House party: Third shooter leads Furman to rout

Tom House had 26 points and seven rebounds in Furman's
96-72 win over Mercer. Photo courtesy of Furman

For the third time in the past four games, Furman's basketball team put on a 10-minute clinic in the opening half Wednesday night against Mercer. Unlike the previous two times, this scintillating effort wasn't wasted.

A big reason it wasn't wasted was Florida State transfer Tom House. House came off the bench to score a career-high 26 points and help the Paladins make a season-high 18 three-pointers as they rolled over the Bears, 96-72, at The Well.

House and Nick Anderson each made 6-of-9 three-pointers as Furman connected on 18-of-36 as a team. It's the most threes in a game for the Paladins (19-7, 7-6 Southern Conference) since hitting 21 against Western Carolina on Jan. 19, 2022. Furman also made 18 threes in games against VMI and Tulane, respectively, last season.

"It was nice to see guys stepping to the ball with confidence. We always talk about 20 and 10. We got 23 assists and 10 turnovers, so check that box there and we got 30 deflections," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "All we've really talked about for the past 48 hours is our defense. It's funny that you then come out and have the best offensive game you've had all year.

"It's been a challenging couple of days just making sure that guys understand that in six conference wins going into tonight, we're holding teams to 68 points a game. In six conference losses, they've scored 82 (a game). That's a 14-point gap that at the end of the day, we have to own. ... We've had some really good defensive performances, regardless of the opponent, and we've had some really poor defensive performances, regardless of the opponent. That's a choice that we have to make. ... This team has to be a defensive team. Now if we want to keep scoring 96, I'm not going to have a problem with that, but for the most part we've got to hold people to 70 or below."

Furman was coming off an 85-72 loss at Chattanooga. The Paladins ended the first half of that game by making 12 of their final 15 shots as part of a 29-16 run to take a three-point lead into halftime. That lead was quickly buried thanks to the Mocs' 52-point second half. At ETSU on Feb. 2, the Paladins raced out to a 27-13 less than 10 minutes into the game only to trail by five at the half and went on to a 72-69 loss.

So while the good times were rolling Wednesday when Anderson's three-pointer pushed the Furman lead to 33-12 at the 10:08 mark, there had to some nerves about what the rest of the half might bring. Sure enough, Mercer (11-15, 4-9) went on an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to cut the lead to 13.

House made sure that double-digit lead wasn't going anywhere though. After he drilled a three-pointer at the 7:59 mark, he grabbed a rebound on the other end. House took a couple of dribbles before firing a long pass to a cutting Ben VanderWal for a dunk. After the Bears answered with a jumper, House answered back with a transition three from the wing. The 8-2 run over a stretch of 35 seconds pushed the lead back to 41-22 and the Paladins went on to take a 52-35 lead into halftime.

"Our coaches harped on (communication on defense) all week in practice. During these runs, if you start talking to other people it kind of gets you out of your own head. You're not thinking about making a shot or making a mistake," House said. "For me personally, that communication helps impact the game."

In the second half, Mercer managed to whittle the lead down to seven four different times but never got any closer. All four times it got to seven, Furman scored on its ensuing possession beginning with a big three-pointer by Eddrin Bronson at the 12:47 mark. Furman led 77-66 with 7:23 left before VanderWal's fourth three-pointer this season kicked off a 19-6 run to close out the game.

"The luxury of tonight was that we had a third guy step up. So when teams go on these runs, you don't have the pressure of Nick and PJay (Smith) having to get something done," Richey said. "Tonight, we didn't have just Tom step up. We had multiple guys step up."

In addition to his 26-point night, House also grabbed a season-high seven rebounds in his 26 minutes off the bench. He was one of five Paladins in double figures and seven with at least nine points.

"I was really happy for Tom tonight. He's been really playing well for three weeks, so this night was coming and he can do this more. I'm not trying to put pressure on him for 26 a night. I'm not saying that," Richey said. "You don't get offers from Florida State and Georgia and not really be a player. ... Tonight you could see the look of confidence in him early. We've been seeing that in practice. He was incredible there on Monday. I'm not sure he missed a shot. I was hoping that'd continue tonight and sure enough, it did.

"When we have a third shooter out there, it just changes stuff. It was fun to see. He needed to have a game like that. He's worked really, really hard and worked as hard as anyone in our program this summer. You never know when hard work is going to pay off, but at some point it's going to give you dividends."

Both teams leading scorers this season doggedly pursued each other all night. While Mercer's Ahmad Robinson had a team-high 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, he also was guilty of seven of the Bears' 13 turnovers. Smith was just 5-of-15 from the floor, but it did not affect any other bit of his game. Smith finished with 12 points, a game-high eight assists, four rebounds, three steals and two turnovers.

Anderson finished with 18 points, while VanderWal had 12, Garrett Hien 10 and Bronson nine. VanderWal added seven rebounds and four assists, while Hien had two steals and a block. The most complete line of the night belonged to Cooper Bowser, who had nine points, six rebounds, five assists, five blocked shots and four steals. The Paladins finished with 23 assists, their most against a Division I opponent since producing 28 against The Citadel last season, and made 16-of-20 free throws - their best percentage in league play.

"Cooper was really making plays defensively. We decided to push him back tonight because Chattanooga got behind us and got a bunch of layups. So we decided to use him as a true rim protector and he gets a career-high in blocks tonight," Richey said. "He's a unique shot blocker who's long and athletic. He's somebody who can really affect the rim and we need rim protection."

Furman will try to keep the momentum going Saturday when it hosts UNC Greensboro at noon at The Well. The Paladins will try to avenge an 84-67 loss when the teams met in Greensboro on Jan. 4. The Spartans (17-9, 10-3) are tied with Chattanooga for first place in the SoCon and are coming off a rout of their own Wednesday as they beat VMI 80-54.