Paladins go cold as ETSU completes sweep

Charles Johnston had his 10th double-double this season Wednesday,
but Furman fell to ETSU, 78-69. Photo courtesy of Furman

So that's the difference between first and last.

After shooting the lights out in a blowout win at the Southern Conference's last-place team last Saturday, Furman shot like the lights were out against the league's first-place team Wednesday. The Paladins shot 35 percent from the floor, including 18.2 percent (6-of-33) on three-pointers, in a 78-69 loss to East Tennessee State before a sellout crowd at Timmons Arena. It's the first loss by more than five points in a SoCon game this year for Furman (17-11, 8-7).

In a game in which the Paladins: made more free throws than ETSU attempted, had no players with four fouls for the first time since Jan. 10, committed fewer turnovers and won the rebounding battle, the difference came from beyond the arc. The Buccaneers (20-8, 12-3) made 50 percent (12-of-24) of their threes, including 7-of-11 in the second half. Most of those seven came in a key five-minute flurry that helped ETSU secure its first season sweep of Furman since the 1993-94 season.

"It was a hard-fought game, but they shot the cover off the ball in the second half and unfortunately, we didn't. I hurt for our guys. They're playing hard and competing," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "I know they care, but 6-for-33 from three? It's a hard game when you just can't get the ball to go in.

"It's going to be hard to find a boxscore anywhere in the country where you win the free throw line, you win the paint, you win the glass, you win the turnover battle and you lose. But it also shows you why it's called basketball. The ball has to go in the basket."

Furman was coming off a 90-point performance at VMI in which it made 13 threes and shot 52.5 percent overall for the game, including 60.7 percent in the second half. Much of that second-half shooting success came thanks to going 12-for-12 on two-pointers.

It quickly became evident that ETSU was a different animal despite playing without its leading rebounder and second-leading scorer Blake Barkley, who was on the sidelines in a walking boot. The Paladins made just five of its first 17 shots, including four missed layups. Furman ended up shooting 31.3 percent in the first half and made just 3-of-10 layups and dunks.

The Bucs could not take advantage though as they had offensive issues of their own in the first half, thanks to another impressive showing by Furman's defense. One of the maddening aspects of this rut in which the Paladins have lost four of their last five games is the fact that they've played their best defense of the season during it. When the teams met in Johnson City two weeks earlier, ETSU quickly erased a 15-point second half deficit by basically running a layup drill on a loop in a four-minute span and went on to an overtime victory.

In Wednesday's first half, the Bucs were nearly as pitiful as Furman at the rim and they made 4-of-11 layups. After taking a 25-19 lead with 6:57 left, ETSU went 3-of-12 the rest of the half as the game was tied 34-34 at the break.

Despite missing 22 shots, including 14 threes, in the opening half the Paladins were even at the break because that's what they seem to always do. Furman has trailed at the half only three times since Nov. 14, which could be a positive, but it really just highlights the team's struggles after halftime.

There were no troubles early on in the second half Wednesday. Furman's first points came on dunks by Ben Vander Wal and Cooper Bowser to get the crowd going. Tom House's three-pointer gave Furman a 45-41 lead with 14:27 left. Meanwhile, ETSU started the second half by going 2-for-10 from the floor with four missed layups.

But then it happened - the five-minute span in which everything that can go wrong goes wrong for the Paladins. It always encompasses the midway point of the second half and has happened in nearly every game for the past month.

From the 14:07 mark to the 9:26 mark, the Bucs made seven consecutive shots. Each of the last five of those were three-pointers as ETSU went on a 20-4 run to take a 61-49 lead. Three of those five threes came from Milton Matthews, a reserve who entered Wednesday averaging 4.2 points and 9.1 minutes played per game.

After consecutive jumpers by Bowser and Asa Thomas cut the lead to eight, the Bucs responded with three consecutive baskets. ETSU never led by less than seven the rest of the way and took its biggest lead at 74-61 on Matthews' sixth three-pointer with two minutes to play. After making 14-of-41 field goals over the first 26 minutes of the game, the Bucs hit 12-of-17 the rest of the way.

"We took such better care of the ball. We had nine turnovers tonight after 22 or 23 up there. I thought we got good quality looks (on shots). We're up 45-41 and got two wide open looks. I mean they were HORSE shots. We miss both," Richey said. "Then they go down and make 5-for-5 from three. ... You've got to give them credit. They're playing with a ton of confidence right now.

"I've got to help our guys somehow. Most of the time, our teams play with a lot of confidence. Unfortunately, we don't have the collective confidence right now."

Matthews, who had scored a grand total of 25 points in SoCon play prior to Wednesday and not been in double figures since the season opener against Converse, led ETSU with 18 points on his 6-of-9 three-point shooting effort. Brian Taylor had 17 points and eight rebounds, while leading scorer Cam Morris added 12 points and seven rebounds. Jaylen Smith came off the bench to post eight points and eight of the Bucs' 11 assists.

Ironically, Matthews might not have played much at all if not for Barkley's injury. It was an unexpected twist that ended up tormenting Furman.

"They spaced us out more without Barkley out there. Even though he's one of the better post players in the league, it would've been a little bit easier for us defensively with Chuck (Charles Johnston) and Coop (Cooper Bowser) out there to play their two (bigs). They basically played with four guards a lot tonight," Richey said. "That put us in a position where we couldn't play Chuck and Coop together quite as much. ... We had no prep on that. We just saw him (Barkley) out in the boot before the game. But that's no excuse for us not being able to guard them from the three-point line."

Following a few tough games scoring-wise, Alex Wilkins had a game-high 21 points for the Paladins. He also drew eight fouls, only committed two, had three assists and only had three turnovers after suffering 11 at ETSU. Johnston posted his 10th double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Vander Wal had a game-high 11 boards.

Bowser, who was leading the country in field goal percentage before suffering his injury earlier this season, finished with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting. He also had five rebounds, two blocked shots and was at minus-15 on the plus-minus chart. ETSU did a good job of fronting Bowser and deflecting or dissuading a couple of lobs, but Bowser might've had more shots had he gotten an offensive rebound. On a night in which Furman missed 39 field goals and the Bucs were missing their leading rebounder, he somehow could not grab one of the Paladins' 13 offensive boards.

Furman returns to action Saturday at rival Wofford at 7 p.m. The Paladins will try to exorcise some demons as this second-half slide trend started against the Terriers in Greenville on Jan. 17. Furman led that game 59-46 with less than 10 minutes to play before losing, 74-70.

Thomas helps Furman roll over Keydets

Asa Thomas hit six three-pointers and scored 25 points in Furman's
90-72 win at VMI Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman

LEXINGTON, Va. - In Asa Thomas' first two games back from an injury that cost him nearly a month of the season, his three-point stroke was a little off. Thomas made two three-pointers in 11 minutes of action in Furman's first meeting with VMI before leaving with that injury on Jan. 10. In Saturday's rematch, Thomas resumed that pace.

Thomas matched his career-highs of points (25) and three-pointers (six) set earlier this season to lead the Paladins to a 90-72 victory at Cameron Hall. A balanced offensive attack produced 45 points each half as Furman shot 52.5 percent for the game. A tremendous defensive effort in the opening half helped Furman take a 20-point lead. While that lead was cut into quite a bit, it didn't sniff previous meltdowns as the Paladins had big answers to snap their three-game losing streak.

"We knew a game like that was coming for Asa. ... We needed to come out here and play Furman basketball and that's what we did. ... We had 21 assists. It's been a while since we've done that," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "The Mercer loss was hard. All three of these losses have been hard, but if you look at them our defense has been better than our all-year defense. We've been guarding at a high level, but playing bad offense. I tried to convince our group that it's not that we have bad offensive players. It's not that we have bad shooters. We were just not working to help one another get great looks.

"We had 23 instances in Macon where we had a guy wide open with nobody within five feet of him and we went in there and took a bad shot or threw a bad pass. ... If we make three of those, we win the game. ... Tonight, we had three substitutions on guys taking bad shots. We just can't accept it. As we get to the end of the season, there's got to be a certain standard to the shots we're looking for."

Thomas wasted no time in getting things rolling for Furman (17-10, 8-6 Southern Conference). His three-pointers on the Paladins' first two possessions forced a VMI timeout just 57 seconds into the game. While the Keydets' T.J. Johnson got going from three, Furman didn't stop. After Alex Wilkins missed a three on the Paladins' third possession, Charles Johnston grabbed the offensive rebound. That lead to another three by Thomas off an assist from Wilkins.

On the next possession, Thomas found Cooper Bowser for a layup. On the next, Johnston hit a three off an assist from Wilkins. Then Ben Vander Wal found Thomas for another three and Furman leads 17-6 just three-and-a-half minutes into the game. Outside of a couple of turnovers that followed, the Paladins didn't have a scoreless possession until the 14:22 mark.

"That's one of the best atmospheres we played in the league so far this year. It felt like they had the whole school here. The pregame stuff with the intros and music was a 10. This place was popping," Richey said. "I thought our guys did a good job of feeding off that."

Thomas' fifth three-pointer gave Furman its biggest lead at 45-25 with 2:15 left before halftime. The Paladins didn't score again in the half, but still took a 45-27 lead into the break. After holding VMI to 26.8 percent shooting for the game in its 69-48 win in Greenville, Furman held the Keydets to 21.9 percent shooting in the first half. VMI made 7-of-32 shots in the opening half, including 0-for-8 on two-pointers.

"I don't know if I've ever seen that (a team with no made twos in a half) before," Richey said.

The Keydets made their first two-pointer technically on a long jumper by Johnson that was originally ruled a three-pointer at the 16:53 mark of the second half. Then they started driving for more while Linus Holmstrom got hot from the outside. The midway portion of the second half has been dicey for Furman when it's held a big lead and that's when VMI made its biggest threat.

A Holmstrom three with 11:37 left started a 14-5 Keydet run that Holmstrom capped with a three with 7:45 left. That cut the lead to 65-58 and forced a Furman timeout. Coming out of the break, Thomas threw an alleyoop that Bowser slammed home. After a VMI turnover, Bowser found Wilkins for a three-pointer and the Paladins never led by fewer than 11 the rest of the way.

"That was one of our best timeouts of the year. We come out and get three stops in a row and we run the same play three times in a row," Richey said. "We get Coop on the dunk, a three and then a putback by Cole (Bowser). All of a sudden, we're back up 14. ... Teams are going to punch. You've got to be able to punch back."

Furman finished things off in style as the Keydets tried to full-court press as a last resort over the final minutes. That led to layups by Wilkins and Abijah Franklin, a dunk by Vander Wal and a pair of Bowser dunks off alleyoop lobs. The Paladins shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the second half, including 12-for-12 on two-pointers.

Furman put up its season-high point total in league play despite Wilkins being held to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting before fouling out late. He did have a game-high six assists and only two turnovers though. Johnston finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds in just 22 minutes of work for his ninth double-double this season and second in SoCon play. Cooper Bowser went 6-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the foul line to finish with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, three blocks and no turnovers.

Tom House made 3-of-6 three-pointers to finish with nine points and four rebounds off the bench for the Paladins. Also making a big contribution was Vander Wal, who was coming off one of the more bizarre games of his career. At Mercer, he only played 15 minutes and didn't score as the 70 percent shooter was 0-for-2 from the floor. With just under eight minutes remaining in Macon, Vander Wal left with Furman up 51-50 and he never returned in what became a five-point loss.

Vander Wal responded with the type of stat line you'd expect from the senior "glue" of this team. He actually took fewer shots on Saturday, as his lone one was the late dunk, but he finished with eight points as the 41 percent foul shooter made 6-of-8 free throws. He also had seven rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, one turnover and one foul while drawing six.

"I called him Thursday night and apologized for (the lack of normal playing time). That was my fault. Sometimes when the floor gets tight and we feel like Alex doesn't have enough space, the natural reaction is to try to put space out there and get Ben off the court," Richey said. "The reality was we were better with him on the court than off it once I watched the film. The spacers weren't taking good shots and weren't guarding. It was one of those things that sounds good in the moment, but in totality Ben's got to be out there. He's got to be out there in crunch time. He's just been in too many big moments for us to not be."

Johnson scored a game-high 26 points and had six rebounds and two steals to lead VMI (6-21, 1-13).

Furman will go from facing the SoCon's last-place team to the first-place team when the Paladins host East Tennessee State Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. Furman will try to avenge a heartbreaking 75-71 overtime loss to the Buccaneers two weeks ago.

Mercer deals Furman its third consecutive loss

Asa Thomas had 14 points in Furman's 69-64 loss
at Mercer Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

When the Furman basketball team was dealing with an absurd amount of injuries earlier this season, "find a way Furman" was in full swing as the Paladins found different paths to success despite the obstacles. While Furman has gotten healthier lately, the wins have been hard to come by. On Wednesday at Mercer, the Paladins found a way to lose.

Furman held the Bears to 35.9 percent shooting, but Mercer pulled out a 69-64 win to improve to 12-0 at home this season. The five-point deficit was the Paladins' most lopsided loss in Southern Conference play. Among Div. I opponents, only VMI has shot a lower percentage against Furman (16-10, 7-6) this season. The Paladins have held 10 opponents to 41.0 percent shooting or lower and the Bears are the only one of those to win.

While Mercer won the rebounding battle 44-37, which included 14 offensive boards, second-chance points were even at 11. Both teams hit 23 shots, but 10 of Furman's were threes while the Bears only hit five. The difference came at the foul line as Mercer made 18-of-21 free throws, while the Paladins converted 8-of-13. The Bears' Baraka Okojie shot more free throws than Furman's entire team as he was 12-of-14 on his way to a 25-point night.

A big part of Mercer's poor shooting night came over the opening 13 minutes of the game when it started 3-of-19 from the floor. The Paladins weren't much better as they went 3-of-15 before a rapid flurry of makes ensued. In a span of just 4:17, Furman made 7-of-9 shots. That keyed a 16-4 run to stake the Paladins to a 25-15 lead with 5:43 left in the first half.

No Furman lead has been safe of late and it took Mercer less than four minutes to wipe that double-digit spread away with an 11-1 run. Cooper Bowser's layup with 48 seconds left helped Furman take a 31-29 lead into halftime.

The Paladins came out firing in the second half. Their first six attempts after halftime were three-pointers and four of those went down. Cole Bowser's three with 15:54 left pushed Furman's lead to 45-39. Then that hot shooting just stopped and never returned. The Paladins went 7-for-24 the rest of the way, including 1-for-10 from three. That comes on the heels of making just 1-of-9 threes in the second half in the loss to UNC Greensboro, and 2-of-9 in the second half and 1-of-6 in overtime in the loss at East Tennessee State.

After Asa Thomas hit a tough turnaround jumper to give Furman a 51-48 lead with 10:39 remaining, the Paladins had a run of particularly poor possessions. Collin O'Neal's cross-court pass sailed over the outstretched arms of 6-foot-11 Charles Johnston and into the stands. Johnston missed a three and then was called for his fourth foul with 8:53 left on the other end. Eddrin Bronson's three from the top of the key rattled in-and-out. Next time down, Bronson's desperation three as the shot clock expired was partially blocked. On the next possession, Bronson shot an air ball from three.

Those three consecutive missed threes were the only shots Bronson attempted the entire game. Prior to that last miss a seemingly significant substitution happened. After Bowser blocked the shot of Mercer standout big man Armani Mighty, Ben Vander Wal tied up Mighty and the arrow gave Furman possession with 7:20 remaining. It didn't appear that Vander Wal was shaken up on the play as he was set to inbound the ball, but he was called to the bench and never returned.

Furman still led 51-50 when Vander Wal left but Mercer got an offensive rebound on its next possession. The Bears then took their first lead since the 11-minute mark of the first half on a terrific up-and-under move by Okojie. They pushed the lead to four thanks to a three-pointer by Brady Shoulders on their next possession.

Cole Bowser snapped Furman's five-minute scoreless streak with the Paladins' lone made three of the final 15:53. Furman regained the lead on its next possession in spectacular fashion when Alex Wilkins delivered an alleyoop pass from midcourt that Cooper Bowser slammed home. That gave the Paladins a 56-55 advantage with 5:05 remaining.

Following a timeout by Mercer, the Bears responded by hitting four consecutive shots. That was part of scoring on each of their next five possessions to take a 65-59 lead with 2:23 left. The Paladins could never pull even despite having a couple of chances trailing 65-62 with 32 seconds left. Asa Thomas' three-point attempt from nearly on the Furman bench was an airball, but Bronson made a terrific play to save it off of Shoulders. Thomas tried another tough three that went in-and-out. Johnston tipped in the miss with 22 seconds left to cut the lead to 65-64. Mercer made four free throws, sandwiched around another tough three by Thomas that barely drew iron, to seal the win.

Shortly after Vander Wal left, Mercer had a string of 6-of-8 shooting from the floor including a pair of uncontested layups by Zaire Williams. Outside of that 6-for-8 shooting run, the Bears made 8-of-25 field goals in the second half.

Thomas finished with 14 points to lead the Paladins, while Cooper Bowser and Johnston each scored 11. Bowser also had seven rebounds. Furman leading scorer Alex Wilkins was held to seven points on 1-of-7 shooting and was at minus-16 in the plus-minus category. His lone bucket came on his final attempt with 2:02 left. Wilkins did have a game-high five assists.

The only other Paladin in double figures was Tom House, who scored 10 points. Despite playing 23 minutes and being a proven outside shooter, House logged only 54 seconds over the final 6:11 of the game and played none of the final 4:11. Vander Wal was held scoreless in a season-low 15 minutes of action. The 69 percent field goal shooter's only attempts were a layup and a three-pointer.

In addition to Okojie's game-high 25-point performance for Mercer (16-10, 8-5), Shoulders finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and two steals. Williams scored 13 points, while Mighty collected a game-high 14 rebounds and seven points.

Furman will try to snap a three-game losing skid when it plays at VMI Saturday at 1 p.m. The Keydets (6-20, 1-12) are on an 11-game losing streak since their lone SoCon win Jan. 3 over Chattanooga. Furman held VMI to 26.8 percent shooting in a 69-48 win Jan. 10 in Greenville.

Paladins' comeback falls short against UNCG

Alex Wilkins had 15 points and five assists in Furman's 67-64
loss to UNC Greensboro Sunday. Photo courtesy of Furman

As with every other Southern Conference loss this season, Furman suffered another close one Sunday as the Paladins fell to UNC Greensboro, 67-64. Three of Furman's five SoCon losses have come in overtime and none of the five have been decided by more than four points.

Unlike the previous three defeats, there was no blown lead this time. A subpar first half by the Paladins made sure of that. After winning at UNCG by 23 last month, Furman trailed by as much as 10 in the second half. The Paladins (16-9, 7-5) got the lead down to one on three separate occasions, but could never pull even. That included Alex Wilkins' desperation three as time expired.

"Give Greensboro a ton of credit. Both teams played extremely hard. Unfortunately, we didn't play hard enough in the beginning and gave them a pretty solid cushion at halftime," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "They were the tougher team in the first half and were more physical than we were. ... I thought we turned a lot of that around in the second half ... but we've got to put 40 (full minutes) together.

"At the end of the day, what stands out the most is they were 10-for-19 from three and we were 5-for-19 from three. It's always going to be a make-miss game. ... That's a 15-point separator there. We go 1-for-9 (from three) in the second half and that's a little bit of a trend for us. We're shooting the ball well in the first half, but not the second half."

Looking to bounce back from another gut punch of an overtime loss at East Tennessee State last Wednesday, Furman had a small lead over the first eight minutes Sunday. A three by UNCG's Justin Neely tied the game at 17-17 with 11:37 left in the first half and the Paladins never led again.

After a dunk by Ben Vander Wal cut the Spartans' lead to 20-19 with 10:11 left, Furman missed a pair of layups, a three-pointer and had a turnover over its next four possessions. That allowed UNCG (10-15, 6-6) to stretch the advantage to 26-19. Over the final six minutes of the half, the Spartans outscored the Paladins 11-6 to take a 39-32 lead into halftime.

Two of the best players in the SoCon squared off down the stretch. Wilkins had a layup with 3:35 left to cut the lead to 59-58, but Neely answered with a layup and was fouled. He completed the three-point play to push the lead to 62-58. Wilkins came back with a tough fadeaway jumper along the baseline. After a rare miss by Neely, Wilkins drove and drew a foul with 2:04 left. Wilkins suffered his only missed free throw of the game before making the second to cut the lead to 62-61.

UNCG's Noah Norgaard missed a layup with 1:38 remaining and Charles Johnston grabbed the rebound giving Furman a chance to take the lead. The golden opportunity slipped away when Cooper Bowser's pass sailed out of bounds where Asa Thomas should've been for a wide open layup. It appeared that Thomas was held on the play, but no whistle came and Richey voiced his displeasure to the officials. He didn't hold back his opinion of the play in the postgame press conference.

"He was definitely held. You could see it on the video board. The ref tells me he wasn't looking at it. (Thomas) is cutting and he's literally being grabbed, so I don't know what they're looking at," Richey said. "In a game of that magnitude with three guys out there, I don't know how they can't see that we have a cutter being grabbed as the ball goes out of bounds. ... That would've put him to the free throw line to shoot two. We act like it's not a big deal, but it's a critical missed call.

"If we make both and take the lead again, they answered every bell so they might go down there and bang a three. You never know what's going to happen but in those moments, those plays have to be seen. ... To think we're just going to chuck the ball out of bounds with a guy running free, that's not how the game goes."

After the turnover, the Spartans ran down the shot clock before Norgaard drilled a backbreaking three. Trailing 65-61 with 42 seconds left, Wilkins drew a foul and hit both free throws. Following a missed layup by the Spartans' Lilian Marville, bodies hit the floor diving for a loose ball rebound before it was scooped up by Johnston. Johnston quickly fired the ball to Wilkins, who raced down the floor and lobbed it to Bowser. The lob wasn't high enough for Bowser to simply catch and dunk though. After he came down with the catch, he was hacked before he could go back up for a shot.

Bowser, a 62 percent foul shooter, had the first throw bounce around and in. The second hit the back of the rim and into the hands of Neely, who was fouled with six seconds left. After Neely made both, Wilkins raced up the floor. The ball was deflected out before Wilkins recovered it, but he had to throw up an off-balance three as time expired and it bounced off the backboard no good.

"We had Asa there open with a second to go, but it was hard for Alex to see him as he's trying to recover that ball off the ground," Richey said. "Unfortunately, we had to take a tough one."

Making his first start since Dec. 18, Bowser led Furman with 20 points and six rebounds. Wilkins had 15 points, five assists and two steals in just 25 minutes of action as he once again dealt with foul trouble. In his first action since suffering an injury on Jan. 10, Thomas had nine points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench.

Neely had 24 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and a block on his way to earning SoCon Player of the Week honors. He also had one foul, but drew eight.

It will be a battle of two talented, but struggling teams when Furman next plays at Mercer Wednesday at 7 p.m. While they are currently tied for third place in the league, both will be trying to stop two-game losing streaks. Three teams are tied for fifth place, one game behind the Paladins and Bears. One of those five teams will very likely end up having to play on the Friday night session of the SoCon Tournament as the No. 7 seed.

"It's all going to come down to Asheville. You're playing for seeding in these games but most importantly, you're using these games to figure out what your best looks like," Richey said. "We've got to have the toughness, intensity and effort to go out there and play a game for 40 minutes."

Paladins waste another big lead in loss at ETSU

Making his first start since Dec. 18, Cooper Bowser had 18 points and 8 rebounds
in Furman's 75-71 overtime loss at ETSU Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

For the fifth time in the past six games, Furman held a double-digit lead midway through the second half at East Tennessee State Wednesday night. The Paladins fell to 2-3 in those games as the Buccaneers rallied for a 75-71 overtime win to remain alone in first place in the Southern Conference standings.

The Paladins (16-8, 7-4) entered Wednesday going for their fourth consecutive win, which would've pulled them into a tie with ETSU for first in the league. That appeared to be the destination when Furman took a 51-37 lead with 10:20 remaining. But the Bucs responded with a layup drill over the next four-and-a-half minutes to completely wipe out that deficit.

Furman actually blew this big lead quickly enough to have plenty of time to recover and retake the lead before ETSU's Jaylen Smith hit a three with 15 seconds left to force overtime. The Bucs (17-7, 9-2) made each of their first four shots in overtime to take a seven-point lead and held on for the victory. The Paladins suffered 21 turnovers in losing a game in which they shot 52.7 percent from the floor and led for 36:54 of.

"There's a lot of things you can look at and feel like, 'We should've been better here. We should've been better there.' At the end of the day, we've got to make sure their best shooter on the floor doesn't get a wide-open three when we're up three," Furman coach Bob Richey said of the game-tying three in regulation on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "That was a freshman breakdown there. They haven't been in this environment. They're not used to it.

"It was a hard fought game. We outrebounded them by seven and it's hard to outrebound a team like (ETSU), but we turned it over way too much. Even with that, I thought we still should've won the game. ... It's a thin margin, the difference between feeling just absolutely crushed and feeling elated. It's the difference of not losing their best shooter on their last possession of (regulation)."

The only time in the last six games that the Paladins didn't have a commanding lead midway through the second half was at UNC Greensboro. Ironically, Furman won that game by 23 points after leading 53-52 with 9:20 remaining. That gutsy win followed gut-punching losses to rivals Wofford and The Citadel in which the Paladins blew second-half leads of 13 and 19 points, respectively. Following the UNCG game, Furman had back-to-back five-point wins. In those two, the Paladins saw a 14-point lead with 11 minutes left cut to two against Samford and an 11-point lead with less than seven minutes left cut to three against Chattanooga. Furman led that game by as many as 24 in the first half and 19 early in the second half.

So when the Paladins took a 35-23 lead into halftime in Johnson City, it marked the second consecutive game in which Furman held the opposition to 23 in the first half but it certainly didn't want to let up in the second half. Coming out of the locker room, it didn't. A Charles Johnston three pushed the lead to 15 early on. It was a return to lob city also for the Paladins as Cooper Bowser made his first start since Dec. 18. His dunk with 11:23 left extended the lead to 11 and made him 8-for-8 from the floor. Unfortunately for Furman, it was his last bucket of the night as he was just 0-for-2 the rest of the way.

After Tom House's layup pushed the lead to 14 with 10:20 left, ETSU just annihilated Furman down low. Over a stretch of 4:05, the Bucs made five consecutive shots - all layups. The last of those was by Blake Barkley and tied the game at 53-53 with 6:01 remaining. The times ETSU didn't get a layup during that 16-2 run, it was fouled on drives to the basket and made 6-of-7 free throws during it.

"We fouled too much in the last 10 minutes and they ended up with 32 points in the paint after having eight in the first half," Richey said. "It was like the Chattanooga game. We played this phenomenal defense in the first half and then just can't sustain it. We've got to figure it out."

Johnston finally stopped the bleeding when he answered Barkley's layup with a three-pointer. The lead changed a couple of times down the stretch of regulation. After Alex Wilkins' layup gave Furman its final lead at 59-57 with three minutes left, he had a turnover and then missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Coming off a 33-point performance against Chattanooga, Wilkins - an 84 percent foul shooter - made 2-of-5 free throws Wednesday.

The next time down, Wilkins tossed a lob to Bowser who was fouled. Bowser, a 60 percent foul shooter, made his only two free throws of the game and Furman led 61-57 with 1:12 left. The Paladins forced a miss, but ETSU got the offensive rebound and Cam Morris drew Johnston's fourth foul. Morris hit just 1-of-2 free throws to cut the lead to three. On Furman's ensuing possession, Cole Bowser had the ball as the shot clock was in the final seconds. He drew a second defender and tried to hit his open brother down low with a bounce pass, but the Bucs deflected it and Barkley came up with the steal. Smith then drilled the game-tying three from the top of the key.

"We're up three and I thought we had the two-on-one right there and I thought we were going to throw it up to Coop right there," Richey said. "Unfortunately, we threw it down and turned it over." 

After Smith's three, Furman called timeout. With 15 seconds left, the Paladins had plenty of time left for a potential game-winning shot but haven't had the best end-of-half possessions of late. That trend continued when Wilkins suffered his 11th turnover of the game on what was to be another lob to Cooper Bowser. Seeing as how there was about 1.5 seconds left when he lost control of it, I'm not sure there would've been time for a catch and dunk.

"It was the same play we ran for Coop when he was fouled (late in regulation)," Richey said. "We had the two-on-one, I thought we were going to make the play and win it but unfortunately, the ball came out."

"We've got to learn to do the things that are critical to close out games. We've got three overtime losses and we've had second-half leads in all three - two of them double digits in the second half. We're just not closing games like we need to. ... Our youth is having to learn the hard way. It's a little painful because we're playing some really good ball for a decent amount of the games." 

ETSU's Brian Taylor opened overtime with a three, before Cole Bowser answered with a three. After Morris made a layup, Bowser missed a three and Smith drained another three. Morris then came up with a steal off a Johnston turnover and his layup pushed the Bucs lead to 71-64 with 2:48 left. After layups by Wilkins and Ben Vander Wal, Vander Wal made 1-of-2 free throws with 32 seconds left to cut the lead to 71-69 but Furman couldn't get any closer. Barkley and Smith each made a pair of free throws in the final 24 seconds to seal ETSU's victory.

In addition to the turnover issue was the lack of steals on the other end. Furman had just one steal while the Bucs had 13. That led to an 18-2 advantage in fast break points for ETSU, who also had an 19-3 edge in bench scoring. Three points from the bench in an overtime game in which Johnston and Vander Wal both fouled out of is a tough factor to overcome. While the teams were nearly even on fouls, calls on the Paladins were more costly as they went 6-of-10 from the foul line while the Bucs made 16-of-22.

Wilkins had a game-high 19 points for Furman, while Cooper Bowser finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. House had 11 points and a game-high four assists, while Johnston also scored 11 and had a game-high two blocks. Vander Wal had nine points and eight rebounds and a team-high plus-eight in the plus-minu column.

Now for a glass half-full perspective. Furman has faced every SoCon team, but has yet to play a conference game with all of its key players healthy. The Paladins have had at least a 13-point lead in eight of their last nine games. The only game they didn't in that stretch was a four-point win at Samford in which they led by as much as nine in the second half. In the first two conference games this season, Furman's biggest lead was by nine in a win over Mercer but only two in a three-point overtime loss to Western Carolina.

So this team has shown flashes of being able to play extremely well against all but one team in this league thus far. As injured guys return to the mix, you'd think those flashes should grow longer and large leads should become more sustainable.

One of those key injured guys is Asa Thomas, who's expected to return to action Sunday when Furman hosts UNCG at 1 p.m. Thomas, a Clemson transfer who's averaging 13.2 points per game and shooting 40.5 percent from three this season, hasn't played since Jan. 10. Sunday's game will be televised by ESPN2.

In brightest spotlight, Wilkins shines for Paladins

Furman's Cole Bowser (6), Ben Vander Wal and Alex Wilkins (10) celebrate. Wilkins
had 33 points in the Paladins' win over Chattanooga. Photo courtesy of Furman

It was deja vu all over again for the Furman basketball team Sunday against Chattanooga. For the second consecutive game, the Paladins saw a big lead nearly get completely erased, allowed far too many offensive rebounds and took a double-digit amount of fewer shots than the opposition. And for the second consecutive game, Eddrin Bronson closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws in the final seconds to seal a five-point Furman win.

On a day in which the Paladins' Cooper Bowser returned to action for the first time since suffering a turf toe injury on Dec. 18, Sunday was also the first chance to show off the new and improved Timmons Arena to an ESPN2 national audience. Unfortunately, said television coverage dictated that the "show must go on" despite the university being closed to the public because of snow and ice left behind in the wake of Saturday's winter storm. That meant only students, faculty and families of players and coaches who could arrive safely were in attendance.

Those fans likely already knew what a national audience found out Sunday - Alex Wilkins is special. The freshman sensation had a career-high 33 points, five assists and two steals to power the Paladins to a 75-70 win. Wilkins made 10-of-16 field goals, including 6-of-8 three-pointers, and 7-of-8 free throws. It was the most points by a Furman freshman since Jonathan Moore's freshman record 34-point effort against Georgia on Dec. 15, 1976.

"In a nationally televised game, we needed some energy. The decision to not let the public come to the game was out of my hands, so you've got to do the best you can with it. We tried to generate as much student awareness on social media as we could and create some kind of atmosphere," Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "I thought the students did a great job. You could really feel them especially when we were making that run in the first half.

"Alex is a little under the weather today and he decided to tell me as the game started. He asked for three subs in the first 14 minutes of the game and I was like, 'what's going on? You can't miss (a shot) out there and you keep asking for subs.' He was like, 'Coach, I'm super congested,' but he's a warrior and a competitor. ... We're putting the ball in his hands and the game on his shoulders in those late, critical moments. To see him deliver, it's just amazing what he's been able to accomplish as a freshman."

While a pair of Furman turnovers in the first 23 seconds of the game helped Chattanooga take a 2-0 lead at the 19:12 mark, the Paladins (16-7, 7-3 Southern Conference) dominated the rest of the half. The Mocs (9-14, 3-7) didn't score again until the 12:32 mark. By that time, Furman had raced out to a 16-2 lead. Bowser's first dunk in his return came off a terrific wrap-around pass by Ben Vander Wal and gave the Paladins their biggest lead at 38-14 with 4:07 left in the first half.

Chattanooga got the lead down to 42-23 at the half and keep whittling away after halftime. A Wilkins' three pushed Furman's lead to 49-30 with 17:33 left. The Mocs responded with a 13-0 run over the next four-and-a-half minutes before Wilkins drilled another three with 13 minutes remaining.

The lead was cut the four with 50 seconds left before Wilkins hit 5-of-6 free throws over Furman's next three possessions. After Chattanooga's Tate Darner made a three to slice the lead to 73-70 with 13 seconds left, Bronson drained a pair of free throws to close out the scoring.

"We needed every bit of that lead that we got. It's pretty obvious that we're struggling with leads right now ... but you've got to play well to get those leads," Richey said. "At the end of the day, this team is 16 wins in right now and right at the top of the league. It doesn't matter how you win the game. We're 7-3 in the league with four freshmen out there. Nobody else is doing that. When you have youth and inexperience, you're going to deal with ups and downs."

Brennan Watkins had 19 points and three steals to lead Chattanooga, while Teddy Washington had 16 points and three steals off the bench. Despite the Mocs having 13 offensive rebounds and Furman seven, Chattanooga had just a 15-11 advantage in second-chance points. Jordan Frison, who scored 25 points when the teams first met this season in Chattanooga, was held to nine points and three turnovers Sunday. That was thanks to the efforts of Furman freshman Cole Bowser.

"It's amazing what Cole is doing. A guy that wasn't even out there a month ago and now we're putting him on their best player," Richey said. "The storyline is Alex Wilkins going for 33 and Cole Bowser guarding their best player. He (Bowser) goes for plus-17, while Frison is at minus-22. ... We've got some of the best freshmen at our level in the whole country and they're growing up right in front of our eyes." 

Bronson finished with nine points off the bench, as did Cooper Bowser. After fouling out of the Samford game last Thursday, Vander Wal had seven points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks, two steals, one foul and no turnovers.

Bowser was unsurprisingly a little rusty as he went 3-of-5 from the floor to slightly dent his previous national-best 81.2 shooting percentage. Furman's lob game was a little off and the Paladins missed three dunks as a team, but fans were certainly excited to see that style of play back in the mix. Furman shot 50 percent from the floor, including 45 percent (9-of-20) on three-pointers, and 76.2 percent (16-of-21) from the foul line.

Sunday's performance by Wilkins came on the heels of a 20-point showing - in which he made 7-of-9 field goals - in Furman's 78-73 win over Samford last Thursday. Those two outings helped Wilkins earn Furman's first Southern Conference Player of the Week honor this season. Wilkins is averaging 18.7 points and 5.1 assists per game this season. He and Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr. are the only Division I players to rank among the top 10 freshmen in the nation in points and assists per game.

Furman returns to action Wednesday night when it plays at East Tennessee State at 7 p.m. The Paladins enter Wednesday in a three-way tie for second place in the SoCon. Furman would move into a tie for first place with a victory.

"We're struggling on the glass. We're not able to practice as long. It's literally impossible because we're having to make sure that we're fresh for games. ... We've got to stay healthy and not have any more injuries," Richey said. "We're going to have to figure that out because going up to Johnson City, that's something they're historically good at.

House, Wilkins help Furman sweep Samford

Alex Wilkins had 20 points in just under 21 minutes of action in
Furman's 78-73 win over Samford. Photo courtesy of Furman

For the third time in the past four games, Furman held a seemingly comfortable double-digit lead with about 10 minutes to play Thursday. After nearly completely blowing said big lead for the third time, the Paladins found a way to not. Tom House scored 21 points and Alex Wilkins had 20 - averaging a point per minute - as Furman held on for a 78-73 win to complete a season sweep of Samford.

A Furman program built on deflections and scoring transition points off those had zero points off turnovers Thursday as it forced only four and had no steals. Those turnovers were two shot clock violations - one on the Bulldogs' opening possession of the game and another on their second possession of the second half, a traveling violation and an offensive foul. Meanwhile, the Paladins committed 14 turnovers, had two starters foul out, allowed 16 offensive rebounds and attempted 18 fewer field goals than Samford.

The winning factors for Furman were offensive efficiency and defensive effort. The Paladins (15-7, 6-3 Southern Conference) shot 64 percent in the second half and 58.3 percent (28-of-48) for the game, while holding the Bulldogs to 40.9 percent (27-of-66). Furman also finally had a game in which foul shooting was in its favor as the Paladins made 15-of-20 free throws (75 percent) and Samford made 12-of-22 (54.5 percent).

"It was a heck of a win tonight for our group as we just continue to learn. Learning is a lot more fun when you're winning. ... It was a classic 'find a way Furman' group win tonight. It wasn't pretty and we didn't do a great job on the defensive backboard at all," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "But our group did an unbelievable job managing foul trouble with our leading scorer being out of the game for the last four minutes.

"For it to be a nationally televised game, you hate to see that kid (Wilkins) have to go sit out those last four minutes, but it was another huge opportunity for our team to have to go out there and finish the game in those circumstances. That's what I'm most proud of."

The game was tied with five minutes left in the first half when Wilkins headed to the bench with his third foul. Three-pointers by Eddrin Bronson and House, and a three-point play by Ben Vander Wal with 15 seconds left helped the Paladins take a 35-33 lead into halftime.

Nowhere were Furman's winning factors more evident than over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Wilkins let everybody know that was back on the floor to start the half as he scored seven points in a 63-second span. A minute-and-a-half later, Wilkins' three-point play pushed Furman's lead to 49-39.

At the 14:33 mark, Wilkins was driving for more but was whistled for an offensive foul. His fourth sent him to the bench, but the Paladins didn't miss a beat. Owen Ritger's layup capped what was a 22-8 run as Furman took a 57-43 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.

In other words, the Bulldogs had the Paladins right where they wanted them. At a similar juncture of the game, Furman led rivals Wofford by 15 points and The Citadel by 19 points only to lose both games. So when Samford went on a quick 6-0 spurt, Richey called timeout to try to nip that in the bud and put House and Charles Johnston back on the floor. On the possession coming out of the timeout, Johnston found House for what was originally ruled a three-pointer but was video reviewed to a long two.

The Bulldogs didn't go away though as SoCon leading scorer Jadin Booth heated up. Booth, who had six points on 1-of-10 shooting over the first 30 minutes of Thursday's game, answered House's long shot with a three on the other end. It was still 59-52 Paladins when Wilkins checked back in at the 7:57 mark and seven seconds were on Furman's shot clock. Wilkins was dribbling at the top of the key when he suddenly realized there was one on the shot clock, but his long three splashed through like he had fully squared up to shoot it anyway.

Samford (10-12, 3-6) responded with a 12-4 run. Booth scored the final six points of that flurry to cut the lead to 66-64 with 2:58 left to play. During that run, Wilkins was called for a controversial foul on a drive to the basket. That third offensive foul on Wilkins gave him five, fouling him out of the game with 3:59 remaining. With its leading scorer on the bench, Furman answered the Bulldogs' run with three consecutive buckets. After Johnston's layup off an assist from Bronson, Bronson hit a jumper and then found House for a three-pointer.

"Booth's a tremendous player. He's as good a shooter as this league's seen in a long time. It felt like the momentum was slipping at that juncture (when Wilkins fouled out), but Ed Bronson did an unbelievable job late in the game," Richey said. "He had an unbelievable pivot to find House for the three that put us up nine. He had multiple defensive plays there where I thought he did an incredible job making them take tough twos."

House's three appeared to be a final nail in Samford's coffin as the Paladins led 73-64 with 50 seconds to play, but once again the Bulldogs didn't go away. Booth hit back-to-back threes sandwiched around a pair of free throws by Furman's Cole Bowser to slice the lead to 75-70. With 35 seconds left, Furman was called for a five-second violation as Bronson didn't call timeout in time. Vander Wal was then whistled for his fifth foul on a three-point attempt by Samford's Kam Martin two seconds later.

Fortunately for the Paladins, Martin - an 84 percent foul shooter - made just one of his three attempts to cut the lead to four. A foul fest ensued. After Collin O'Neal missed the front end of a 1-and-1, he was watching the ball on defense when he collided with Samford big man Dylan Faulkner and was called for a foul with 24 seconds left. Faulkner missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but Martin grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by Johnston. Martin hit both free throws this time, cutting the lead to 75-73 with 22 seconds left.

Bronson made it a two-score game again when he hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left. The Paladins managed to make it through a defensive set without fouling as Samford's Keaton Norris missed a jumper. O'Neal made 1-of-2 free throw with eight seconds left to close out the scoring.

"Bronson's play on two feet on the left side clear out was incredible. Then he made two huge free throws to put us up four," Richey said. "I'm just proud of him. In totality, I think Ed's expectation was this season would be a little bit more fruitful that it's been to this point but he's had a great attitude through it. He's continued to battle through it. He was ready tonight to got out there in a critical moment, in winning time, and make some tremendous plays for us."

Wilkins got his 20 points in just under 21 minutes of playing time. He made 7-of-9 field goals, including 3-4 three-pointers, had three assists and a block. The freshman had five turnovers, but three of those came on offensive fouls. While Samford forced 14 turnovers and made six steals, Furman allowed just two fast break points.

After making 7-of-10 three-pointers in the Paladins' previous game at UNC Greensboro, House was hounded by Samford on the perimeter. For House to go 2-for-7 from three and still net 21 points is a sign of just how far his game has evolved. He also had four rebounds, two blocks, no fouls, no turnovers and a game-high plus-minus of plus-14.

"Obviously when you start hitting threes, everybody plays you a little big differently. You get a little bit more freedom to attack and take what the defense gives you," House said. "I think really we're just getting into a better offensive rhythm as a team."

Vander Wal was the lone other Paladin in double figures as he had 11 points - on 4-of-4 shooting, six rebounds, three assists and no turnovers. Johnston finished with eight points, 16 rebounds, three assists and a block, while Bronson had seven points and three assists off the bench.

Booth had a game-high 23 points and no turnovers, while Faulkner had 19 points, 12 rebounds - including eight offensive, four assists and no turnovers to lead Samford.

Despite Furman University and Timmons Arena currently being closed to the public due to Saturday's winter storm, the Paladins will still host Chattanooga at 1 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. Driving on campus is not permissible due to the snow and ice, so game access will be limited to students and employees who are able to safely attend the game. Ticket holders will be issued a refund or credit that will be communicated by the ticket office.

Pleasing the national television overlords is my only guess as to how the game was not postponed.