After loss at UTC, Furman set for home stretch

PJay Smith had 22 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in
Furman's 85-72 loss at Chattanooga. Photo courtesy of Furman

With just three weeks left in the Southern Conference men's basketball regular season, there's going to be some key dates that help unsort a packed race. Entering Feb. 12, there are seven teams within three games of each other atop the conference standings. The first of those key dates comes Wednesday as two of the three teams tied for first place square off when Samford hosts Chattanooga.

The only guarantee right now among those seven teams is that at least one will have the unenviable task of trying to capture the SoCon championship by winning four games in four days at the SoCon Tournament in Asheville. While Furman came awfully close to doing that as the No. 10 seed a decade ago, no SoCon team has ever managed to do it.

If the season ended Saturday, the Paladins (18-7) would be the No. 7 seed as a result of their head-to-head loss at VMI. Currently, Furman and the Keydets are tied for sixth place at 6-6. Every game the rest of the way is key and fortunately for the Paladins, four of their next five are set for The Well in downtown Greenville. That stretch begins Wednesday when Furman hosts eighth-place Mercer (11-14, 4-8) at 7 p.m. After the Paladins saw their 19-game winning streak in the series snapped last season when the Bears swept the season series, the Paladins will try to return the favor.

When the teams met in Macon, Ga. Jan. 25, Nick Anderson had 18 points to lead Furman to a 79-74 win. Freshman Eddrin Bronson added 16 points, while PJay Smith scored 15. After torching The Citadel 80-46 to close out January, Mercer has yet to win in February. It's coming off a 77-66 home loss to Wofford.

Furman enters the Mercer game coming off a frustrating 85-72 loss at Chattanooga Saturday as the Mocs completed the season sweep. While Waylon and Willie told us many years ago that "one night of love can't make up for six nights alone," Furman told us last week that one quarter of exquisite basketball can't make up for three quarters of inconsistency that ranked anywhere from lousy to good.

In two trips to the eastern portion of Tennessee last week, the Paladins had 10-minute stretches of basketball in the opening half that could not be topped - by themselves or any other team in the SoCon. At ETSU last Sunday, eight different Paladins had scored as they held a 27-13 lead just under 10 minutes in. But over the rest of the half, Furman was outscored 24-5. The Paladins fought hard to take a six-point lead late in the second half before another cold spell sent them to a three-point loss.

Saturday at Chattanooga was eerily similar to the ETSU game only in reverse. Furman trailed 19-9 just over nine minutes into the game before outscoring the Mocs 29-16 the rest of the half to take a three-point lead into halftime. The Paladins made 12-of-15 field goals and had two turnovers over the final 10:21 of the first half.

That run was highlighted by an unexpected contribution from freshman Tommy Humphries, who had not played since Dec. 28 and had not taken any kind of shot in three minutes of action against Division I opponents. Humphries steal led to a Cooper Bowser game-tying dunk with 3:34 left in the first half. Less than a minute later, Humphries' spinning drive to the basket resulted in a layup that pushed Furman's lead to 35-31.

It was a completely different story in the second half. After making 12 shots in 10 minutes to finish at 53.6 percent shooting in the first half, the Paladins made just 10-of-33 field goals (30.3 percent) in the second half. That included a 4-of-23 showing (17.2 percent) from three. Meanwhile, Chattanooga was 18-of-31 (58.1 percent) in the second half including 5-of-10 on threes. The Mocs used a 10-1 run to take a 64-54 lead with 10:29 remaining and Furman could never get the lead under eight as Chattanooga pushed its winning streak to five.

Smith had a terrific all-around performance in the loss as he finished with a game-high 22 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and one steal to lead Furman. Bowser had 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks, while Nick Anderson and Garrett Hien scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Seven different Mocs scored at least eight points, including five in double figures. They were led by Garrison Keeslar's 15-point effort, while Frank Champion and Trey Bonham each scored 14. Champion, who was a big thorn in Furman's side in Greenville earlier this season, also had seven rebounds, six assists and a blocked shot.

Note: Apologies for the lack of quotes from Furman coach Bob Richey. I'd planned on traveling to Chattanooga to cover the game, but was sick last week which resulted in me missing the Western Carolina and Chattanooga games. In case you missed the Western game story, it can be found here: http://www.furmansportsreport.com/2025/02/anderson-rallies-paladins-past-western.html