Radford moves alone atop Big South with OT win over Liberty

Jan 16, 2019, 02:57 am

RADFORD, Va. -- Ed Polite Jr. scored 18 and made all seven of his field-goal attempts, including the go-ahead dunk with 1:25 left in overtime, to help Radford beat Liberty 59-57 on Monday night.

The Highlanders (12-7, 5-1) moved alone into first place in the Big South Conference standings with Gardner-Webb dropping into a second-place tie with UNC Asheville after a 90-67 loss to Winthrop on Monday night.

Caleb Tanner grabbed an offensive rebound off Carlick Jones' miss with 1:32 left in overtime and fed Polite on the baseline for a quick-leaping dunk to make it 56-55. Jones, who finished with 14 points, added a pair of free throws to make it 58-55 with 30.7 seconds left.

Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz drew a pair of foul shots and made them both to pull the Flames within 58-57 with 8.9 seconds left. Donald Hicks made 1 of 2 for Radford with 7.5 seconds and Pacheco-Ortiz came up short on a jumper at the buzzer.

Lovell Cabbil had 14 points and nine boards, Ryan Kemrite and Pacheco-Ortiz added 11 points each for Liberty (12-7, 3-3). Pacheco-Ortiz hit a 3-pointer from the deep right corner with 3.5 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.