Charleston, S.C. - Stetson dropped its third consecutive road game 80-64 to Charleston Southern (2-1) Saturday night and fell to 1-3 on the season. Senior A.J. Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) led the Hatters with a season-high 23 points. Junior Graeme Radford (Victoria, Australia) pulled down a career-high nine rebounds and added six points for the visitors.

Smith opened the game with a layup to put the Hatters on top early, however CSU followed with a 10-0 run to lead by eight with 15:15 remaining. The Buccaneers ran the lead to 12 points before a 3-pointer by Smith and a jumper by Patterson back-to-back cut the lead to seven with 12:26 remaining. That was as close as Stetson would come in the opening period.

After falling behind by 10 at the half Stetson opened the second half with a 13-4 run featuring 3-pointers by Brandon Williams (Miami, Fla.) and Mark Lohuis (Vero Beach, Fla.) and surged to within a single point at the first media time out. Coming out of the break a Graham layup gave Stetson its first lead since 2-0.

For the next eight minutes the teams went back-and-forth tying the score six times and each taking its turn in the lead. The Hatters largest lead of three came after a Smith 3-pointer at 14:01. At 8:08 the Buccaneers began a 25-10 run that put the game out of reach.

"At the end of the day they made more plays than we did", said Stetson head coach Derek Waugh. "The score, however, is not indicative of how the game was played. Overall I think we made some strides tonight. This was much better than our effort against Florida State."

After shooting a disappointing 23% (8-35) in the first half, Stetson picked up the pace and shot 41% (22-of-69) in the second. It took the Hatters just eight minutes to equal their scoring output of the first half.

Freshmen Tyshawn Patterson (Orlando, Fla.) Ridge Graham (Stuart, Fla.) finished with eight points and seven points respectively, Graham added seven rebounds.

"That was the best I have ever seen Ridge play and Tyshawn had a great first half", said Waugh. "Graeme Radford was awesome tonight! He owned the boards against some great players."

"We can build on this. Each guy out there showed he is capable."

Stetson will now return home to host Palm Beach Atlantic on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Hatters fans can view the game on Hatter Vision. Murray Miller and Harry Arnold will be on hand to call the action.