Boiling Springs – Despite four players scoring in double-figures, the Gardner-Webb men's basketball team fell to visiting Radford, 94-70, on Military Appreciation Night Thursday evening at Paul Porter Arena.

The game was the first of two consecutive weeks where the Big South Conference Wild Card Game will be played on the Runnin' Bulldogs homecourt.

Gardner-Webb, which had its modest two-game winning streak snapped, falls to 13-15 overall (8-5 in Big South).

Radford, which snapped a five-game losing skid, improves to 14-14 on the season, (4-9 Big South).

The Highlanders led for all but 1:15 in the contest.

"Everything worked for Radford tonight, said Gardner-Webb head coach Tim Craft, whose team was outscored 58-30 in the paint. "We got beat one-on-one defensively early in the game. We let No.1 (DaQuan Smith) and No.3 (Kenyon Giles) get to the rim multiple times with their right hand. When we helped (defensively) across, we got beat as no one got over to help on the backside, which gave up some layups and dunks. They also got a lot of second chance points off offensive rebounds, particularly in the second half. There's several areas we just weren't good enough tonight."  

Senior DQ Nicholas and junior Julian Soumaoro each scored a team-high 15-points against Radford.

Nicholas, who is the Big South Co-Player of the Week, scored in double-figures for the sixth consecutive game and 11 of his last 12 contests.

Soumaoro also pulled down three rebounds and dished out three assists on the night for Gardner-Webb while graduate-senior guard Lucas Steiber connected on 4-of-9 three-point attempts to tally 12 points for the Dawgs.

Also turning in a solid effort for the Runnin' Bulldogs was junior forward Ademide Badmus, who had 10 points and six rebounds.

Senior guard Caleb Robinson pulled down a team-high 12 boards and netted eight points for Gardner-Webb.

The Runnin' Bulldogs shot 38.5% (25-65) for the game and hit 9-of-33 (27.3%) from deep. At the charity-stripe the 'Dawgs shot 57.7 % (15-26).

Gardner-Webb was outrebounded on the glass 40-39 and trailed 53-35 at halftime as Radford connected on 64.7% (22-34) of its attempts in the opening half.
 
"Credit Darris (Radford head coach Darris Nichols) and his staff and players," said Craft, whose team surrendered the most points (53) in a half this season. "They were really locked into playing well tonight. When you lose five (games) in a row, you can go one of two ways. You can start playing for yourself or you can play hard and play for the team. Darris really had these guys ready to play. Credit them for making plays. They scored on us in every different way. In the post, their guards drove to the basket, and they hit three's (point shots). They also got second chance points. I thought the first half was our worst half defensively all year."

Redshirt senior guard DaQuan Smith scored a game-high 24 points, grabbed four rebounds and hit 4-7 three-pointers to lead Radford.

Kenyon Giles added 17 points, Justin Archer netted 12 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to record a double-double for the Highlanders.

Rounding out the five double-figure scorers on the night for Radford were Josiah Harris (12 points) and Bryan Antoine, who contributed 10 points.

Radford hit 56.1% (37-66) of its shots for the game and 38.5% (5-13) from deep. The Highlanders shot 73.3% (11-15) at the charity-stripe.

UP NEXT:  Gardner Webb plays its next game against Asheville on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off at Kimmel Arena is slated for 2PM. The Runnin' Bulldogs won the first meeting between the two squads, 80-73, back on January 31^st.