Cold Second Half Dooms Radford in Big South First Round

Roanoke, Va. - Radford shot 18.5 percent from the field and blew a 15-point lead in the second half, falling to Winthrop 54-50 in the first round of the Big South Tournament. Up 42-27 after a three-point play by Ludmila Nicheporchuk (Minsk, Belarus), the Lady Eagles would outscore RU 27-8 over the final 15:24 of the game to pick up the win.

Amanda Neby (Plymouth, Minn.) scored 13 points, 10 in the first half, to lead the Highlanders, while Nicheporchuk and Sherri Rickman (Roanoke, Va.) chipped in with 12 and 11 points respectively. Winthrop’s Stephanie Pannell posted a double-double with a game-high 14 points and 16 boards. The Highlanders end their season at 11-16, while the Lady Eagles improve to 11-17.

Radford jumped out to an 8-0 lead and seemed to be in control but WU scored six straight to cut it to two points. The Highlanders maintained the lead and built a 13-point cushion with an 11-1 run, sparked by back-to-back threes by Heather Perez (Louisville, Tenn.) and Brandy Allen (Roanoke, Va.) to close out the half. Allen tied a career high with 12 boards to lead RU.

In the second half, the Lady Eagles would slowly chip away at the lead as Radford went cold after a Rickman layup at 11:52. The Highlanders would not hit another field goal, missing 11 consecutive over a 10-minute stretch, until Neby’s jumper at 1:23. Winthrop would eventually pull ahead for the first time when Katie Kilcolln hit a jumper to put them in the lead for good, 46-45 at 5:59.

The Highlanders finish the season with 161 for 500 from three point land, which are both new school and conference records.