ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Late in the Big South Conference men's basketball quarterfinal between Radford and Winthrop, play was stopped and a work crew of deck swabbers armed with crisp white towels was dispatched to the far corner of the floor in front of the Eagles' dance team. The domed roof of Winthrop Coliseum, battered by furious storms, had sprung a leak.

Alas for the Highlanders, the Eagles' man-to-man defense was watertight Tuesday night.

The second-seeded Eagles throttled No. 7 Radford 76-45, holding the Highlanders to arctic circle weather-like 24.6 percent shooting.

Eagles coach Randy Peele, in his first season, kept it simple when addressing his team before the game.

"You gotta defend," he said. "That's who we are."

Which is one of the reasons, probably the main one, that the Eagles (20-11) won their 10th straight league tournament game and will advance to a 6 p.m. Thursday semifinal date against third-seed High Point at UNC Asheville's Justice Center. High Point beat Coastal Carolina 59-56. The second semifinal will pit Liberty, a 103-88 winner over VMI, and top-seeded UNC Asheville, a 87-63 victor over Charleston Southern.

Winthrop has won seven of the last nine tournaments. The Highlanders are done at 10-20.

"They defended us, forced us into tough shots, and really just kept us from getting baskets," Radford coach Brad Greenberg said. "We had two very poor shooting halves and it was a direct result of them playing some tremendous defense."

Added Radford junior Martell McDuffy, recalling previous clashes with the Eagles: "Their defense was definitely the best I've seen since I've been here."

But not the best this year, in Peele's judgment, rattling off a couple of regular-season whackings. He didn't even bother to mention holding Reggie Williams-lacking VMI to 22.4 percent shooting in an 85-41 pasting Jan. 23.

Radford was in deep trouble in a hurry. Not six minutes had passed and Radford had missed six of its first seven heavily contested shots and it was 12-4 Winthrop. Then it was 21 misses in 25 launches and a 31-13 deficit.

By halftime, the grisly numbers for Radford read 8-for-32 and 2-for-11, accuracy figures overall and from long range.

Radford for the game got seven points and 12 rebounds from Joey Lynch-Flohr. He was about all that separated the Highlanders from a really awful fate on the backboards. As it was, Winthrop won that fight 50-33. Radford had outrebounded eight of its previous 10 foes.

McDuffy, usually good for 14.8 points per game, was limited to five points on 1-for-11 shooting.

"They turned it up another notch and played playoff basketball and their defense showed it," McDuffy said.

Substitute Antwon Harris led the Eagles with a game-high 14 points. The Eagles had 40 bench points, their season high.

Winthrop led 37-23 at halftime, but it felt worse than that for Radford. It didn't help that Kenny Thomas, the 14.8 point per game scorer who reported for duty with a badly sprained ankle that kept him out of the regular-season ending loss to Liberty, was limited to two missed shots in as many attempts and 10 ineffective minutes.

Thomas started the second half with a half-glacier of ice on his aching ankle and ended it sitting at the far end of the bench in his warmup suit.

"By halftime, it was obvious that he just couldn't move and was in pain," Greenberg said. "And that hurts because one of the things you gotta do against a good team like Winthrop is make that extra pass and have perhaps your best shooter ready to get that shot."

Thomas' 2007-08 season had ended in the first half and so had his team's.

RADFORD (10-20)

Hall 0-5 1-2 1, Lynch-Flohr 2-6 3-5 7, McDuffy 1-11 3-3 5, Johnson 2-6 0-0 4, Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, McEachin 0-6 2-2 2, Gynes 1-5 0-0 2, Wilder 0-1 0-0 0, McFarlin 1-4 2-2 4, Jenkins 4-7 1-3 12, Martin 1-2 0-0 2, Ricks 2-2 2-5 6, Trent 0-0 0-0 0, Kleckner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-57 14-22 45.

WINTHROP (20-11)

McCullough 3-5 0-0 6, Robinson 1-2 2-4 4, Corbin 3-8 2-2 8, Gaynor 2-6 1-2 6, Jenkins 5-6 0-0 12, Burton 1-4 1-2 3, Vil 1-1 0-2 3, Buechert 0-3 0-0 0, Harris 6-10 2-3 14, Faison 4-9 1-2 12, Valentine 3-5 0-1 6, Rice 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 30-61 9-18 76.

Halftime--Winthrop 37-23. 3-Point Goals--Radford 3-16 (Jenkins 3-4, Wilder 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Johnson 0-2, McEachin 0-2, Gynes 0-3, McDuffy 0-3), Winthrop 7-14 (Faison 3-5, Jenkins 2-3, Vil 1-1, Gaynor 1-3, Burton 0-1, Robinson 0-1). Fouled Out--None. Rebounds--Radford 33 (Lynch-Flohr 12), Winthrop 50 (Valentine 8). Assists--Radford 5 (Lynch-Flohr, McEachin 2), Winthrop 20 (Gaynor 6). Total Fouls--Radford 14, Winthrop 22. A--1,888.