Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992 TAG: 9201280222
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
FLAMES ROUT RADFORD 92-77
Radford University's perfect record in the Big South Conference basketball standings may be gone, but the Highlanders' no-quit attitude isn't.Radford made Liberty University and a Vines Center audience of 5,005 plenty nervous Monday night but didn't have quite enough energy to erase a 22-point deficit. The Flames prevailed 92-77.
Behind the long-range shooting of Doug Day and Don Burgess and the all-around defensive scrappiness of anybody it put on the floor, Radford closed to a four-point deficit with 7:39 left on a point-blank shot by Stephen Barber.
But that was as close as the soon-to-be worn-out Highlanders would get. When the teams played in Radford earlier this season, the Highlanders vaporized a 14-point Liberty lead and won 76-74. Similar heroics were a little much to ask this time before what was believed to be the biggest crowd ever to see a conference regular-season game.
"We had confidence that we could come back," said Day, who scored a game-high 29 points to give himself 63 in two games against the Flames. "We dug ourselves too deep a hole, though. It kind of wore us out coming back like that."
Liberty (13-3 overall, 5-2 in the league) won its ninth game without defeat at home while shooting 62.1 percent (18-for-29) and outrebounding Radford 20-8 in the first half. So ferocious was the Flames' defense that it forced 12 turnovers and set up 20 points worth of layups for a 50-32 halftime lead.
"That was the first team this year that made us pay for our pressure defense early," Radford coach Ron Bradley said.
While the Highlanders (5-1, 11-7) were gambling defensively, the Flames were looking inside to 6-foot-8 Mike Coleman, who had all nine of his points in the first half, and 6-10 Julius Nwosu, who had 12 of his 19 in the first 20 minutes.
Liberty got away from that in the second half. One of the reasons was that Day heated up and the game started to get close.
In the first nine minutes of the second half, Day scored 19 points, including four 3-pointers and four-straight free throws after a shooting foul followed by a technical. That made things interesting in a hurry.
Yet the Highlanders never could get through the door the Flames had left cracked.
"The thing about shooting threes, as we do, is that you need your legs," Bradley said. "Coming back like that took it out of us."
Day sank seven 3-pointers in 16 attempts for the game and scored 23 points in the second half.
Burgess made four of five 3-point attempts and scored 17 points, 10 in the second half. Brian Schmall came off the bench for 13 points, and Chris Hawkins added nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.