In a back and forth battle on Wednesday, the Radford Highlanders defeated the West Virginia men’s hoops squad at home as WVU was without their leading scorer, center Jesse Edwards. The Highlanders battled to defeat the Mountaineers in Morgantown at the WVU Coliseum and the contest came down to the final seconds as a buzzer-beater led to the 66-65 loss.
West Virginia (4-7) forward Akok Akok started the matchup in place of the injured center Jesse Edwards and immediately made an impact, battling for an offensive rebound and the game’s opening basket with a layup.
The first basket for Radford (10-4) came three minutes into the contest on a layup from forward Chandler Turner but guards Kenyon Giles and Truth Harris responded with a three-pointer and a layup respectively, making it a one-point game.
Recently eligible WVU guard, Noah Farrakhan, also made an impact in the first nine minutes of play with six points and three rebounds while guard RaeQuan Battle scored his first basket as a Mountaineer with a layup to push his squad ahead 12-9.
Each squad went on a two-minute scoring drought until WVU forward Ofri Naveh broke the drought for West Virginia with a layup. However, the Highlanders fought back and took a one-point lead at 18-17 with seven minutes to go after they dropped in a layup and a three-point shot.
Battle went on to score another layup with the foul before he earned three free throws after being fouled from beyond the arc on the next possession, giving West Virginia a small one-point lead at 22-21.
The Highlanders scored four-straight points to lead by three points with four minutes to go in the first period, until Battle scored four more points of his own, two from the charity stripe and an alley-oop layup to bring the deficit back to one with less than three minutes in the half.
Both teams traded a two-point shot as forward Quinn Slanzinski got points on the board for the first time in the game with a jump shot and Turner’s layup for the Highlanders. However, the Mountaineers trailed Radford 29-28 at the halftime break.
Radford took its largest lead of the game on its first possession of the second period after Turner was perfect on a three-point shot and two other free throws to jump ahead by six.
Akok opened up the half again with an emphatic alley-oop slam accompanied by the foul to cut the lead to four with three minutes passed and baskets continued to be swapped back and forth as the score grew to 38-34.
Battle got West Virginia on the board with its first three-pointer of the contest after the Mountaineers had missed their first 10 attempts from beyond the arc, marking a team-high 29 points in his debut. This shot also cut the Highlanders’ lead to one-point at 38-37.
After three minutes without a score by either team, forward Pat Sumenick soared up for a dunk before Naveh spotted up in the corner on the next possession and drained the go-ahead three pointer with 11 minutes to go, giving the Mountaineers a 43-41 lead.
After West Virginia went on a 8-1 run with nine minutes left, Radford battled back, led by five straight points from guard DaQuan Smith to make the score 48-45 in its favor.
The Mountaineers answered right back with four-straight points from Battle and an offensive rebound followed by an interior bucket for Sumenick but Smith scored another layup and the lead swapped back to 52-51 advantage for the Highlanders.
West Virginia went back-to-back from beyond the arc to take its largest lead of the night at 57-52 with six minutes left in the game, as guard Kerr Kriisa cashed in for his first points on the jumper and Farrakhan also hit from three-point range.
The Mountaineers’ defense slowed down Radford in the final two and a half minutes of the game despite Smith and Giles scoring five combined points, but the fate of the game came down to the final two possessions.
Radford missed one of two from the free throw and as West Virginia went back to the free throw line on the other end and missed their lone attempt, the Highlanders pushed the ball down the court with six seconds left and Smith swished the game-winning mid-range jump shot with only one second remaining.
The Mountaineers had a chance as the clock hit zero to throw up a shot, but this buzzer beater by Smith was too much to overcome as West Virginia fell to Radford at home, 66-65.
In the second of two matchups in a row at home, West Virginia hosts the Toledo Rockets in Morgantown, two days before Christmas on Saturday Dec. 23. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
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