Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102030214 SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: Staff report DATELINE: AUGUSTA, GA. LENGTH: Medium
The Highlanders, whose only loss in the conference has been to the first-place Chanticleers, won for the eighth time in nine games Saturday by rallying past Augusta 83-75.
Radford is 16-4 overall and 8-1 in the conference, behind Coastal Carolina's 7-0. Those teams play next Saturday with first place on the line. The Highlanders face non-conference foe Virginia on Monday night in Charlottesville.
Radford overcame deficits of 32-17 in the first half and 42-29 at intermission with some hot shooting in the final 20 minutes.
The Highlanders still trailed the Jaguars 48-35 with 17:12 left in the game before making their move. Don Burgess scored six points and Chris Hawkins four as Radford scored 14 straight points to take its first lead of the game, 49-48, with 13:58 left.
After Augusta (7-13, 5-4) regained the lead and built it to 58-52 with 11:01 left, Radford scored the next seven points to take control for good, going ahead on Tom Gallaher's layup with 9:23 to go.
"They came out and challenged us defensively in the first half, and we didn't respond," Radford coach Oliver Purnell said. "But we came out and got after them in the second half. We denied them the ball at the low post and executed better offensively."
Radford, after shooting 33 percent (9-of-27) in the first half, made 56 percent (15-of-27) of its shots in the second half. The defense held Augusta to 36 percent (11-of-31) and forced 29 turnovers.
Doug Day had a game-high 26 points for Radford, making nine of 18 from the field, including five of 10 from 3-point range. Burgess added 17 and Tyrone Travis 13.
Travis tied a school record with six blocked shots. Jim Zemonek did it first against Methodist during the 1981-82 season.
RADFORD MPFGFTRAFPT Hawkins 362-43-79727Barber 203-53-620411 Joy 50-02-23012Day 349-183-513226Burgess 254-69-1162317Reece 120-00-00020 Shelburne 202-70-02024Gallaher 131-61-21013Travis 353-87-1141313Totals 20024-5428-4431132083 AUGUSTA MPFGFTRAFPT Middleton 203-43-32119Daise 61-21-21043Hurst 252-52-23336Henegan 222-64-42058Lester 220-03-32233Harris 313-91-25627Mann 337-102-273419Stewart 286-123-3140515Butler 132-81-22245Totals 20026-5620-2340153175 Rebounds include team rebounds Score by periods: Radford29-54-83 Augusta42-33-75
Three-point goals - Radford: Barber 2-3, Day 5-10, Total 7-13. Augusta: Daise 0-1, Hurst 0-1, Harris 0-4, Mann 3-5, Butler 0-1, Total 3-12.
Turnovers - Radford 18 (Barber 5); Augusta 29 (Lester 6). Blocked shots - Radford 8 (Travis 6); Augusta 9 (Stewart 4). Steals - Radford 13 (Hawkins 5); Augusta 7 (Harris 4).
Technical fouls - None. Officials - N/A. Attendance - 1,087.