Sunday, February 2, 2025

Defense powers Furman past SoCon's top dog

Cooper Bowser had 21 points - on 8-of-8 shooting - and three blocks in
Furman's 72-70 win over Samford. Photo courtesy of Furman

To have a chance to knock off the reigning Southern Conference champions and current first-place team, Samford, one might have thought a typical offensive game from Furman's leading scorer would be required. On Wednesday night at The Well, it was not. For the first time this season, PJay Smith didn't hit a three, but for the second time this season a Samford opponent never trailed the Bulldogs.

Nick Anderson and Cooper Bowser combined for 45 points - and four missed field goals - as the Paladins edged Samford, 72-70. While "Bucky Ball" has been very successful during Bucky McMillan's five years as head coach of the Bulldogs, it still hasn't left Greenville with a victory. Samford's lone win at Furman since 2014 came in 2019.

Just as vitally important as the offensive nights for Anderson and Bowser, was the team defensive effort by Furman (17-5, 5-4) from the start. A Samford (17-5, 7-2) team that's ranked in the top 15 nationally in scoring much of the season averaging 84 points a game was limited to 25 in the first half Wednesday. The Bulldogs had more turnovers (10) in the first half than made field goals (9-of-28).

"It seems like all these game with us and them have turned into instant classics. Two teams that play extremely hard and have clear systems and identities of how they want to play. You get in the game and its just ends up being a chess match," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "I thought our defense in the first half set the tone. I think we had 18 deflections and seven steals (in the first half). That's what this team is learning.
"We held people to 64 points a game in the non-league. I think out of our nine (out of conference) Division I wins, only two of them are currently not in the top three in their league. So it's not like we didn't play good teams. We just defended and that was our primary focus. This team has gotten back to that. Sometimes you've got to go through hard lessons to figure that out, but our defense led the way tonight."

Furman took its biggest lead of the night at 33-21 thanks to a four-point play by Anderson with 3:19 left in the first half. The Paladins didn't score the rest of the half though and given how things went for Samford's offense that half, the Bulldogs were likely relieved to only be down 33-25 at the break.

As folks had to kind of sense the way the first half ended, Samford came out with a stronger sense of urgency in the second half. Turning up the full-court press defense more as the Bulldogs' offense got on track.

Samford cut the lead to three less than three minutes into the second half, but Furman kept answering. Midway through the second half, a key sequence from some Paladins off the bench provided what turned out to be needed cushion later on. After seeing his three-pointer from the corner miss off the side of the backboard, Tom House had the moxie to fire up another three the next time down and drilled it. Davis Molnar, who assisted on House's three, then had a steal at midcourt and drove down for a layup to force a Samford timeout as Furman led 56-44.

"That's what great teams have to have. You can't rely on one or two people. You've got to have a team," Richey said. "The good thing I've seen in House the last couple of games is he's playing with so much more positive emotion. I love the fact that he missed that first one bad and came around and shot the next one. Great shooters have to have an 0-for-0 mentality on every shot."

Molnar's layup with 10:57 left turned out be the last field goal for any Paladin besides Anderson or Bowser. The Bulldogs' press seemingly resulted in all or nothing for Furman much of the rest of the way as it seemed to result in a turnover or an easy bucket for Bowser down low.

On a night in which Bowser went 8-for-8 from the floor, seven of those came in the second half. Quite a few of those came on layups and dunks off lobs as he patiently stayed low while teammates tried to conquer the press.

"It's definitely kind of nerve-racking watching your four teammates trying to get the ball up the court, but as soon as it crosses midcourt I try to find an advantage. I try to find an angle, find a seal and try to get behind the defense," Bowser said. "So when we're attacking, they can just throw it up there or maybe throw a bounce pass and I can just finish at the rim. My teammates did a good job of finding me when they broke the press and throwing lobs."

Samford came all the way back to tie it at 63-63 on Trey Fort's three-pointer with 5:53 left. With 3:38 left, the Bulldogs' Lukas Walls hit a game-tying layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw though as Samford never could claim the lead. Arizona is the only other team who never trailed the Bulldogs in a game this season.

In a 34-second span, Furman pushed the lead to five on back-to-back buckets by Anderson. His jumper with 1:49 left, gave the Paladins a 70-65 lead. That remained the score until 29 seconds were left when Walls did convert a three-point play to slice the lead to two.

Furman took its last timeout with 14 seconds left because Molnar was having trouble inbounding against the press from the sideline. Coming out of the timeout, Molnar was still unable to find an open Paladin before he fired a high lob to Bowser who went up and caught it and was fouled on his way to the basket. Bowser made both free throws to make it 72-68.

"Good gracious it felt like we couldn't get it in off the side. The hard part is that you want to get it to a specific guy and for us, that's Nick or PJay. We told Davis in the timeout, if we're going to turn it over just turn it over in the backcourt and let's just go Hail Mary," Richey said. "If we get to 1004 (counting to five), let's throw a jump ball and let our seven-five wing span (Bowser) go get it. We had confidence because he had just made two critical free throws earlier. It was a huge play in that moment."

After Samford got a layup to cut it to 72-70 with five seconds left, it immediately fouled Smith. Smith missed both free throws, leaving the door open for the Bulldogs. Fort's three-point try at the buzzer bounced off the rim no good and Furman could breath again.

Anderson finished with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-8 on three-pointers. Bowser had 18 of his career-high 21 points in the second half. Ben VanderWal had five points, nine rebounds, six assists and no turnovers. He finished with a team-best plus-nine. In his 14 minutes off the bench, Molnar had four assists as Furman finished with 19 as a team.

On a night when Smith had six points on 3-of-14 shooting, including 0-for-7 on three, Furman still shot 49.1 percent from the floor (27-of-55), including 53.6 percent in the second half.

"What's made this team so fun to coach is that they have a unique care for one another. We're in there celebrating and everybody's going crazy dancing and having a good time. Then Ed (Eddrin) Bronson looks up and says, 'Hey coach, isn't that Garrett's (Hien) 100th win?' " Richey said. "That's the type of character we have in that locker room. The players knew that going into that game."

Samford's leading scorer, Jaden Brownell, had a similar fate as Smith. Brownell is a post player who can also shoot from the perimeter and was coming off games of 20 and 18 points scored, respectively. He finished with seven points Wednesday on 3-of-13 shooting, including 0-of-4 from three.

Furman will try to keep the momentum going Sunday when it plays at East Tennessee State at 2 p.m. The matchup of the only two SoCon teams to defeat Samford this season will be televised by CBS Sports Network. The Buccaneers (12-10, 5-4) are coming off a 70-65 loss at UNC Greensboro on Wednesday. 

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