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| 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."
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