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| PJay Smith has scored 29 points in each of Furman's last two victories. Photo courtesy of Furman |
From the Holy City to Sin City to The Phog to Dunk City, the Furman basketball team will have gone everywhere man over the next 12 days. The Paladins (5-0) open their four-game road trip with a homecoming of sorts for Coach Bob Richey when they play at Charleston Southern Saturday at 2 p.m.
Furman then flies to Las Vegas for the Terry's Chocolate Vegas Showdown where it will face Seattle on ESPNU at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time late Tuesday night. After spending Thanksgiving together on the road, the Paladins visit basketball's most hallowed ground of Allen Fieldhouse when they play at No. 1-ranked Kansas on Nov. 30. The road trip wraps up in Fort Myers, Fla., when Furman plays at Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 4.
"I think it's a time where our team can continue to bond. This is a very tight team. You can see when we play how close they are, but now we're going to get on the road," Richey said following Furman's win over Oglethorpe Wednesday. "We will find out a lot about ourselves and we're going to play some good teams. Charleston Southern was beating LSU most of the game (Tuesday) before LSU made a good run there late."
Here's a recap of the past two games, along with other notes and more on Saturday's game at Charleston Southern:
Records fall as Furman rolls over Oglethorpe
Playing at historic Parker Gymnasium in downtown Greenville for the first time ever, Furman had absolutely no issues shooting in the small, 100-year-old high school arena. Oglethorpe is a Division III program whose mascot is the Stormy Petrals, a seabird mythically known to appear most often when a big storm is coming. On Wednesday, the Paladins rained down threes - and plenty of other shots - in a 124-48 win.
Just shy of seven minutes into the game, Furman was 10-of-15 from the floor with five offensive rebounds and no turnovers. That pretty much set the tone for the evening as the Paladins made 17-of-42 three-pointers and 32-of-43 twos. Furman matched a school record with 34 assists in its highest-scoring and most lopsided win since a 126-33 victory over Virginia Intermont on Dec. 29, 2004.
PJay Smith's electric season continued Wednesday as matched his Furman career-high with 29 points in just 14 minutes. Smith made his first seven shots - all three-pointers - before his only miss. He followed that miss with a made three next time down. Smith then had a steal and a layup before another three that forced an Oglethorpe timeout with 15:04 left in the game and the Paladins ahead 89-19. The timeout worked in that at least Smith's night was done.
Smith went 10-for-11 from the floor, including 9-of-10 on threes. That 90 percent effort is a new school record on 10 or more three-point attempts. He also had four rebounds, two assists, two steals and no turnovers.
"It was a special night for PJay and I'm just really proud of him. Just moving from the two to the one this season. He's a better one that he is a two, but we just did it out of necessity last year," Richey said. "The ball he's playing is as good as any point guard we've ever had around here. He's leading. He's defending. Not only is he making shots, he's making critical shots.
"He's just playing to our values and he does it with a smile on his face. He doesn't complain. He doesn't make it about him. He's just about going to play to win."
Mason Smith had a career-high 20 points and six rebounds, while Cooper Bowser had 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals in less than 16 minutes of action. That made Bowser the 10th different Paladin to score in double figures this season. Nick Anderson had seven assists, while Eddrin Bronson had six to lead a total of 13 different Paladins with at least one. Anderson also had a team-high nine rebounds for Furman, which enjoyed a 64-21 rebounding edge. All 14 Paladins who played had at least one board.
Defense powers Furman past Tulane
Before crushing the seabirds on Wednesday, Furman conquered the sea on Friday, Nov. 15 when it knocked off the Tulane Green Wave. Oglethorpe did have a 1-0 lead 41 seconds into Wednesday's game which is more than can be said for Tulane, as the Paladins never trailed.
In a battle of unbeatens at The Well, the Paladins overcame their first shooting night of less than 45 percent by taking care of the ball while still moving it well in a 75-67 win. The Paladins shot 37.9 percent (22-of-58) from the floor, but had 19 assists and just seven turnovers. How well was everybody moving the ball? Nine Paladins played at least three minutes. All nine had at least one assist and no one had more than three.
Plenty of those passes became assists when the ball reached PJay Smith and Anderson. Smith scored 29 points (three shy of his collegiate career high), while Anderson scored 19. Smith made 6-of-11 three-pointers, while Anderson knocked down 5-of-10. Smith also had three assists, half of Furman's six steals and drew six fouls.
Team basketball has been the biggest factor in Furman's success this season. Defense is obviously a big part of that and Furman did a great job containing Tulane's leading scorers. Kalen Banks, who was averaging 19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game for the Green Wave, was held to six points on 2-of-4 shooting and three rebounds. Rowan Brumbaugh was averaging 13.3 points per game, but he finished with two points on 1-of-5 shooting. The Green Wave made 6-of-18 three-pointers for the game.
"They've (Tulane) been torching the nets from three," Richey said in that postgame press conference. "Our defense did a really good job of trying to get to those shooters."
The victory avenged a heartbreaking, controversial double-overtime loss at Tulane last season. The win was especially sweet for Davis Molnar, who was called for an absolute joke of a foul in the final second of regulation of that game. With Furman leading by three and 0.8 seconds left, officials ruled that a Green Wave player caught an inbounds pass, turned around to shoot and was fouled by Molnar on a three-point attempt all in some magical span of 0.5 seconds.
Molnar ended up playing a huge role in Furman's win this season as he had six points, a career-high 10 rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 17 minutes off the bench. A key sequence came after Smith hit a three from an assist on Molnar on one end. On the other end, Molnar made a deflection from behind and Smith hit the floor, captured the loose ball and drew a foul.
"The game honors toughness. It always has and always will," Richey said. "This offseason was a culture reboot. We weren't that far off, but we had to get our culture back. Davis has been as much a part of that as anybody in our program. ... He's just stayed ingrained in the team and getting better and working hard. Tonight was his night."
Coming off that victory, the Paladins received two votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday. On Tuesday, Smith was named Southern Conference Player of the Week for the second consecutive week.
On to Charleston Southern
Playing in the cozy confines of Parker Gym could prepare the Paladins for Saturday's trip to Charleston Southern's "Buc Dome." After going 0-4 at the smallest arena in Division I (881 capacity), Furman finally won for the first time there on its last trip - a 91-47 victory on Nov. 12, 2019.
This is always an emotional game for Richey, who got his coaching career started as an assistant at Charleston Southern. Saturday's game will be no different.
"I recruited (Charleston Southern head coach) Saah Nimley. For he and I, it's going to be a cool moment. I was the primary recruiter on Saah the year before I came here (to Furman)," Richey said. "To see what he's been able to do, working his way from assistant to head coach down there, I couldn't be more proud of him.
"We're looking forward to taking the show on the road. Defense travels. Connection travels. System travels. You understand you're playing for one another and with one another. We've got to make sure we keep doing those things. I thought we did that in our one true road test (a win at Belmont) so far. We had a ton of adversity and that win continues to get better and better (based on what Belmont's done since)."
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