Chase Holmes had a stellar second period which saw him score
all of his 13 points. Ryan Hargrave also
chipped in 11 points. On the defensive
side, Holmes grabbed seven rebounds for PC.
Down
17 points to start the second half, Allen put the first points on the board for
PC with a three pointer at the 19:36 mark and Mutakabbir added his second three
of the night minutes later at 16:43 to bring the score to 48-31 in favor of the
Highlanders (17-11, 12-5 BSC).
The
Blue Hose outscored the Highlanders 12-10 in the first seven minutes of the
second half, but it wasn't enough as Radford extended their lead to as many as
27 in the waning minutes of the game. Ryan
Hargrave hit a three pointer with just over a minute remaining in the game, but
RU, who had already secured a first round home game in the Big South Conference
tournament coming into this match-up, came out on top 75-58.
After
shooting 38.5 percent from the field in the first half, the Blue Hose improved
to 45 percent in the second half to come away with a 41.3 shooting percentage
for the game. Radford shot 46 percent
from the field for the game and had four players in double digits.
After
trailing by three points in the opening minutes of the first half, PC answered
to cut Radford's lead to one, 13-12, at the 11:28 mark off of a three pointer
by Mutakabbir. RU's Lynch-Flohr went on
a 6-2 run with three straight baskets, but Reynolds added a layup of his own to
keep the score at 15-14 in favor of the Highlanders with just over ten minutes
remaining in the first half.
The
Blue Hose took their first lead of the game, 17-15 with a three-point shot from
Hargrave, but Radford responded to regain a 20-19 lead at the 7:51 mark. The Highlanders would extend their lead over
the next minutes, and Troyli's fifth basket of the half at 4:01 marked PC's
last field goal in the opening stanza. Helped
by PC's drought from the field, Radford used a 13-1 run in the last minutes of
the half to take a 42-25 point lead into the locker rooms at half time.
The
Blue Hose travel to High Point, N.C. to face the Panthers on Saturday, Feb. 27
in their last game of the season. Tip-off
is schedule for 7 p.m.
