CONWAY, S.C.- Jessica Heilig scored a game-high 18 points and Olivia Parker scored 11 points and hauled down 11 rebounds, as the Gardner-Webb women's basketball team (15-16, 9-11 BSC) hit nine three-points and advanced to the semifinals of the Visitmyrtlebeach.com Big South Conference Tournament with a 70-56 upset of the No. 2 seed Radford (17-13, 14-6 BSC).
Gardner-Webb will make its fourth appearance in the semifinals under Head Coach Rick Reeves, and the first time since 2011.
The Runnin' Bulldogs are just the seventh No.7 seed to advance to the semifinals of the Big South Tournament. Radford entered the game as the conference's leading three-point shooting team, hitting nearly 35% of its attempts, but GWU did a great job on the defensive end, limiting the Highlanders to just 3-18 from behind the three-point arc. In the two meetings during the regular season, Radford connected on 15-28 from long distance, but Radford struggled from behind the arc in the first half, going 0-7 from three.
Radford shot 25-60 from the field in the game compared to 19-50 for GWU, but the Runnin' Bulldogs utilized the free-throw line to their advantage hitting 23 of its 31 attempts, and limited Radford to just 3-9 from the charity stripe.
Brown and Heilig were matched up with Radford's top two scorers, Ayana Avery and Aisha Foy for most of the game, and it was the Dogs who got the better of the matchup, as Foy and Avery went a combined 10-32 from the field and 3-16 from behind the three-point arc.
Radford jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead over the first three minutes, but four straight points by Heilig cut the Highlander lead to 6-5 at the under 16 media timeout.
Radford matched its largest lead of the game 12-7 on a layup by Avery with 13:03 left in the first half, but consecutive buckets by Heilig and Parker cut the score to 12-11 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
The Runnin' Bulldogs took their first lead of the game on a layup by Parker 15-14, but Foy would answer hitting 1-2 from the free-throw line to tie the game at 15.
Tierra Huntsman ignited the Gardner-Webb crowd hitting two straight three-points and Brown followed up with the team's third straight shot from distance, as the Runnin' Bulldogs used a 9-0 run to take control of the game in the first half.
The Runnin' Bulldogs forced nine turnovers by Radford and converted the turnovers into 12 points in the first period, and would take a 33-19 lead into the halftime break.
Gardner-Webb continued to hold the lead out of the halftime break and extended its advantage to 22 on a free-throw by Dunovant with 14:06 left in the game, but Radford used a 14-0 run to cut the defecit to just eight when Foy nailed a three-pointer with 9:43 left in regulation.
Avery scored a layup with 6:04 left in the 2nd half to cut the GWU lead to six, 52-46, but Gardner-Webb would seal the victory with a 9-0 spurt over the next three minutes to send the Runnin' Bulldogs to the 70-56 upset win of the No. 2 seeded Radford.
Gardner-Webb advances to Saturday's semifinals of the Big South Tournament, where it will face the winner of the No. 3 seed High Point and the No. 6 seed Presbyterian at 8:00 p.m.
