Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Chattanooga flips Furman's script, rallies for win

Nick Anderson scored 15 points in Furman's 75-71 loss
to Chattanooga Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman

Furman earned the moniker of "Find a Way Furman" this season by consistently finding some path to victory in close games. The Paladins were 8-0 in games decided by single digits going into its Saturday's home matchup against Chattanooga. The Mocs usurped that title from Furman at The Well though as they rallied from a 16-point deficit and held on for a 75-71 win.

The comeback win for Chattanooga (12-7, 4-2 Southern Conference) was not unlike the one it had three days earlier when the Mocs rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Wofford in overtime. While Furman's losses have been frustrating, they've all been lopsided prior to Saturday. The close loss brought a new level of frustration, primarily because of things the Paladins (15-4, 3-3) finally started doing better.

Furman hit 10-of-23 three-pointers, limited a very good shooting Chattanooga team to just 4-of-13 threes and played with a level of effort that was necessary to get the job done. The major reason the Paladins didn't get the job done came at the foul line, where they made just 17-of-28 (60.7 percent) while the Mocs hit 25-of-28 (89.3 percent). Once again, Furman was also dominanted in second-chance points. Chattanooga had 17 points off its 12 offensive rebounds, while the Paladins had just three points off their nine offensive boards.

"The game plan was to hold those guys at the three-point line. They came in making 13 threes a game at 47 percent. We hold them to 4-for-13 and probably couldn't have done a better job there, but our interior play was pathetic at best in the second half, specifically," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "We didn't play with the physicality down there to win and separate a game where we had a decent little marging for a lot of the second half.
"Give Chattanooga credit for throwing a punch there in the last quarter of the game. From missing 11 free throws to giving up that many second-chance points again, it's just not the mental toughness that you've got to have to win high-level basketball games."

The pain of Saturday's loss also stems from the fact that it might've been Furman's best start against Division I competition this season. The Paladins raced out to an 11-0 lead more than five minutes in before Chattanooga finally got on the board with two of those second-chance points at the 14:38 mark of the first half.

With 9:14 left in the first half, PJay Smith drew a foul on a three-point attempt and sank all three foul shots to give Furman its biggest lead at 22-6. Over the final 8:30 of the half, Chattanooga outscored the Paladins 21-12 to cut the lead to 34-27 at the break.

Furman started the second half much like it started the game. The second-half scoring began on an alleyoop from Smith to Cooper Bowser. Eddrin Bronson followed with a three-pointer and Nick Anderson's layup on the next trip down pushed the lead to 41-28. The Mocs responded with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to cut the lead to 43-41.

The Paladins still maintained the lead until the 4:35 mark when Collin Mulholland's three-point play gave Chattanooga its first lead of the game at 60-58. Bronson's layup tied the game on Furman's ensuing possession, but the Paladins never regained the lead.

Smith's wild, off-balance three-pointer with 11.2 seconds left cut the Mocs lead to 71-70. After UTC's Honor Huff made both free throws with 8.6 seconds left, Smith was fouled with 4.2 seconds left as Chattanooga was looking to foul before a three-point shot was launched. Smith's hands went up like he was going for a shot, but the ball came free on the foul from Trey Bonham. Officials huddled for a couple of minutes before ruling it a foul on the floor. After Smith made the first, he intentionally missed the second.

On a frustrating day at the foul line for Furman, it couldn't even purposely miss right as Smith's shot caromed off the backboard without touching the rim. That automatically gave the ball back to Chattanooga. Bonham hit a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds left to seal the win.

In addition to the decision on the Chattanooga foul, Richey also lost an argument at the 3:33 mark when Bonham's three-pointer pushed the Mocs lead to 65-60. It appeared that the back of possibly both of Bonham's shoes were out of bounds prior to the shot. With 7:59 left, Davis Molnar - who had been playing well off the bench - went to the sideline with his fourth foul on a play where it appeared any foul should've been Cooper Bowser's second.

"I can't wait to see the clip on PJay. It's a act of shooting when the whistle goes up, so I don't get that. But whatever, that stuffs out of my control," Richey said. "They (officials) didn't miss 11 free throws for us. They didn't give them 12 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 points. So I don't want to be the one sitting up here faulting them for (the loss). ... I am curious to see that call, because obviously the game is on the line. I think that's just an unfortunate situation."

Bonham and Huff scored 16 points apiece for Chattanooga. The real problem for Furman came from UTC's Frank Champion, who had 16 points (on 6-of-9 shooting), nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

Smith had a game-high 18 points and two blocks to lead Furman. Anderson was the lone other Paladin in double figures with 15 points, coming of 5-of-7 shooting as he still didn't reach the 10-shot minimum that Richey has said they need to get him to. Even Anderson wasn't immune from the charity strip woes. After making 39-of-41 free throws this season coming into Saturday, Anderson was 2-of-5 there for the game.

Furman will try to rebound Wednesday when it begins a stretch of three out of four games on the road with a visit to VMI. The Keydets (8-11, 2-4) are on a two-game winning streak thanks to a 66-50 win over Western Carolina last Wednesday and a 75-70 win at The Citadel on Saturday. Wednesday's tip is scheduled for 6 p.m.

"We're not where we want to be one-third of the way through league play. There's all kinds of ebbs and flows to the season, but we've just go to go do the things that we were doing successfully when we were winning at the level we were winning at," Richey said. "This was a 50/50 game with two great teams battling it out. We led for 35 minutes of the game. They led for 4:20. Those are the ones that hurt you.
"I'm disappointed. I'm mad. I'm furious to be perfectly honest, but that doesn't mean I'm discouraged. My frustration is that I know we're better than this. I know we can play physical. I've seen it. I've seen us lead well. I've seen us make free throws. At the end of the day, we've got to go do."

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