RADFORD -- When the shots aren't falling, senior leadership can still make a difference. It happened for the Radford University men's basketball team on Monday.

The Highlanders used 16 points from senior forward Reggie McIntyre and 14 from senior forward Chris Oliver to overcome a dismal shooting night and knock off Big South Conference rival Charleston Southern at the Dedmon Center, 61-53.

Radford closed the game with a 10-1 run, winning its second straight conference game despite shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 10-of-18 from the foul line.

The Highlanders (7-12, 2-2) began the night having made 46 percent of their field-goal attempts and 66 percent of their foul shots on the season.

"We competed," Charleston Southern coach Barclay Radebaugh said. "Our young team competed. Then it got down to crunch time and senior leadership took over."

Charleston Southern (5-13, 0-4), which has lost 10 games in a row, opened the second half on a 14-4 run to take a 40-33 lead with 14 minutes remaining.

McIntyre made a jumper to give RU the lead for good with 3:50 left. But Radford was still clinging to that 53-52 lead with less than three minutes left before Oliver scored six straight points.

"When we get into trouble, I need to get him the basketball a little bit more," RU coach Byron Samuels said. "He has responded all of his four years in big, big ways for us. I've got to do a better job of getting him the basketball throughout the game, not just when the game's on the line."

Oliver embraced the challenge.

"I just knew that it was a close game," Oliver said. "As the senior leader I feel like it's my part; I have to step up. Reggie had been carrying the load pretty much the whole game. ... I just knew everybody was looking at me to produce something and I had to produce."

Radford's Amir Johnson and Martel McDuffy joined Oliver and McIntyre in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Charleston Southern senior guard Donnell Covington led all scorers with 19 points.

The Buccaneers were coming off a 116-83 drubbing at VMI on Saturday but twice led by five in the first half and trailed 29-26 at intermission even after Radford went to the break on a 8-0 run.

The Highlanders hit just 12 of 36 field goals in the first half to go along with 1-of-7 shooting at the line.

"I thought it was one of the ugliest first halves that I'd seen in a long time," Samuels said. "We had great opportunities and good looks at the basket and couldn't get anything to go down."

McIntyre was one of the few bright spots for the Highlanders in the first 20 minutes, pulling down nine rebounds to go along with 10 points.

"We made it an effort to get better on defense," McIntyre said. "Whenever you're not shooting well you've got to rebound and you've got to play even better defense.

"Our coaching staff made it a point to us to get on the defensive and offensive boards and get out and try to create some turnovers and things like that."

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN (5-13)

Macklin 0-2 2-2 2, Fails 1-2 2-4 4, Covington 7-15 3-4 19, Jackson 2-8 0-0 4, Carter 3-9 1-3 8, Outen 1-1 1-1 3, Greir 1-4 2-2 5, Duvall 0-0 0-0 0, Harrison 0-0 0-0 0, Knysas 4-5 0-0 8. Totals 19-46 11-16 53.

RADFORD (7-12)

Oliver 5-15 3-4 14, McIntyre 6-13 4-4 16, Trent 1-2 0-2 2, Johnson 4-11 1-2 11, Thomas 3-8 0-2 8, McDuffy 3-8 2-4 10, Dixon 0-1 0-0 0, Martin 0-1 0-0 0, Ricks 0-0 0-0 0, Scandrett III 0-0 0-0 0, Lynch-Flohr 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-60 10-18 61.

Halftime--Radford 29-26. 3-Point Goals--Charleston Southern 4-16 (Covington 2-4, Greir 1-3, Carter 1-5, Fails 0-1, Jackson 0-3), Radford 7-20 (Thomas 2-4, McDuffy 2-5, Johnson 2-6, Oliver 1-4, Dixon 0-1). Fouled Out--None. Rebounds--Charleston Southern 34 (Carter 9), Radford 39 (McIntyre 9). Assists--Charleston Southern 11 (Jackson 4), Radford 14 (Oliver 5). Total Fouls--Charleston Southern 15, Radford 10. A--875.