Still tied for first
Reid buzzer-beater leads Flames past Highlanders
SHOT — Junior guard A.C. Reid pulled up in front of the basket between two Highlander defenders.
Photo Credit: Michela Diddle
The Flames men’s basketball team (15-10, 10-2) defeated the Radford Highlanders (9-15, 4-8) with a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired by junior guard A.C. Reid, sending the Flames to a 57-54 home victory Saturday, Feb. 4.
Freshman guard Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz lined up to inbound the ball for the Flames with 2.6 seconds left to play.
Just 2 seconds earlier, Radford redshirt junior guard Justin Cousin drilled a 3-pointer from the corner to tie the game at 54.
Pacheco-Ortiz passed to Reid, who stepped left with one dribble, then pulled up from two feet behind the line and banked in the shot over the outstretched arm of Radford’s 6-foot-8-inch junior center Randy Phillips.
“I thought I had missed it when it left my hand, but it went in, and I was just like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Reid said.
“We had to grind that one out. It was a good win for us.”
The Flames struggled with shooting down the stretch, hitting just one of their last nine field goal attempts before Reid’s 3-pointer, which was his first and only score of the night from three on six attempts.
Head Coach Ritchie McKay said it was not the play he drew up, but he knew Reid had the range to hit the shot.
“A.C.’s just got this uncanny way about him,” McKay said.
“He’s very self-confident. … I just felt like he’s probably the last guy
they’d load up on.”
The Highlanders bested the Flames at the start, jumping out to a 14-5 lead just four minutes into the game.
DRIVE — Senior guard John Dawson drove to the rim past a defender.
Photo Credit: Michale Diddle
But senior guard John Dawson shifted momentum with a drive through the lane that ended with a slam dunk.
“I saw the lane,” Dawson said.
“(Sophomore guard Ed Polite, Jr.) went for my shot fake and I (saw) him get off balance. I took my two steps, and I was like, ‘I can flush this.’ I turned it over and put it down.”
Dawson finished with 12 points and four rebounds, the second leading scorer for the Flames behind freshman guard Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz, who ended with 15 points and six rebounds — both career-highs — and three assists.
Redshirt junior guard Ryan Kemrite sat much of the first half in foul trouble, but freshman forward Brock Gardner came off the bench to hit two 3-pointers, ending the night with six points and four rebounds.
A trio of 3-pointers from the Highlanders late in the first half put them up 30-25, but a score at the buzzer from Pacheco-Ortiz cut the Radford lead down to 34-31 at halftime.
The Flames tightened up their defense in the second half and held the Highlanders to only 20 points and seven field goals in the final 20 minutes.
Dawson said the defensive shift was less of an Xs and Os adjustment and more of change in mindset by each member of the team.
YOUNG — Freshman guard Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz scored 15 points.
Photo Credit: Michela Diddle
“Everybody had to make a sacrifice, a personal decision to go in there and hit somebody, and if you don’t, they’re just going to come and take the ball and take the game wherever they wanna go,” Dawson said.
The win puts the Flames on a four-game win streak and places them in a three-way tie for first place in the Big South Conference with Winthrop and UNC Asheville.
“I think (what) I’m most pleased with is two things: Number one, our guys care about representing the university, and they’re a part of the mission,” McKay said.
“Number two, I think we have a defensive mindset, … and when you get that, you have a chance.”
The Flames face Gardner-Webb on the road Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.