GAME NOTES
LIVE STATS
LIVE AUDIO
LIVE VIDEO
RADFORD, Va. – Following back-to-back home wins to begin the 2009-10 men’s basketball season, Radford plays the first of five straight games on the road on Saturday when the Highlanders travel to No. 8/9 Duke for a 3 p.m. matchup.
The meeting is just the second all-time between the two teams and the first since a March 13, 1998 NCAA South Region first round game in Lexington, Ky. Saturday also marks Radford’s (2-0) first-ever trip to historic Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Radford’s upcoming road stretch is among the toughest the program has embarked on in its 36 seasons of basketball, with two top ten teams (No. 8 Duke; No. 1 Kansas), and three opponents that won 20 or more games a year ago (Duke – 30; Kansas – 27; Duquesne – 21). The Highlanders also open up Big South play on the road swing, with games at Winthrop (Dec. 3) and Presbyterian (Dec. 5).
Through its first two games of the season, the senior frontcourt tandem of
Art Parakhouski (Minsk, Belarus) and
Joey Lynch-Flohr (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) has led the Highlanders with back-to-back double-doubles and consecutive 20-point games.
Against Lynchburg College on Tuesday, Parakhouski had his second career 30-plus point performance, netting 31 on a career-high 15-of-22 shooting, in addition to his 17 rebounds. Lynch-Flohr scored 21 points for the second straight game to start the season, adding 12 rebounds.
With their latest performances, Parakhouski and Lynch-Flohr have hit double figures in scoring and rebounds in four straight games, dating back to Radford’s win in the Big South championship game over VMI last March. The Highlanders are 3-1 in those games.
As a team, the Highlanders connected on better than 50 percent of their field goal attempts for the second straight game to open the season, hitting 53.2 percent of their shots against the Hornets. It’s the fifth time in the last six games, dating back to a Big South tournament first round win over High Point on March 3, that Radford has shot 50 percent or better in a game.
Duke, which takes a break from NIT Season Tip-Off action to entertain the Highlanders, improved to 3-0 with a 101-59 rout of Charlotte at home on Tuesday night. The Blue Devils opened the preseason tournament with a 74-49 win against Coastal Carolina on Monday.
Radford is one of three Big South opponents on Duke’s schedule, with Gardner-Webb visiting Durham in December.
In the only meeting between the Blue Devils and Highlanders, top-seeded Duke eliminated 16th-seeded Radford with a 99-63 win at Rupp Arena in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. It was Radford’s first Tournament appearance, and Duke knocked off the Highlanders on its way to the Elite Eight.
Following Saturday’s game, Radford takes eight days off before traveling to Duquesne on Sunday, Nov. 29.