Radford Men's Basketball
| Published 12/10/04

Graphic by: John Severino

Jeffers came through in the clutch, scoring 16 of his career high 19 points in the second half, including eleven during a key 26-14 run during the final nine minutes of play to lead RU to the victory.

Junior Whit Holcomb-Faye added 17 and sophomore Chris Oliver had 15 for Radford.

North Carolina A&T, who was coming off a shocking 77-68 victory over Big South power High Point, was led by guard Sean Booker’s 19.

With the win Radford improved to 4-1 on the season while North Carolina A&T fell to 1-5.

If it wasn’t for a couple big runs by RU, this game might have never been close.

The Highlanders opened the game air-balling shots and turning the ball-over repeatedly. A full-court press gave the Highlanders fits, and six minutes into the contest, Radford had eight turnovers and just one field goal, falling behind 11-3.

Holcomb-Faye then took over, scoring 8 of Radford’s first 14 points, leading to an 11-2 Highlander run.

The Aggies had their own answers though and led 28-24 at the break.

Radford opened the second half strong pulling to within two points on a Jeffers jumper. With the score at 41-39 with 11:57 to play, the Aggies would throw their best punch of the night scoring three straight hoops to deflate the Dedmon Center crowd and push the lead to 47-39 with 9:25 left in the game.

Radford though responded to the adversity just as they had at the start of the contest.

Holcomb-Faye’s lay-up with 9:02 left ignited a 12-4 run over the next three minutes that closed with a Jeffers lay-in making it 52-51.

It was Radford’s first lead since scoring the game’s first point.

The Highlanders would never look back.

With the Dedmon Center in a frenzy, Jeffers nailed a three-pointer, his third of the game, giving Radford a 61-55 lead with just under two-minutes to play.

North Carolina A&T just wouldn’t go away though.

A lay-up by Aggies’ forward Gregory Roberts pulled North Carolina A&T to within 61-59 with a 1:29 left.

Radford, however, made 5 of its 6 free throws in the final minute to preserve the win.

The Highlanders, for the game, shot 18 of 21 from the foul line, hit eight threes and had 10 steals.

Despite the positives, RU was lucky to pull out a win in a night that it shot just 34% from the field, turned the ball over 21 times and got no points from second leading scorer Olumuyiwa Popoola, who missed all seven of his shots.

Had it not been for the second half heroics of Brandon Jeffers, Radford would have come up short against the Aggies.

Things don’t get any easier, however, for the Highlanders.

Over the next few weeks Radford faces some stiff competition on the road. On December 23rd Radford will take on the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder. Then, starting on December 28th, RU will take on St. Mary’s and then either Murray State or UC Davis in the Shamrock Office Solutions Classic at Moraga, California. Radford concludes the long road trip with a date in Alabama against Birmingham-Southern on January 5th in their Big South Conference opener.

Radford finally returns homes to the Dedmon Center on January 8th against Coastal Carolina.