For the first time in Big South history, Liberty and Radford will meet in the championship game.
On Friday afternoon, the Radford Highlanders battled the Winthrop Eagles. Despite a high scoring first half, Radford held the Eagles to just 18 points in the second half on their way to a 61-52 win. The win sends Radford to their first Big South Championship Game since 2009. Ed Polite Jr. took over and nearly pocketed a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Later that evening, the Liberty Flames faced semi-final host and #1 seed, UNC-Asheville. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 13 point lead in the first half. However, the Flames put together a 15 point run in the second half to take the lead late. Scottie James contributed 18 rebounds and 14 points to lead the Flames to a 69-64 victory. Liberty and Radford have met twice this year and both matches went to Mike Jones' squad. The Flames offense has been rolling this year, only scoring under 60 points in three conference games. However, two of those games were against Radford. In fact, neither team has fared very well on the offensive side in either of the previous meetings. Currently, Liberty is riding a three game win streak and have won each game by an average of 13 points. One key going into the Championship game is Liberty's reliance on Scottie James. Averaging nearly 9 a game, James is the team's leading rebounder. Yet, against Radford, he's averaged just 4 per game. If the Flames are going to win, Ritchie McKay will need to find answers from elsewhere. On the other side of the court, Ed Polite Jr. and Carlik Jones are the only two players averaging 10+ points per game. Neither of which are strong 3-point shooters. One of the keys to Liberty's recent success is their ability to put together quick scoring runs. In order to stop the run, Radford will need to find shooters and likely will have to look outside of their top two scorers. Tip-off is set for 1PM and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
