Paladins rally past Princeton in Mid-Major clash

Furman's Garrett Hien blocks a shot during the Paladins'
69-63 win over Princeton. Photo courtesy of Furman

Furman playing the majority of this season's home games in an arena that's hosted NCAA Tournament games only added to the aura of its matchup against Princeton last Saturday. Playing in front of some NBA scouts on press row at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the two Mid-Major powers put on a show that felt like a No. 12 vs. No. 13 seed March matchup to go to the Sweet 16.

The Paladins raced out to a big lead in the first half only to have the Tigers take command in the second half. For the second consecutive game though, Furman's defense held an opponent to no more than three made field goals over the final nine-plus minutes. PJay Smith scored a game-high 23 points and the Paladins survived without him for the final 1:50 to earn a 69-63 victory.

The four-point win for Furman (9-1) comes a year after a heartbreaking one-point loss at Princeton. On that day, the Tigers rallied from an 11-point deficit with four minutes to play and got three offensive rebounds on its final possession before hitting a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.  

"That's a heck of a win in what's been a great series with them. That's two classic games. I don't care what level you're at," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "You got down to the last five minutes, it comes down to who gets the most stops and I thought that was us today.

"They scored three baskets in the final 11 minutes. For us to be able to do that good a job on their talent. The have the returning Ivy League Player of the Year (Xaivian Lee), who had a handful of scouts here today and was coming off a triple-double. I thought our team did a phenomenal job on him."

Playing in front of 3,227 fans at The Well for the first time in 22 days seemed to energize the Paladins following their long, tiring road trip. Garrett Hien and Nick Anderson helped Furman race out to leads of 7-0 and 14-2. Smith then got heated up and his three-pointer staked the Paladins to a 22-9 at the 9:42 mark of the first half. Princeton (7-4) got the first half lead down to three with three minutes remaining, but Hien's putback at the buzzer gave Furman a 37-29 lead at the break.

Hien's tip-in gave him 10 points in a scintillating first-half performance. That featured a phenomenal dunk on one end and a tremendous blocked shot on the other 50 seconds later that got the home crowd roaring.

"I love Garrett to death. He's one of the most unique guys I've ever coached. His care is as high as anybody I've ever coached," Richey said. "He plays with a lot of emotion and sometimes can get emotional, but he kind of needs that. He needs to go out there and play with a certain spirit."

Smith pushed the lead to 11 on a three-pointer to open the second half before the Tigers quickly turned the tide. Princeton went on an 18-2 run over the next six minutes to take a 47-42 lead. Anderson hit a three to cut the lead to two before Princeton's CJ Happy answered with a three. Following a Furman turnover and foul, Peyton Seals hit both free throws to give the Tigers their biggest lead at 52-45 with 11:27 remaining.

That's when Furman really turned up the defense as Princeton only made three more field goals following Happy's three with 11:46 left. A steal by Anderson led to a Tom House three-pointer that got the Paladins final rally going. The lead was sliced to two 18 seconds later when Smith hit a pair of free throws after he made a steal.

Princeton leading scorer Xaivian Lee answered with a layup to push the lead to 54-50 with 9:51 remaining. After that bucket, a Princeton team that made 1-of-13 field goals over the first eight minutes of the game made 2-of-12 over the final nine minutes.

"We got off to a great start, but it really started on the defensive end," said Ben VanderWal, who was key part of that defensive performance. "This team has a lot of unselfish guys who are just focused on winning. Whatever it takes to win the game, no matter what lineup is out there or what the situation is like.

"So when you get in these types of games, you don't really tense up. You almost loosen up because you believe in your connection. You believe in your guys."

A putback by Tyrese Hughey was followed by a steal and a layup by Smith to tie the game 54-54 with 8:46 left. Smith's layup with 7:10 remaining gave Furman a two-point lead it never relinquished. That started a little two-minute flurry by Smith in which he had two rebounds, a jumper, a steal and then an assist on VanderWal's layup that gave Furman a 62-56 lead with 5:18 remaining.

Points were hard to come by for both teams the rest of the way and then Furman had to overcome the loss of its point guard when Smith was whistled for his fourth foul with 2:12 left and his fifth foul 22 seconds later. On a day when he was enjoying a truly epic performance, Smith fouled out on a loose ball collision.

"It was frustrating. I was in a bad spot at the wrong time (on the fifth foul). I was flipping out a little bit, but one of our younger guys - Eddrin Bronson - told me 'we're going to take care of the rest,' " Smith said. "I just had faith in my team and they went out there and executed. ... It's not about me. It's about all of us. At any time, anybody can step up and close out a game."

In addition to his huge offensive night, Smith was also tasked with guarding Lee. Lee, who declared for the NBA Draft last April before deciding to return to Princeton for his junior year this season, made a pair of free throws after Smith's fourth foul to cut the lead to 62-60.

Furman's lone field goal over the last five minutes came when VanderWal made a layup and was fouled with 1:12 left to push the lead to 64-60. While VanderWal missed that free throw, Furman made 5-of-7 at the foul line over the final 51 seconds to preserve the win.

"You have to withstand adversity. We're up two (when Smith fouls out) and at that point, it's about the team. That's what it's always been with this group," Richey said. "I think in this new day (of college athletics), you're going to have a lot of people wearing the same jersey but very few teams. I think our group has bought into being a team."

In addition to his game-high 23 points, Smith finished with eight rebounds, four steals and three assists. Hien had 10 points and seven rebounds, while Nick Anderson scored nine on three threes. VanderWal had seven points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots, while Charles Johnston and House also finished with seven points.

After being held to two points on 1-of-5 shooting and no rebounds in the first half, Lee finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead Princeton.

Following a well-deserved week-long break from basketball, Furman returns to action at The Well on Saturday when it hosts South Carolina State (5-6) at noon.

Road weary Paladins find spark, rally past FGCU

Ben VanderWal had 10 points and energized Furman as it rallied for a 76-73
win at Florida Gulf Coast Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

The last leg of a 12-day, four-game road trip that took the Furman basketball team across the country came in Fort Myers, Fla. Wednesday at Florida Gulf Coast. For much of the first half and into the second, the Paladins looked a little tired. The defensive intensity that powered Furman to a 7-0 start before suffering its first loss the previous time out at No. 1-ranked Kansas was lacking.

The Paladins trailed by 10 points with 9:40 remaining when Furman coach Bob Richey tried to up that intensity by switching to a full-court press. The deficit grew to 13 just seven seconds later, but the press turned out to be the spark the Paladins needed. Furman went on a 20-4 run over the next eight minutes and held on for a stunning 76-73 victory.

"You've got to find a way to win games like this and our guys just kept hanging in there. Even when the score was close, we just weren't playing well. We had only eight deflections by halftime," Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "It just felt like we were stuck in the mud. I called timeout with 10 minutes to go and started pressing because we didn't have any answers in terms of getting our guys to fly around and play our style of basketball.

"Of course, they bang a three in the corner right at the start of it. The staff asked me if we should stay in it and I said, 'yeah, it's our only shot.' Then all of sudden we got some turnovers and sped the tempo up. ... We did what we had to do to get our fourth road win, which matches our road win total from all of last year."

While the Paladins (8-1) may have been a step slow in the first half, it was still a back-and-forth battle for much it. Tyrese Hughey's putback with 3:37 left gave Furman a 32-31 lead, but the Eagles (3-6) responded with a 13-1 run to close out the half. For the second consecutive game, Furman's opponent made a buzzer-beating shot to put the Paladins in an 11-point halftime hole. Zavian McLean nailed a three-pointer as time expired to stake the Eagles to a 44-33 lead at the break.

Furman's deficit ranged from four to 13 throughout the second half until the rally. FGCU beat the Paladins' first press when Rory Stewart hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 65-52 with 9:33 remaining. The Eagles made only three shots and had five turnovers the rest of the way.

A key sequence in the wild comeback came on a 7-0 scoring flurry in a span of 24 seconds. After Charles Johnston hit a layup with 5:19 remaining, PJay Smith had a layup 11 seconds later. On FGCU's next possession, Nick Anderson went "Michael Jordan against Karl Malone in the title-clinching sequence of the 1998 NBA Finals" with a steal from behind. That led to a 3-pointer by Smith that cut the lead to 67-66 with 4:55 left.

On Furman's next trip, Johnston hit a pair of free throws to give the Paladins their first lead since Hughey's putback late in the first half. Garrett Hien's turnaround jumper in the paint with 2:50 left gave Furman a 70-69 lead that it never relinquished.

Anderson hit two free throws with 19 seconds left and Smith added a pair with 3.6 seconds left to push the lead to 76-73. Furman held on as Jevin Muniz, who hit a buzzer-beating game-winning shot in the Eagles' 80-78 win at Florida Atlantic in their last game, saw his 35-foot three at the buzzer come up short.

Smith finished with a team-high 18 points to lead the Paladins. Anderson had 10 points, four assists, two steals and one turnover, while Ben VanderWal had 10 points, three assists and three huge blocked shots. VanderWal is the 11th different Paladin to score in double figures in a game this season. Hien finished with eight points and seven rebounds, while Johnston also scored eight.

"I thought Chuck (Johnston) had a great game. He really came on strong for us. Garrett played like an absolute winner. He competed all night long. Ben VanderWal was a complete stud. He made all the winning plays," Richey said. "Our team, when we finally start flying you could feel the energy shift. PJay and Nick show up and hit some big shots and big free throws down the stretch."

Furman returns to action Saturday at noon when it hosts Princeton in a matchup of elite mid-major programs at The Well.

Second-half surge helps Kansas roll over Paladins

The national anthem is played prior to Furman's 86-51
loss to Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse Saturday.

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Furman entered Saturday's game at Kansas ranked seventh in the country in field goal percentage defense (35.4) and ninth in scoring defense (58 points per game allowed). Five of the Paladins' first seven opponents were held below 37 percent shooting and three failed to get to 50 points.

The No. 1-ranked Jayhawks were a bird of an entirely different feather. Kansas shot 60.9 percent from the floor, including 64.5 percent in the second half, to hand Furman its first loss, 86-51, before 15,300 at historic Allen Fieldhouse. After none of the Paladins' previous three opponents made more than 17 field goals in a game, the Jayhawks (7-0) made 20-of-31 - in the second half alone.

Furman has been particularly strong guarding the perimeter this season and that really didn't change Saturday. Kansas made no three-pointers in the first half and finished 4-of-17 from three. The Jayhawks didn't need much from the outside since they made an astounding 35-of-47 two-pointers and enjoyed a 62-14 advantage on points in the paint. Meanwhile, Furman was held to 29.8 percent shooting, including 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the second half.

"They're currently the No. 1 team in the country for a reason. I think their size definitely bothered us. Their physicality on the perimeter definitely bothered us. But I also thought we got a lot of looks. ... I'll be interested in watching film to see how many open ones we missed. I thought we had some quality possessions where we missed," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "The worst thing we did today was get back. Our transition defense was really poor. We've been fairly good in transition defense a lot of the year, but we haven't been playing Kansas.

"I thought there were some positives. We're going to learn a lot from this game. I'm sure we won't see another team like this unless we make the Final Four."

In addition to being a battle of two of the remaining 19 undefeated Division I teams entering Saturday, it was also a matchup of two of the top 20 winningest active coaches percentage-wise. Kansas coach Bill Self ranked third at 76.7 percent (816-248), while Richey ranked 18th at 69.7 percent (163-71). In the first half, their proficiency for pushing the right buttons was on display.

A soft Furman pass was easily intercepted by Kansas' K.J. Adams, who turned it into an layup on the other end. That pushed the Jayhawks lead to 10-5 with 16:36 left in the first half when Richey called timeout. Coming out of that timeout, PJay Smith knocked down a three-pointer. A few minutes later, Tom House drove for a layup to give Furman (7-1) its second lead of the game at 16-14.

The Jayhawks led 27-18 with eight minutes left in the half when the Paladins went on an 8-0 run over the next 97 seconds. Eddrin Bronson hit a pair of threes sandwiched around a Cooper Bowser layup as Furman cut the lead to one with 6:23 left when Self called timeout. After that break, the Paladins went 1-for-11 from the floor with two turnovers the rest of the half. The biggest blow came when Flory Bidunga's putback just before the halftime buzzer gave Kansas its first double-digit lead at 39-28.

"That was a big play. It's funny when you watch before half plays - whether you're up or down - how it just gives you some juice headed into the locker room," Richey said. "Now you're down 11 and you've got to have a really good start to the half and we didn't."

Nick Anderson opened the second half with a three-pointer for Furman and a minute later, a dunk by Bowser cut the lead to 41-33. But it was all Kansas after that. After a missed layup by Adams with 18:43 left, the Jayhawks' next missed shot came at the 9:49 mark. Ten consecutive made field goals helped Kansas stretch its lead to 25 and Furman never got the lead under 22 the rest of the way.

"You've got to keep it within 10 to keep some game pressure on them. Once it gets to 15-plus, everything kind of relaxes. Everybody loosens up and the crowd gets into it. On the other side, you tighten up. I thought we had a little bit of that today," Richey said. "In games like this, the reality of it is that you need to play really well and hope they play C or less. They were A-plus today. They were really good."

After scoring 10 points off the bench to help Furman secure a victory over Seattle in Las Vegas last Tuesday, Bronson scored a career-high 14 Saturday to lead the Paladins. While it was by no means the outcome Furman was seeking, Bronson believes there are things to build on off of the experience.

"Playing in Allen Fieldhouse is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For me personally, my teammates put a lot of faith and trust in me so I'm glad I was able to go out there, play hard and knock down some shots," Bronson said. "There were a lot of details we can go over tonight that will help us be ready when we play teams in our conference."

Garrett Hien was Bronson's only teammate in double figures with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Smith, Furman's leading scorer, was held to six points on 2-of-10 shooting but he did have five assists and no turnovers.

"Eddrin's a freshman. He's going to make some mistakes, but he's very talented. It's taken him awhile to get his body and endurance back from injury, but you could see that talent tonight. ... For the rest of his life, he's going to be able to say 'I went to Kansas and led Furman in scoring.' He's got a bright future." Richey said. "Garrett was a bright spot tonight as well. ... I thought he played with some good aggression tonight and we're going to need him to continue to do that."

Adams, who's better known for being one of the best defensive players in the country, scored a career-high 22 points to lead Kansas. Adams, who was averaging 8.5 points per game entering Saturday, made 10-of-12 field goals and had six rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal, one turnover and no fouls.

Furman will wrap up this long four-game road trip at Florida Gulf Coast Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Eagles (3-5) enter Wednesday's game coming off a pair of close victories against Sunshine State rivals. Florida Gulf Coast defeated Florida International, 60-59, on Sunday, Nov. 24, and had a buzzer-beating, 80-78 win at at Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

"We're going to try to rest up. I mean, we're exhausted. We've been on the road since Friday (Nov. 22). But this is part of it," Richey said Saturday. "We've already won three road games. I'm not sure how many road games we won last year, but it wasn't many more. So we've got another opportunity against a good team. They've had a hard schedule. I'm sure it will be a big-time atmosphere and we've got to be ready to play."