LEXINGTON, Va. - Junior guard Whit Holcomb-Faye scored 20 points sophomore forward Chris Oliver scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Radford over VMI, 78-62, Wednesday night at Cameron Hall.
The Highlanders won for only the second time over the last eight games but moved to 2-3 in Big South play and 7-9 overall. VMI dropped its seventh straight game to fall to 5-9, 0-4)
Keydet sophomore guard Matt Coward led VMI in scoring with 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field and five of six in free throw shooting.
For the fourth consecutive game, a VMI opponent broke open a close game with strong second half shooting.
Radford shot 55.6% (15-27) in the second half after going 41.7% (15-36) in the first half.
The Highlanders led 33-28 at the break, but saw their lead trimmed to 35-32 when Coward hit a layup with 18:15 left. The Highlanders answered with a 17-5 run over the next 5:38 topped by Chris Goodin's 3-pointer with 12:37 remaining to push the Highlanders ahead, 52-37.
The Keydets were able to shave the deficit to single digits just once the rest of the way when freshman Justin Jarman hit a twisting layup at the 7:54 mark, but Radford gradually pushed its margin back to 15 points (64-59) just over a minute later when Chris Oliver converted a three-point play with 6:18 remaining.
The Highlanders were never threatened the rest of the evening and nailed nine of 10 free throws in the final 1:47 to seal the win.
VMI went 0 for 15 in 3-point shooting, the second time the Keydets had failed to ring up a triple in a game this season. VMI went 0 for 8 in a 62-49 loss at New Orleans on December 28.
All eight players who saw action for Radford scored in the game. RU held a 39-33 advantage on the boards and went 14-18 from the line for 77%.
Oliver, who averaged 7.8 rebounds in conference games this season entering the contest, pulled down a career-high 12 boards in his second double-double of the year.
The Keydets went 16-22 from the charity stripe - the fifth straight game VMI shot 70% or better from the line.
The Highlanders evened the series between the schools at 10-10 and have claimed six of the last eight meetings between the teams.
VMI resumes action Monday night at Liberty in a 9:00 Big South TV game (locally on WDRL-Roanoke/Lynchburg) while Radford returns to the Dedmon Center Saturday to play visiting High Point at 7:00 p.m.
VMI HEAD COACH BART BELLAIRS - "We just got to keep working and keep pushing. We need a "W" and we have a tough next series of games (five of six on road) so we're going to have to really play hard and somebody has to step up to the plate for us. There wasn't enough balance in our scoring. We can't rely on one person. We have to get our guys rested mentally over the next couple of days and just keep moving forward. I thought the key to Radford's game was their shot selection - every time we shot a bad shot, they went down and scored and we missed some chippies."
