FARMVILLE, Va. – A showdown between two of the Big South's top defenses saw league leader Radford come out on top and overcome Longwood 67-55 Thursday evening in Willett Hall.
 
The Highlanders (12-9, 7-3 Big South) entered the game as the Big South preseason favorite and atop the conference leaderboard in scoring defense and lived up to that reputation, holding the Lancers to .316 (18-of-57) shooting from the field in front of Willett Hall's largest men's basketball crowd of the season.

With Radford locking down the paint, Longwood (7-15, 2-7 Big South) Longwood attempted 41 three-pointers – two shy of the school-record 43 the Lancers attempted earlier this season against The Citadel – and hit a season-high 14 of those, including five from point guard Juan Munoz. However, the Highlanders compensated with 22 points in the paint and a 42-29 rebounding advantage. 
 
"I was really disappointed with our competitive spirit tonight," said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich. "Frankly, to be honest I didn't think either team played very spirited basketball tonight. Radford does a good job of controlling the tempo, and I thought at the beginning of the team we had some pace, had some fire, but it waned at some point.
 
"I don't feel like we competed at the level we need to and frankly at the level we have been recently against Asheville and High Point. Some of that is the pace; they kind of lull you to sleep with their sets, but some of it's just that we didn't have that fire. That's disappointing."
 
The Lancers countered the Highlanders' top-rated defense with a stifling effort of their own, but it was not enough to overcome a first-half run that sent Radford into halftime with a 30-22 lead. Senior guard Travis Fields Jr. powered that effort, scoring a game-high 21 points for his second 20-point outburst in his past three games. He hit 9-of-13 field goals and three three-pointers, and did the bulk of his damage early with 16 first-half points.
 
Longwood trimmed Radford's lead to four points with 15:41 to play after Juan Munoz hit one of his career-high five three-pointers, but the Highlanders responded with a 20-8 run that pushed their lead to double digits for the duration. Big South Preseason Player of the Year Carlik Jones scored seven points and hit Josiah Jeffers for a three-pointer during that stretch en route to 16 points and his 19th double-figure scoring game of the season.
 
Munoz continued his breakout season by leading Longwood with 17 points and matching a career high with five three-pointers. It was his seventh double-figure scoring outburst in Longwood's nine Big South games and improved his conference-game scoring average to 14.6 points per game.
 
JaShaun Smith also added 15 points for Longwood, scoring 10 of those after halftime on a pair of three-pointers and two dunks.
 
"I thought Juan made shots," Aldrich said. "Juan has really grown as a player, and he's become a very confident player, which I love to see. He's aggressive in attacking, which is good and what we need, but we also need to run our offense.
 
"After maybe about the first 10 minutes of the game, I didn't feel like we were passing and cutting; it was more just passing the ball around the perimeter, which you're not going to be able to get into the lane that way. As a result of that, we made four two-point field goals tonight."
 
Next up for the Lancers is a trip to reigning Big South champion Gardner-Webb this Saturday, Feb. 1, in Boiling Springs, N.C. That will be the final road game before the Lancers open up a string of three straight at home against Charleston Southern, Winthrop and Campbell on Feb. 6-10.
 
"We'll start to immediately prepare for Gardner-Webb," Aldrich said. "They're a team that has a similar conference record as ours and a team that I think we can really compete with if we bring our competitive fire and look to execute. We have to recommit as a team to being competitive. If we do, good things will happen."
 
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