CCU gets outmuscled, outshot by Radford

By: Matt Lincoln | SCNow
Published: January 06, 2009

CCU's four game winning streak ended with a clang. The Chants shot under 33% from the field, falling to Radford 68-52 at Kimbel Arena on Monday night. CCU fell to 7-8, while Radford improved to 6-9.

Redshirt junior Joseph Harris was the only high point for Coastal. He finished with 26 points, 16 in the first half. Harris started his hot night with a jumper at 19:53. Harris’ layup at 19:09 made it 4-2 Chants, but Radford went on a 7-0 run, capped by a three from Amir Johnson at 17:17. Coastal Carolina would bounce back and take a 12-11 lead at 14:34 on a three from senior Mario Sisinni. The lead would go back-and-forth as a tip-in from Harris gave Coastal Carolina a 16-15 lead. Harris’ jumper at 10:40 tied the game at 14, but Radford would take the lead for good at 10:03 on a jumper from Joey Lynch-Flohr. Radford has as much as a six-point lead as Lynch-Flohr’s jumper at 1:05 gave the Highs a 28-22 lead. Harris’ dunk with 10 seconds left cut the lead to 28-24 at halftime.

Harris led the Chants with 16 first-half points, going 8-of-9 from the floor. Coastal Carolina shot 36.7 percent from the floor and was 2-of-10 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes. Lynch-Flohr and Artsiom Parakhouski had eight points apiece for Radford, while Johnson chipped in with six. Parakhouski added six rebounds as the Highlanders shot 42.3 percent from the floor.

Coastal Carolina would cut the Radford lead to two on three occasions as Sisinni’s jumper with 17:03 left made it 33-31. Radford then went on a 9-0 run over the next 4:52 as Chris McEachin’s layup at 12:11 gave the Highs a 42-31 lead. Radford would get the lead out to as much as 13 points in the middle of the game as two McEachin free throws put Radford up 50-37 at 7:36. Coastal Carolina would get the deficit down to six points on senior Steven Sexton’s three-pointer at 5:00, but Lynch-Flohr had a big three-point play to bring the Radford advantage back to 56-47. The Highlanders led by double digits the rest of the way as Radford has won back-to-back road games for the first time since 2006.

Harris had an outstanding night for Coastal Carolina, scoring 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the floor. Sisinni was the other Chanticleer in double figures with 11 points. Coastal was just 11-of-37 from the floor in the second half. Radford was led by Lynch-Flohr’s 17 points, while Parakhouski recorded his fourth straight double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. McEachin chipped in with 14 points on 8-of-11 from the free-throw line.

Radford shot 44.7 percent from the floor and was 22-of-28 from the charity stripe. Coastal Carolina was just 3-of-6 from the free-throw line. The Highlanders also had a 41-35 rebound advantage. Coastal Carolina did force Radford into 17 turnovers, while Sexton had five assists.