ESPNU has selected the Campbell at Radford men’s basketball contest scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 26 as its Big South Wildcard broadcast, the Big South Conference office announced Tuesday.
Game time will be 7 p.m. inside the Dedmon Center. Robert Lee (play-by-play) and Nate Ross (analyst) will handle the call from courtside.
It will mark the fourth straight season that the Highlanders have appeared on ESPNU, but Radford’s first home game on the network since it defeated UNC Asheville 102-92 on February 13, 2014. The contest will also be the middle of three straight television broadcasts for the Highlanders, as the January 21 home game against High Point and Jan. 28 visit to UNC Asheville are scheduled for ASN.
The game will be the first meeting of the season between the two teams and will feature a matchup of two of the Big South’s top sophomores in Chris Clemons (Campbell) and Ed Polite Jr. (Radford). The Highlanders currently sit in a five-way tie for first-place at 3-1 in the conference, while the Camels are one-game back at 2-2 in league play. Radford swept the season series a year ago.
Clemons leads the Big South with 23.3 points per game, which is fifth in the nation and currently the sixth-highest single-season scoring average in league history. He has scored 20 points in a game a league-high 12 times this season, which includes six games with at least 25 points.
Clemons has scored in double figures in 45 of 46 career games — including the last 31 contests, and is 71 points shy of becoming just the third Big South sophomore to score 1,000 career points. He scored a career-high 37 points January 4 against Charleston Southern.
Polite Jr. is tops in the conference with 9.5 rebounds and ranks seventh in blocked shots (1.1 per game), second in offensive rebounds (3.0) and tied for the league-lead with 6.5 defensive boards per game. His 1.7 steals per game ranks fourth in the Big South, and he is second on Radford’s scoring ledger with 10.4 points.
Polite Jr. has the Big South’s top two rebounding efforts in 2016-17 – 16 vs Stetson on November 25 and 15 vs. Elon on December 10 – and he is the only conference player to grab at least 15 rebounds in a contest twice this year.
Campbell leads the Big South in free throw percentage with a 75.7 success rate, and is second overall in scoring offense with 76.6 points per game. The Camels are also second in field-goal shooting (46.6 percent) and in three-point efficiency (38.2 percent).
Radford has out-rebounded its opponents in 13 of its 16 contests this season, and is the conference’s top rebounding team with an average of 37.9 boards – including a league-best 12.9 on the offensive glass.
The Campbell at Radford game is the second of four Big South ESPNU Wildcard broadcasts this season. ESPNU also has Wildcard broadcasts scheduled for Thursday, February 9 and Thursday, February 23 and those selections will be determined 21 days in advance.
— Courtesy of RU Athletics
