by By John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Daquan Smith’s basket with 1.5 seconds left lifted Radford to a 66-65 come-from-behind victory over West Virginia in Wednesday night non-conference action at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers, playing without starting center Jesse Edwards and struggling to rebound the basketball, appeared to be in control of the game with three minutes left and leading 63-58. But three straight misses, two RaeQuan Battle and another by Noah Farrakhan, opened the door for the Highlanders to rally.
After Battle’s second miss, Kenyon Giles answered with a 3 at the other end.
Misses by Farrakhan, Giles, Battle and then Radford’s Bryan Antoine kept the score stuck at 63-61 when Eilert called timeout with 1:29. What came out of it was Farrakhan’s difficult turnaround basket with 1:18 remaining to give the Mountaineers a 65-61 lead.
Smith took the ball to the basket and scored a layup with 56 seconds left.
Here, West Virginia got a great look when Kerr Kriisa found Patrick Suemnick near the basket, but the forward was unable to get shot falling away from the rim to go down.
Antoine was fouled at the other end by Suemick driving to the basket but was only able to get the first of two free throws to go down. Battle was fouled rebounding Antoine’s miss, went to the free throw line to shoot a one-and-one, and watched his attempt roll off the rim with nine seconds left. Chandler Turner grabbed the rebound, got the ball to Smith on the wing and after mishandling the ball, he was able to regain control and get his shot to fall with 0.6 seconds showing on the clock.
Officials added nine-tenths of a second, but all WVU could get was a long 3-point try from Battle that missed everything.
The ending spoiled a 29-point season debut by Battle, whose transfer waiver denial required him to sit out the first nine games of the season. A stomach virus before last Saturday’s loss at Massachusetts delayed his debut another five days until tonight.
The Montana State transfer made 9-of-22 from the floor, 1-of-8 from 3, and 10-of-13 from the free throw line in his first WVU appearance.
Farrakhan, an Eastern Michigan transfer who made his season debut last Saturday with 15 points, followed that up with 16 points tonight.
The other seven players who got into the game for West Virginia contributed a combined 20 points on 9-of-29 shooting.
WVU was outrebounded 46-38 and missed six of its 17 free throw attempts, three of those coming in the second half.
“It came down to rebounding,” West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said afterward. “They got 11 second-chance points, and we continue to say over and over, Jesse is out of the equation now. He was our leading rebounder and one through five has got to check their man and get it done. We were minus eight on the glass tonight and that can’t happen.
“It’s got to be our No. 1 key each and every night and we’re not going to be successful otherwise,” he added.
The Mountaineers were shooting 57.1% in the second half until the final three minutes when they went cold, making just one of their last seven.
“Some of them were forced,” Eilert admitted. “We could have 100% got better shots and when we really share it and make the extra pass and not try and force things we’re a really good team. Otherwise, if we’re forcing the issue, it goes south. I don’t think they’re selfish, but I think they’re trying to do too much sometimes.”
With Edwards sidelined for at least a month, Eilert used a three-guard starting lineup tonight consisting of Akok Akok, Quinn Slazinksi at the forwards with Battle, Farrakhan and Kriisa in the backcourt.
Smith led a balanced Radford attack with 18 points. Archer and Giles added 12 each for Radford, which improves to 10-4 and has now won five straight under former WVU standout guard Darris Nichols.
