No. 1 Radford Holds Off No. 9 Presbyterian College, Moves to Semifinals
The top-seeded Radford women's basketball team advanced to their fourth consecutive Big South semifinal after defeating the No. 9 seeded Presbyterian Blue Hose, 60-49, in the Big South Tournament Quarterfinals on Thursday evening at the Dedmon Center. The Highlanders, who are now 24-6 overall, will play No. 4 seeded UNC Asheville (17-14), who knocked-off No. 5 seeded Gardner-Webb in the second quarterfinal of the evening.
"Tonight was an incredibly hard-fought game," said Highlander head coach
Mike McGuire. "Credit Presbyterian on just an outstanding effort as they are extremely well-coached and play very hard. They have a very bright future and play as hard as anyone in our league.
I thought our kids really gutted one out," McGuire continued. Obviously the free throws in the second-half were huge and Lydia [Rivers] and Destinee [Walker] were big with 49 points between them. We are happy that we won and are looking forward to tomorrow night."
Radford red-shirt junior
Lydia Rivers was sensational, producing a career and game-high 25 points along with a game-high 14 rebounds and six blocks (career-high). The Kinston, North Carolina native went 5-for-8 from the floor and knocked down a career-best 15-of-18 free throws in 34 minutes of action. The First Team All-Big South selection played all 20 minutes in the second-half and scored 18 points in the stanza, while hitting all ten of her attempts from the line.
Rivers received plenty of help from senior guard/forward
Destinee Walker, who produced 17 of her 24 points in the second-half. The Highlanders other First Team All-Conference pick scored 15 points in the fourth quarter as she converted 15-of-16 free throws over the final ten minutes. The Florence, South Carolina native went just 2-for-14 from the floor but swished a career-high 18-of-20 from the charity-stripe. Walker, who set a new program record for free-throw makes in a contest, also hit both of the Highlanders' 3-pointers.
Second Team All-Big South performer
Sydney Nunley grabbed 12 caroms and added two rejections.
Radford set a new Big South Tournament record and a program-record in both makes and attempts as they went 38-for-50 (76 percent) from the free-throw line in the contest. The Blue Hose (7-24) went to the line just seven times and converted all of their attempts.
The Highlanders shot a season-low 22.7 percent from the floor as they hit just 10-of-44 attempts, including only 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) from long-distance. Presbyterian was slightly better as they made 18-of-63 (28.6 percent) of their attempts, including 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) from behind the arc.
The score was deadlocked at 9-9 after the opening quarter as both teams struggled to fight their nerves. The visitors led 14-11 with 8:12 left before the half, however, red-shirt junior point guard
Jen Falconer scored on a baseline drive and Walker followed with her second trifecta to give the hosts a 16-14 edge with 4:19 left.
There would be three more ties down the stretch until Rivers and Walker both went 1-of-2 from the line over the final 1:09 to spot the Highlanders a 23-21 advantage at the break.
Radford went just 2-for-12 from the floor in the third quarter, however, the Highlanders were 11-of-12 from the line and led 38-35 heading into the fourth stanza. The game was tied six times in the quarter until Radford scored the final three points. Rivers connected on two free-throws with 1:44 remaining and scored at the horn, after pulling down an offensive board.
The Highlanders outscored the Blue Hose by a 5-2 margin over the first 3:17 of the fourth quarter to take their largest lead at 43-37. Rivers converted inside off a feed from Walker, Walker hit two from the stripe and Nunley split her two attempts to account for the scoring
Presbyterian closed to within 43-39 at the 6:24 mark after a layup by Salina Virola, but Nunley found Rivers for another bucket on the interior and Walker hit two more from the line to spot the Highlanders a 47-39 lead with 5:39 on the clock.
The Blue Hose were still within five, 51-46, with 1:01 left but Radford scored seven straight points, all from the line, to put the game out of reach at 58-46 with just 22 ticks left.
Radford out-rebounded the Blue Hose by a 45-40 margin and had 16 second-chance points compared to eight by the visitors. Presbyterian had 12 miscues compared to 11 by the hosts.
Tess Santos paced Presbyterian with 13 points and Trinity Johnson added 12 points.