Defense powers Paladins to pair of road victories

Nick Anderson had 12 points in Furman's 61-56 win over
Seattle in Las Vegas Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

One thing mentioned by Furman coach Bob Richey prior to the Paladins' current road trip all over the country was that "defense travels." Halfway into the four-game trip, it most certainly has. After holding Charleston Southern to 31.5 percent shooting in a 67-46 win on Saturday, Furman held Seattle to 26.2 percent shooting in a 61-56 victory in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

That's the lowest shooting percentage by a Furman opponent since Piedmont International shot 24.6 percent in a 99-38 Furman win on Dec. 1, 2015. It's the lowest for a Division I opponent since Western Carolina made 25.8 percent of its shots in a 52-49 Furman win on Feb. 26, 2015. Seattle became the third team this season to shoot under 30 percent against the Paladins. Prior to this season, the last three times Furman held an opponent under 30 percent shooting was one time apiece in the 2021-22, 2020-21 and 2016-17 seasons.

Tuesday's win was part of the Terry's Chocolate Vegas Showdown and followed Kansas' thrilling 75-72 win over Duke on the same floor. Those results set up a matchup of unbeatens when the Paladins (7-0) play at the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks (6-0) Saturday at 6 p.m.

Here's a recap of the last two games:

Furman 61, Seattle 56

The Paladins pulled out a victory despite being dominated on the glass, 42-29. That included 22 offensive rebounds by Seattle (2-4). The flip side of that is that you have a miss a whole lot of shots to get that many offensive boards. The Redhawks took 21 more shots than Furman, but made five fewer as they went 16-of-61 from the floor. Meanwhile the Paladins made 21-of-40 (52.5 percent) field goals and had 18 assists.

While it wasn't the prettiest game, Furman will have to hope that whatever happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas when it comes to Cooper Bowser. The sophomore had a breakout performance with career highs in points (17) and rebounds (12) for the first double-double of his career. Bowser also had four assists, three blocked shots and a steal.

"Great teams have to win games like this. They (Seattle) made a very good effort to try to take PJay (Smith) and Nick (Anderson) out of the game. It really opened up the paint and put us in a position to be able to score at the rim a little bit easier once we were able to deal with their pressure," Richey said on the Furman Radio Network postgame show. "This is one of those games where you had every reason to lose - the time, the travel. It's two in the morning back home and they (Seattle) are still on West Coast time. I thought our group just handled the game well and we had guys step up.

"Obviously, that's the best game Cooper Bowser has played. He's got many more of those to come, but Ed's (Eddrin Bronson) somebody that we've really been intentionally giving minutes to knowing that his time is coming. You saw his ability to makes some plays tonight and I thought he was huge. Ben VanderWal made some big plays and big drives. And Nick and PJay still did what they had to do."

Furman was playing as far away from home as the program has since a two-game road trip to California in Niko Medved's first season as head coach 11 years ago. Long travel and a tip-off just before midnight eastern time may have factored into an uncharacteristically sloppy opening half for the Paladins. Furman took a 30-26 lead into halftime despite having 10 turnovers and allowing 10 offensive rebounds in the first half.

The key for the Paladins Tuesday was how they closed out each half. Furman lead 20-19 with less than four minutes remaining in the first half when it went on a 10-4 run by attacking the basket. Bowser had eight of those points in the run with two layups and two dunks.

With 4:30 left in the second half, Seattle's Brayden Maldonado hit a three-pointer off an offensive rebound to cut Furman's lead to 53-51. From that point, Tyrese Hughey's presence helped the Paladins clean up the boards. The Redhawks went 0-for-7 from the floor the rest of the way and didn't get another offensive rebound until there were just 11 seconds left.

On the other end, Bronson hit a big three-pointer with 3:23 left to push the Furman lead to five. After an offensive rebound by Bowser, Hughey hit an acrobatic layup with 2:17 left. Finally with 1:31 remaining, Bowser's baseline jumper helped seal the win extending the lead to 60-51.

"Reese (Hughey) came in and gave us some big rebounds. I was really frustrated with our rebounding. We knew it was going to be a challenge, but I didn't anticipate them to beat us up on the glass that bad," Richey said. "That can cost you games down the road, but you know what? We did enough to find a way to win a game of this magnitude. That's a really quality opponent.

"I've looked at a lot of boxscores. I haven't seen many that say 26 percent (Seattle shooting) in a Division I game for a quality opponent. For us to hold them to that just shows you how bought in this team is to guarding. We're developing a real rim protector down there in Cooper Bowser as well. Playing bigger is really paying off."

Anderson had 12 points while Bronson scored 10 off the bench. Smith, Furman's leading scorer who was hounded by Seattle's defense all night, didn't force anything and finished with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting. He had four assists and one turnover.

Furman 67, Charleston Southern 46

The Paladins also had 18 assists Saturday to cruise to a win at the school where Richey began his coaching career as an assistant.

Furman led 11-8 with 13:48 left in the first half when back-to-back threes by Bronson and Davis Molnar - off assists from Smith - started a 17-5 run over the next eight minutes. Charles Johnston capped the run with a three-pointer to push the lead to 28-13 with 5:38 remaining. The Buccaneers never got the lead closer to 12 the rest of the way as the Paladins led by as many as 23 in the second half.

Anderson scored 14 points to lead Furman, while Smith had 13 points, five assists and a steal. Garrett Hien had 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal. Bowser only missed scoring in double figures by going 1-of-6 from the foul line, but he finished with nine points, three assists, three blocks and two steals.