varsity.roanoke.com

RINER -- Sizing up the baskets at the Auburn High School gym on Friday night, Radford senior Jon Thompson saw no limit.

"It seemed like the basket was the size of the ocean," Thompson said.

Soon enough, Thompson's Radford teammates were seeing things exactly the same way.

The Bobcats filled up the nets, scoring an 83-52 victory over Auburn.

Jon Thompson led the way, scoring 24 of his game-high 26 points in the first half as the Bobcats built an insurmountable lead.

"Shots were just falling in and my teammates were finding me," Thompson said.

DeAndre Thompson added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Bobcats (10-3, 2-0 Three Rivers District).

Allan Dickerson had 10 points and Scotty Hendrickson had 10 points and seven assists.

Brandon Musick led Auburn with 19 points.

Nathan Vaughn had 14 for the Eagles (5-6, 1-1), but scored none in the second half.

"As good as [Jon Thompson] was offensively, I thought he did a great job on Nathan Vaughn defensively," Radford coach Rick Cormany said.

"I had to put him on Vaughn because he's the only one I have that can match up with him [Vaughn]. I was a little aggravated at halftime with his teammates because they weren't helping out with Vaughn."

Cormany was particularly upset when Vaughn scored six points in the final two minutes of the second period.

"You let a guy like that get going he can carry a team," Cormany said.

The Bobcats got the message. Vaughn didn't score again in the second half.

Jon Thompson scored only two points in the second half. He drew more defensive attention, and that opened up his teammates for more shots.

Like Thompson, they were seeing nothing but net.

"It's hard to beat a team when they're making shots, even challenged shots," Auburn coach Shawn Good said.

"It was a like a snowball, it got ugly."

The 31-point game comes just a little more than a week after Radford beat Auburn 79-71 in the finals of the Fort Chiswell holiday tournament.

Cormany said the closeness of that game may have been the best thing to happen to his team this season.

"It woke us up," Cormany said.

The opposite may have happened to Auburn.

"I think they were satisfied with not getting blown out," Good said. On Friday, he said, "We didn't have 10 guys playing as hard as they could play."

RADFORD (10-3, 2-0)

Smith 1 1-3 3, Hill 0 0-0 0, Hendricks 4 1-0 10, Dickerson 4 1-2 10, Carter 3 0-0 7, Giesen 2 0-0 4, Martin 0 0-0 0, D. Thompson 7 0-0 16, Matusevich 1 0-0 2, Alexander 2 0-0 4, J. Thompson 11 0-2 26. Totals 35 3-10 83.

AUBURN (5-6, 1-1)

Cox 0 0-0 0, Quesenberry 2 0-0 4, Blankenship 0 3-6 3, Musick 9 0-0 19, Shumaker 1 1-2 3, Vaughn 6 1-2 14, Reed 1 1-2 3, Bentley 0 0-0 0, Jones 1 2-2 4, Walker 1 0-2 2. Totals 21 8-18 52.

Radford 26 21 20 16--83

Auburn 13 13 15 11--52

3-point goals -- Radford 10 (Hendricks 2, Dickerson, Carter, D. Thompson 2, J. Thompson 4), Auburn 2 (Musick, Vaughn). Fouls -- Radford 14, Auburn 14. Fouled out -- none. JV -- Radford 50-26.