JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

VMI's Adam Lonon (right) tries to beat Liberty's Seth Curry to a loose ball during Thursday's Big South semifinal.

RADFORD -- As VMI basketball coach Duggar Baucom watched the second Big South Conference tournament semifinal Thursday night, one player kept grabbing his attention.

Radford's Art Parakhouski, the 6-foot-11, 260-pound center from Belarus -- who is also this year's league MVP -- is hard not to notice.

"He's a beast," Baucom muttered under his breath. "He could play for anybody in the country."

And the Keydets will have to deal with that beast -- on his team's home floor -- in the biggest game of the year for both teams. The winner advances to the NCAA tournament.

The last step for the Keydets and Highlanders were a bit different.

A sizzling second half led VMI to a 78-58 win over Liberty, as senior twins Chavis (22 points) and Travis (16 points, six rebounds, six assists) Holmes led the way.

Radford enjoyed no such smooth passage in its contest, but made it anyway, eventually finding a way to beat resolute UNC Asheville 94-86.

Put on those ear plugs. The snug Dedmon Center is going to throb like the inside of the VMI band's bass drum at 4 p.m. today.

"I think it's going to be a great championship game," Highlanders semifinal hero Kenny Thomas said. "VMI is an awesome team and they've been playing well all year. They got us the first time, we got them the second. This is the tiebreaker."

ESPN2 will broadcast the first all-Virginia Big South final. Radford has an invitation to the NIT already in the bag as regular-season champ. If Radford wins the tournament and the NCAA bid that goes along with the trophy, the 24-7 Keydets will have to wait and see what might be next.

Radford's students started spring break Friday afternoon. Web postings and e-mails were sent out urging students to stick around for today's game. An anonymous donor enhanced the invitation by buying up 1,000 tickets and making them available to first-arriving students, university spokesman Joey Beeler said.

Members of VMI Corps of Cadets, alumni, and red, white, and yellow-clad friends and family arrived by bus and auto and turned out en masse and in full throat for the semis.

Despite a game-high 13 rebounds and five of Radford's school-record 12 blocks, Parakhouski's night was still not a great one.

He missed seven of 10 shots and fouled out with 2:55 left, just as the top-seeded Highlanders were in the process of blowing a 15-point lead.

On a Radford red-and-white folding chair, Parakhouski found a seat by fellow big man and first-team all-conference performer Joey Lynch-Flohr, who had also fouled out after getting 14 points and seven rebounds

Point guard Amir Johnson picked up his fourth foul with 11:54 to play, but survived. Meanwhile, UNCA's perimeter offense took off, hitting 11-of-15 from 3-point range in the second half, 13-for-18 for the game.

Thomas made all those situations moot. The 6-3 senior had a semifinal record and career-high 35 points, 24 in the second half. He drilled five of eight 3-point shots, made 10 of 11 free throws, and had the most savage cleaver-swing dunk of the tournament.

"Kenny Thomas was fantastic," Longtime Bulldogs coach Eddie Biedenbach said. "He had one of the best games I have seen from a young man. He took a couple of shots when the game was on the line and made them, and that's a sign of a good player."

Thomas graciously saluted teammates in postgame remarks. Among the previously unsung: Eric Hall (six points, five rebounds, four blocks); Chris McEachin (10 points, two assists, blocks, rebounds each); Phillip Martin (nine points, four rebounds, four assists, 4-for-4 free throws), and walk-on Cole Wilder (three-point play).

And Johnson, who never fouled out, went 5-for-6 from the stripe in the final 2:29 and finished with eight points and eight assists.

VMI was similarly brilliant, winning by the largest league semifinal margin in 21 years. The Keydets had some key contributory as well.

Adam Lonon had moved toward the end of the Keydets' bench when he had a sudden late-season rebirth, according to Baucom.

Against Liberty, that meant healthy shares of holding conference freshman of the year Seth Curry to 10 points, zero in the second half.

Ron Burks had a hand in that, too. He scored 11 to go with seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals -- both well above his averages.

VMI and Radford split this year, both games being blowouts that were worse than the final score.

The most recent, in Lexington on Feb. 21, Radford won 97-90. Parakhouski missed one shot, and Lynch-Flohr and the 5-8 Johnson had 14 rebounds each. Radford decimated VMI 65-26 on the backboards.

Think VMI's intimidated? Be serious. Each and every Keydet has survived freshman year rat line, far scarier than anything they'll see on a basketball court.

Besides, this group is rolling. They're the first squad to reach a Big South final by whipping previous opponents by margins of at least 20 points.

Travis Holmes dismissed the prior loss to Radford as an anomaly.

"We watched film," he said. "We really didn't play as hard as we could have. They kinda outplayed us and we have to outplay everybody. ... You should see a different outcome and different team Saturday because the way we're playing right now."

VMI's been outsized by nearly everybody it plays, anyway. If you see it the way Holmes does, most people have it backward when they analyze the head-to-head with Radford.

"They have matchup problems against us when we're on offense," he said. "We just try to double down and get the ball out of [the Radford's inside players'] hands. It's just like playing any other team; they're a little bit bigger, so we just do what we do. We dictate the tempo and play how we play."