FARMVILLE, Va. – Led by a 13-point, 15-rebound effort from Big south double-double leader Ed Polite Jr., Radford controlled the glass and pulled away from Longwood 72-60 Thursday in Willett Hall to vault the Lancers to fourth place in the Big South standings.
 
The Big South's top rebounding team, Radford (9-10, 4-3 Big South) lived up to its billing by outrebounding short-handed Longwood 43-27 and turning 16 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points. Polite was the fulcrum of that effort on the boards, recording his Big South-leading eighth double-double and his third game with at least 15 rebounds.
 
"There's a reason why they're the number one rebounding team in the league," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee. "I thought we held serve a little bit in the first half, but we were unable to sustain that effort in the second half."
 
Thanks to an early scoring spurt from sharpshooter Darrion Allen, the Lancers (6-12, 3-4 Big South) held a lead for the first 12 minutes of the game. Allen scored eight of his 15 points in the first five minutes, but the Polite-led Highlanders began to wear down the ailing Lancers through the half.
 
Longwood's lead evaporated during an 11-2 run that led to a five-point halftime that led to a five-point Radford lead at halftime.
 
 "We hit a wall fatigue-wise that we haven't been able to get over," said Gee, who has lost three scholarship players to injury this season. "I was pleased with the tempo of the game, which was in our favor, but at times we have stretches where we just wear down. If we're not playing at that high level mentally and physically, the good teams like Radford take advantage of that."
 
Radford led by as many as 13 points in the second half before redshirt sophomore Isaiah Walton led a second-half charge that cut the deficit to six with 11:12 remaining, but Radford guard Justin Cousin took over in the game's waning minutes to preserve the Highlanders' sizable cushion.
 
Cousin scored a team-high 18 points, doing the bulk of his damage during an 11-point second half. He hit three back-breaking three-pointers after halftime, the first putting Radford back up by seven points and the last two extending the lead back to double-digits after the eight-minute mark.
 
Cousin's production was enough to offset another big second half from Walton, who scored 14 of his 16 points after the break. It was the second straight double-digit second half for the Oberlin, Ohio, native, who hit 6-of-9 shots from the floor but saw Radford immediately answer four of his six buckets with scoring possessions of their own.
 
Longwood forward Khris Lane joined Allen and Walton in double figures, leading Longwood with 18 points and eight rebounds after a double-double in his last outing against Gardner-Webb. Bryan Gee provided an offensive spark off the bench with four assists and just one turnover, but Longwood got just five points from its bench – all from forward Chris Shields.
 
The loss drops Longwood to a tie for fifth place in the conference standings after starting the Big South portion of the schedule atop the leaderboard with a 3-0 record.
 
With just one full day of preparation before Saturday's game at Charleston Southern this Saturday at 5 p.m., the Lancer swill embark on a trip to the Palmetto State Friday.

"This team's been resilient," Gee said. " We have to find a way to win at Charleston Southern and regroup. We have a long bus ride tomorrow to get everybody's mind right, get on the same page and find a way to get these fortunes turned around."
 
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