Highlanders Cannot Recover From Poor First Half, Fall to Liberty, 59-45

LYNCHBURG, Va. - Radford University could not recover from poor shooting (29.8%) and 14 turnovers in the first half as they fell to Liberty University, 59-45 at the Vines Center this evening. Katie Feenstra came off the bench to score 16 points, on 6-of-10 shooting, and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Flames to their 10th consecutive victory and improve to 14-3 overall and 6-0 in the Big South. The Highlanders who fell to 6-12 and 1-5 in the Conference have lost three straight and nine of their last 10 games.

Amanda Neby (Plymouth, Minn.) led the Highlanders with 15 points and pulled down five rebounds. Sherri Rickman (Roanoke, Va.) and Magdalena Pietrzyk (Wroclaw, Poland) posted 10 points and grabbed five rebounds apiece. Both were career highs for Pietrzyk. box score

In the first half, the Lady Flames, behind a full-court press and eight points from Feenstra, went on a 23-4 run to break open a one-point game and take 28-8 lead with 6:50 remaining. The Highlanders closed the gap to 32-20 with a 9-0 spurt right before the break and went into the lockerroom trailing 34-20 after Liberty’s Stephanie Walker ended the half with a layup.

Liberty extended their lead in the second half, grabbing a 20-point lead with 12:57 left. After the Highlanders pulled within 13 at 8:17, the Lady Flames pushed it back to 19 at the 5:16 mark. Radford made one last effort, as they went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 53-45 with 1:42 to go, but were unable to get any closer.

Agne Jasinaskaite and Susan Foreid chipped in with 11 and 10 points respectively for the Lady Flames. They each had a team best three steals as Liberty forced 23 turnovers and scored 21 points off of them.

Radford outrebounded Liberty 36-34, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds on the night. Ludmila Nicheporchuk (Minsk, Belarus) led RU with six boards.

The Highlanders return home on Tuesday, Jan. 28 when they host UNC Asheville at 7 p.m.