Radford Shocks Charleston Southern, 65-62 in First Round of Big South Conference Championship

Charleston Southern scored one point in the first 8:25 of the second-half and that drought proved fatal as the Radford Highlanders upset the Buccaneers, 65-62, in the first-round of the Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference basketball championships, played Tuesday night in the CSU Field House. (Box Score)

Freshman guard Whit Holcomb-Faye scored 22 points to lead the way for Radford, who improve to 9-19 overall on the season. The sixth-seeded Highlanders held the third-seeded Buccaneers to 38.7 percent shooting from the field, which proved to be the difference.

Charleston Southern ends their season at 14-14, the most wins for the program since the 1996-97 campaign.

Leading CSU's effort were Kevin Warzynski and Gene Granger, who scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. Ed O'Neil added 10 points for the Bucs, who hit a season-high 10 three-pointers in the contest.

After a 28-28 deadlock at the half, Radford opened up a 10-point lead with 12:38 remaining, thanks in large part to CSU's scoring drought. The Bucs managed only a free throw in the first 8:25 of the second half before finding their shooting touch and making a run at the Highlanders.

O'Neil made a pair of free throws with 6:13 remaining to cut Radford's lead to one at 44-43, but Holcomb-Faye and Raymond Arrington answered with back-to-back three-pointers to put Radford up, 50-43, with 5:23 remaining.

The lead stayed between five and seven points until the final minute when a Granger three-pointer made it 61-59 with :13 remaining in the game. After Radford made two free throws, O'Neil hit a three-pointer with :06 remaining, cutting the lead back to one at 63-62. Radford's Andre Bynum hit two free throws and CSU's Terrell Brown game-tying three-pointer bounced off the rim at the buzzer.