LIBERTY 91, VMI 80
Seth Curry and Anthony Smith each had career days, as the Liberty Flames (13-6, 4-3 Big South) snapped the VMI Keydets (14-3, 6-1 Big South) winning streak at 10 games, Saturday afternoon, 91-80, in front of a capacity crowd of 5,029 fans inside Cameron Hall.  The gathering at Cameron Hall served as the first capacity crowd in the facility’s history, topping previous appearances by North Carolina and a Ralph Sampson-led Virginia squad.

Keith Gabriel stroked a three at 17:33, giving VMI an early five point edge, 7-2.  Liberty bounced back quickly, as a Kyle Ohman trey at 14:36 capped an 8-2 run, allowing the Flames to take their first lead on the afternoon, 10-9.  The Keydets retook the lead, 23-16, courtesy of a 14-6 jaunt.  Chavis Holmes finished off the sprint with a three-point bucket at 11:49. The run include another Gabriel trey and a Willie Bell bucket in the paint.  Liberty stormed back, running out to a 10 point lead, 36-26, as the visitors netted 20 of the game’s next 23 points.  Curry hit three field goals from beyond the arc and punctuated the scoring burst with a two point field goal at 1:21.  Curry scored 13 of Liberty’s 20 points during the run.

Two Gabriel buckets in the closing minute broke up the Liberty sprint, before Anthony Smith grabbed an offensive board after Gabriel blocked a Jesse Sanders shot, placing the ball through the cylinder with 2.2 seconds left.  The bucket sent the Flames into the intermission with a nine point lead, 39-30.  Liberty connected on 45.5 percent (15-of-33) of its shots during the first half, including 46.2 percent (6-of-13) from three-point land.  Curry scored 20 first half points and Smith collected his eighth career double-double in the opening period, including his fourth against the Keydets.  VMI hit 39.4 percent (13-of-33) of its shots in the first half, including 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from beyond the three-point line.

The Flames pushed their lead up to 13 points, 46-33, scoring 10 of the first 13 points in the second period.  Smith tallied a bucket in the paint at 17:17, ending the run.  Liberty then extended its lead to 16 points, 55-39, when Curry sank his fourth free consecutive free throw at 13:54.  VMI regained its composure and surged back into the contest, cutting its deficit to seven points, 55-48, via nine straight points.  Austin Kenon capped the run with a lay-up at 12:08.  However, the lane jumper would prove be as close as the home team would get the remainder of the game.  Liberty quickly extended the lead back up to 17 points, 67-50, courtesy of a Sanders old-fashioned three-point play at 9:22, to finish off a 12-2 spurt.  Liberty extended the lead up to 20 points, 75-55, via two Ohman makes from the charity stripe at 6:04.

The Keydets worked hard to try and get back in the game, cutting the Liberty lead down to 12 points, 87-75, after a Kenon free throw sank though the nets at 2:13.  But Liberty would run right down the court and burry a three by Ohman at the 1:49 mark to thwart the attended rally.  The Liberty lead got back to 15 points, 87-72, following an Ohman long-range bucket, before VMI scored eight of the game’s last 12 points to close the final margin to 11 points, 91-80.  Liberty, who leads the Big South in field goal shooting percentage, increases its season average by shooting 53.2 percent (33-of-62) from the floor, while hitting 42.9 percent (9-of-21) of its three-point attempts.  The game also marked the eighth contest Liberty has shot over 50 percent from the floor and the 53.2 average is the fifth best on the year.

The Flames won the rebound war by 18 caroms, 48-30, marking only the sixth time all season Liberty has recorded more rebounds than an opponent.  The 91 points are the second highest scoring output for the Flames this season and the highest against a Division I opponent.  Curry led all scorers with his career-high 35 points on 10-of-15 shooting.  Curry went 4-of-6 from three-point range and connected on all 11 of his free throw attempts.  Smith pulled down a career-high 17 rebounds to go with his 21 points.  Ohman chipped in 16 points and seven rebounds, while Sanders nearly secured a triple-double with 12 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.  Sanders’ rebound and assist totals tied career highs for the freshman.  Liberty’s bench was held to zero points for the first time all season, while the starting five tallied Liberty’s 91 point total.

VMI connected on 40.3 percent (29-of-72) of its shots, while hitting 30.0 percent (9-of-30) of its three-point attempts. Kenon tallied a team-high 21 points on 7-of-17 shooting.  Holmes tallied 17 points, while Gabriel tallied 16 points.  Bell added 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the losing effort.  Travis Holmes missed his fifth-straight game due to injury.

Liberty returns to action on Tuesday, when they travel to the Millis Athletic Center to face the High Point Panthers.  Tip-off is set for 7:00pm.  VMI travels to Radford next Wednesday. 

RADFORD 65, HIGH POINT 52
Senior Kenny Thomas (Richmond, Va./Highland Springs) became the 23rd player in Radford men’s basketball history to hit the 1,000-point plateau and the Highlanders grabbed a share of the top spot in the Big South with a 65-52 victory over High Point Saturday at the Millis Athletic Center.  On its longest winning streak since the 2001-02 campaign, Radford (9-9, 6-1) has won five straight and six consecutive against league competition.  The Highlanders are also off to their best start in conference play since recording a 12-2 mark in conference play during the 1999-2000 slate.

Radford held the Panthers to just 31.7 percent (19-60) from the floor, including an 8-of-31 (25.8 percent) showing in the second half.  Thomas led five Highlanders in double figures with 14 points, including four buckets from downtown.  Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) added 13, while Eric Hall (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) contributed 11 points off the bench for the third time in as many contests.  Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) and Chris McEachin (Norfolk, Va./Norview) also hit double digits with 10 points each.

A Hall putback at the 12:11 mark of the second half broke a 41-41 deadlock and sparked a 13-5 Highlander run to give them the advantage for good.  High Point (5-12, 1-6) cut the deficit to five, 56-51, on a pair of Jourdan Morris free throws with 3:24 left, but wouldn’t get any closer as Thomas hit the milestone with his final trey of the night the next trip down the floor to put the game out of reach.  Playing against a zone defense for much of the contest, the Highlanders only committed seven turnovers, which was a season-low.  Nick Barbour and David Singleton led High Point with 12 points each.  Cruz Daniels blocked four shots in the contest, moving him into fifth-place on the Big South's all-time career list for blocked shots with 186. 

After the two teams battled back and forth to find themselves tied 20-20, Thomas drilled his third triple of the first half and Lynch-Flohr followed with a hook shot the next possession to put Radford up, 25-20.  High Point quickly erased the largest lead for either team in the period as it closed on a small spurt to head into the break up, 28-27.  This evening’s contest featured 12 ties and eight lead changes.  Each of the Highlanders’ wins in conference play have come by double-digit margins.

Radford, which is now tied for first place in the Big South standings with VMI, will host the Keydets Wednesday evening in the newly renovated Dedmon Center at 7:00pm.  High Point entertains Liberty on Tuesday.

WINTHROP 87, UNC ASHEVILLE 67
Charles Corbin matched his career-high with 22 points and helped pace Winthrop to an 87-67 win over UNC Asheville.  Winthrop (4-12, 3-4) put four players in double figures for the first time this season and connected on an season-high 62.5 percent on the way to a season-best 87 points.  Aside from Corbin’s 22, Cameron Stanley and Andre Jones each scored 13 and Reggie Middleton chipped in 11.

The Eagles’ defensive effort also shined brightly as Winthrop limited Asheville’s leading scorer Reid Augst to a modest 12 points.  He entered the game shooting lights out against Big South Conference opponents at a 58 percent clip.  Matt Dickey lead the Bulldogs with a game-high 23.  Winthrop sprinted to a quick 7-0 lead before John Williams finished a layup to put Asheville on the scoreboard.  The Eagles answered with another 7-0 run to go up 14-2 at the 14:22 mark.  The run was capped off by an alley-oop dunk by Stanley off a pass from Jones.  Asheville (8-10, 4-3) began to let the game slip away as the Eagles extended their lead to 17 at 30-13 on a Corbin layup with 6:53 left in the half.  Dickey brought the Bulldogs to within 8, 34-26, with just over a minute remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs only managed to get the margin down to 14 in the second half as Winthrop maintained its lead by pressure defense coupled with better than 66 percent shooting from the floor.  The 87 points scored by the Eagles are the most points scored by a Randy Peele-coached Winthrop squad and are the most scored since an 80-70 road win at Virginia Military Institute on February 28, 2008.

Winthrop returns to action Tuesday night as the Eagles travel Charleston Southern with tip-off slated for 7:30pm. in the Buc Dome.  UNC Asheville visits Coastal Carolina on Monday night.

GARDNER-WEBB 77, COASTAL CAROLINA 55
Grayson Flittner led Gardner-Webb with 22 points and C.J. Hailey came off the bench to score 16 as the Runnin’ Bulldogs cruised to a 77-55 win over Coastal Carolina.  Gardner-Webb (8-9, 4-3 Big South) knocked down five of its first six three-point baskets in the game and finished with 11 treys for the game, as Flittner made six and Jonathan Moore supplied three.  Hailey, a Charlotte, N.C., native (Harding HS) knocked down 7-of-11 shots in 13 minutes – and scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half as the Runnin’ Bulldogs built a 30-point lead.

Aaron Linn set a school-record with eight steals, had 12 points, four rebounds and six assists in a fine all-around effort at point guard.  Joshua Henley had just five points at forward, but pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds (nine offensive) and dished off four assists.  Moore scored all 10 of his points in the first half and Auryn MacMillan netted eight points and six boards despite foul trouble in the post.  The Runnin’ Bulldogs jumped on the Chanticleers (7-11, 1-5 Big South) early, turning a 21-12 lead into a 34-13 bulge with a 13-1 run that covered less than three minutes in the opening half.  Coastal Carolina was more active over the final five minutes, however, and the Chants trimmed the lead to just 12 points, 37-25, by halftime.

Gardner-Webb had a quick 7-0 spurt to start the second half to lead 44-25 with 17:04 to go and Coastal Carolina would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way.  After a Logan Johnson trey cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 50-36 with 13:32 left, Gardner-Webb ran away with the game.  Four-straight points by MacMillan started an 18-5 run for Gardner-Webb, which ended with Linn’s jumper with 7:20 to play and saw Gardner-Webb with a 69-41 edge.  Linn’s three-pointer two minutes later gave Gardner-Webb a 72-43 lead and a free throw by Henley with 4:03 to play put the ‘Dogs up by 30 points. Hailey had all 11 of his second half points in the run for Gardner-Webb.  GWU skipper Rick Scruggs then cleared the bench for the final four minutes of action.

Gardner-Webb shot 50.0 percent in the second half (16-of-32) and 44.4 percent for the game (28-of-63), knocking down 11-of-27 shots from long distance (40.7 percent).  GWU held a 44-32 edge on the glass, and dished off 18 assists on 28 made baskets.  Coastal Carolina shot 39.2 percent for the game and made just 5-of-17 from deep.  Coastal was led by Joseph Harris’ nine points and 11 rebounds.  Logan Johnson added nine points for the Chanticleers, who committed 19 turnovers that led go 27 Gardner-Webb points.

Gardner-Webb hits the road again next week in league play, battling Presbyterian at 7:00pm in Clinton, S.C., on Wednesday, January 21.  Coastal Carolina hosts UNC Asheville Monday night ta 7:00pm.

PRESBYTERIAN 63, CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 54
The Presbyterian College men’s basketball team outscored Charleston Southern by seven points in the second half en route to a 63-54 win Saturday evening in the Templeton Center.  The Blue Hose improve to 7-11 on the year and 4-3 in Big South play while the Bucs fall to 5-11 overall and 1-5 against league foes.

With 7:52 to go, Giedrius Knysas made a lay-up, putting the visitors up 54-53.  However, strong defensive play the remainder of the way allowed head coach Gregg Nibert’s team to outscore the visitors 10-0 the rest of the game, giving the home team its fourth win of the season in front of the home crowd.  At the 6:33 mark, sophomore Pierre Miller drained a three-pointer for what turned out to be the game-winning basket.  Neither team could score again until 3:01 to play when Bryan Bostic sank a three for a five-point edge.  A Josh Johnson lay-up at the 2:45 point, along with Travis Sligh’s two charity tosses with 1:55 to go made the 63-54 final margin.

In all, the game was tied seven times and had 20 lead changes.  A back-and-forth affair all night, the Bucs scored seven of the first nine points of the game only to see the Blue Hose knot the score at 7-7.  The five-point advantage was the largest for CSU the entire game.  Up by one with 12:51 to play in the first stanza, Chase Holmes buried one of the team’s six first-half three pointers, giving PC a 19-15 lead.  A minute later, Johnson netted two free throws, giving the Blue Hose a six-point advantage.  Less than two minutes later, Austin Johnson made a jumper, giving the visitors the lead, 22-21.  The teams would trade baskets virtually the rest of the way, but Johnson’s lay-up with 15 ticks to play gave the Bucs a 35-34 edge.  Then, like he has done so many times this season, Miller stepped up and hit a big three-point basket with just three seconds to play in the opening half, giving PC a two-point lead at the intermission.

In the first half, CSU made 13-of-26 attempts while PC connected on 12-of-27.  The difference at the break was the fact that the Blue Hose had made two more three-pointers and two more foul shots.  For the game, PC made 22-of-54 shots for a 40.7 percent clip while the Bucs made 21-of-53 for 39.6 percent shooting from the floor.  The Blue Hose out-rebounded the visitors 38-34 and had four more assists.  Each team had 14 turnovers and four blocks, but PC recorded seven thefts versus four by CSU.

Leading the way for the Blue Hose was Bryan Bostic, who netted 15.  Miller had 13 while Johnson netted 12.  Al'Lonzo Coleman was close to reaching his second consecutive double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds while Sligh had six markers and a game-high nine rebounds.  Miller led the way on the defensive front with five of PC’s seven steals. 

The Blue Hose will look to continue their winning ways Wednesday evening when they host fellow Big South newcomer Gardner-Webb in a 7:00pm match-up.  Charleston Southern hosts Winthrop on Tuesday evening.