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.