Deeper Paladins bounce back at Chattanooga

Charles Johnston had 21 points and eight rebounds in Furman's 78-67
win at Chattanooga Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

When Furman followed up an impressive win over Mercer in its Southern Conference opener with a disappointing 80-77 home loss to Western Carolina last Saturday, there were plenty of obvious reasons why. The Paladins had another abysmal day at the free throw line and were dominated on the boards, but what really stood out was a rough day for the bench.

Injuries to key players whittled Furman's rotation down to eight and that meant asking a lot of the starters, especially in an overtime game. While Alex Wilkins was at plus-nine during his 39:06 on the floor and Charles Johnston was at plus-five in his 37:42, the Catamounts' biggest spurts came during those very few minutes they each were getting a breather. The Paladins' three players off the bench finished the game at minus-seven, minus-eight and minus-eight, respectively.

"At the end of the day, our bench has to play better," Furman coach Bob Richey implored after the game. "Alex has to get a blow and all of a sudden, they go on a 7-0 run. That was a huge chunk of the game."

When the Paladins traveled to Chattanooga Wednesday, Richey and his staff decided the best way to spark the bench was to actually go deeper into it. No one could've guessed who among the reserves would lead that charge.

While Cooper Bowser missed his fourth consecutive game with his injured foot still in a walking boot, another Bowser had a wardrobe change. Richey decided to take the redshirt off Bowser's brother, Cole, and the freshman responded with 10 rebounds off the bench in his collegiate debut. That helped take some pressure off Johnston, who had 21 points and eight rebounds, to lead Furman to a 78-67 win at The Roundhouse in a nationally televised game by CBS Sports Network.

The younger Bowser wasn't the only new face off the bench for Furman (11-5, 2-1) as sophomore Mason Smith saw his first action against Division I competition this season. A total of 10 Paladins played Wednesday, marking the first time more than eight played against a DI opponent since Nov. 14.

"Part of the formula that we've always had is to have nine or 10 (play) and to engage them, to not be tired, to be able to play 40 minutes and depend on one another," Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "So the plan was to insert more and it was to trust more. ... A lot of it was like, 'the bench is not giving us anything,' but that wasn't totally true. We were putting some of the bench out there with starters that were gassed and that's a bad combination.

"The answer is not to play the bench less. The answer is to stand on the values of the program and trust each other. ... Early in the season, we couldn't play 10, but tonight we were able to play 10. We had our leading scorer in foul trouble and we still came in here and found a way to win. I couldn't be more proud."

Bowser made his collegiate debut at the 16:35 mark of the first half. Twenty seconds later, he got his first mark in the boxscore with a blocked shot. Even though Bowser was making an immediate impact, Furman trailed by as many as seven points early on.

An offensive rebound by Ben Vander Wal led to a Johnston jumper that tied the game midway through the first half. It was still 19-19 at the 9:04 mark when Wilkins departed the game after getting whistled for his third foul. It appeared that it could be a critical moment as Furman's leading scorer was likely going to be sidelined the rest of the half.

The Mocs took advantage as they took a 30-24 lead on a four-point play by Jakari Johnson with 5:36 left. Then Vander Wal's dirty work helped the game completely flip. After an offensive board by Vander Wal, he assisted on a three by Tom House. Following a rebound by Bowser on the other end, Vander Wal found Eddrin Bronson for three and the game was tied 30-30.

Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the Paladins took the lead for good on their next possession when Bronson found House for another three with 3:40 left. While Furman's scoring flurry slowed a bit, its defensive pressure never did. Asa Thomas hit a three to push the lead to 36-30 with 2:17 remaining.

After watching his big brother dunk his way to leading the country in field goal percentage this season, it was only fitting what Cole Bowser's first collegiate shot was. After Bowser made a steal at midcourt, his breakaway dunk capped the Paladins' 15-0 run as they took a 39-30 lead into halftime.

"The defense really made a push right there," Richey said. "It felt like they were at 30 for a while and that was a huge key for us to be able to get out in transition and play in space." 

Johnston and Wilkins came roaring into the second half as Furman kept up the momentum. Johnston opened the second half with a jumper before Wilkins had a layup the next time down. Then Wilkins lobbed to Johnston for a dunk before finding him again for a three-pointer as the Paladins took their biggest lead at 48-33 with 16:48 left.

Furman led by 12 when Wilkins left after being called for his fourth foul with 15:22 left. Unlike last Saturday, the Paladins still led by eight when Wilkins returned nearly six minutes later. Despite being a foul away from being done for the day, Wilkins drove to the bucket, drew a foul and hit both free throws to make it a double-digit lead again.

Like you'd expect from a Dan Earl-coached team, the Mocs didn't roll over but they could never get closer than seven the rest of the way. Each time Chattanooga got that close, Furman had an answer.

UTC's Jordan Frison cut the lead to 56-49 on a three-pointer with 9:12 left. Seven seconds later, Thomas hit a three after Wilkins drove to the paint and dished out to him. Another Frison three sliced the lead to 63-56 with 6:30 left, but his next one was partially blocked by Thomas and House grabbed the rebound. That led to Bowser getting a tough shot to fall off an assist from Johnston.

The last time the Mocs got the lead down to seven was once again on a Frison three with 51 seconds left. Thomas answered with a pair of free throws with 36 seconds remaining and Wilkins closed out the scoring with two more free throws with 21 seconds left.

Johnston's 21-point night came on 10-of-14 shooting from the floor and he had no turnovers. House, who made each of his first four three-pointers, finished with 17 points, while Thomas scored 16. Thomas also had eight rebounds, three assists, one block, no turnovers and no fouls. Wilkins logged just 22 minutes and was just 1-of-10 from the floor, but still had eight points and seven assists. Bowser made all three of his field goal attempts to finish with six points along with the 10 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.

"Playing Cole wasn't some desperation move. Cole has come back from Christmas with a totally different focus," Richey said. "We had a practice a couple of days after Christmas where it was the ones versus the twos. The twos were destroying the ones and I switched Cole and Baba (Abijah Franklin) to the ones and it changed the whole practice. It was the energy of Baba and Cole defensively, getting hands on balls, getting rebounds and making tough, gritty plays.

"Then Monday in practice, Cole just made a big impact. I met with him Tuesday morning and talked about it (no longer redshirting) for a little while and then I talked to his parents. I talked to him last night (Tuesday) in the hotel and he said, 'if I can help this team win, let's do it.' ... I told him there's going to be a game - or two or three - that he helps us win. I didn't know it was going to be his first one, but he helped us win that game today." 

Frison had a game-high 25 points to lead UTC (6-10, 0-3).

Furman returns to action Saturday when it hosts VMI at 2 p.m.

Western Carolina 80, Furman 77, OT

Furman had 10 days off around Christmas to prepare for what turned out to be a thrilling two-point win over a Mercer team that's considered by many to be the best team in the SoCon. When the Paladins hosted Western Carolina in game two of the SoCon schedule in a sold out Timmons Arena three days later, they didn't look anything like the same team.

Furman trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, got outrebounded 48-35 and made just 8-of-17 free throws for the game and somehow still had a chance before falling in overtime. Western avenged an overtime loss in Greenville last year in improving to 2-21 on the road the last two seasons. It was just the fourth win for the Catamounts in the last 25 games in the series.

"Without students here, the student section was still full and the place was rocking. Unfortunately, I didn't have our team ready to play the first half at the necessary intensity and effort required to win league games," Richey said afterwards. "We got beat up on the backboard and did a poor job defending the three-point line. ... They had an eight-point lead at the half and once we finally woke up, we played pretty good basketball. But we didn't play good enough to win it.

"It's really hard to lose a game in overtime and have to look at the fact that you missed nine free throws. To think that if just one of those goes in, you win by one in regulation. ... We've got better shooters than that. We've got to go up there with a level of confidence and just go knock them down. Ultimately, it's gotten in our heads a little bit."

Western's eighth made three of the first half pushed its lead to 38-27. As the final seconds of the half ticked off, Wilkins' heave from beyond midcourt swished through to cut the lead to 38-30 at the break.

The momentum from the home run three seemed to carry over in the second half as Wilkins drained a much closer three to shave the lead to five. Four minutes later, Wilkins turned a steal into a layup and the game was tied 42-42 with 14:50 remaining. The next time down, Wilkins hit a jumper as the Paladins took their first lead since early in the game.

There were four ties and neither team led by more than two points over the final 5:30 of regulation. Wilkins' layup with 2:15 remaining pushed Furman in front 65-63. Thomas then blocked a layup attempt by Western's Cord Stansberry and Johnston grabbed the rebound. The crowd was ready to try to blow the roof off Timmons when Johnston got a good look for three, but he couldn't get it to fall.

After the Catamounts tied the game with 1:30 left, Thomas and House also got open threes on the same trip, but both missed. Stansberry missed a three with 27 seconds left, leaving Furman with the final possession of regulation. It appeared that the Paladins were going to leave it up to Wilkins to win it like he did against Mercer. After starting his drive from well beyond the three-point line with six seconds left, Wilkins was dribbled along the right sideline before firing a pass to Thomas. Thomas' heavily guarded three as time expired didn't have a prayer and the game went to overtime.

"There's a lot of plays you want back. Could we have taken a timeout there? Sure. Should we have? Probably, but then you've got to inbound the ball again versus their pressure," Richey said. "I thought they did a really good job of pressuring Lex (Wilkins) and making it hard for us to get in our offense. ... We've got to get a better look there, but that's on me."

On Furman's first possession in overtime, Vander Wal grabbed an offensive rebound and found House for a three to give the Paladins a 68-67 lead. After that made shot though, Furman missed a three, missed a putback tip-in, missed another three, missed another three then threw the ball away. Following the turnover, the Cats hit a pair of free throws to take an eight-point lead with 1:15 remaining.

After Thomas hit three free throws with 1:09 left, Western's Julian Soumaoro hit a layup with 40 seconds left. That was seemingly the dagger as the Catamounts led 78-71. After House made a layup with 31 seconds left, Vander Wal had a steal and found Johnston for a layup to cut the lead to 78-75 with 27 seconds left.

A Franklin deflection of Western's inbounds pass led to another steal by Vander Wal. This time he found Wilkins on a layup to slice the lead to 78-77 with 23 seconds left. Western finally successfully inbounded the ball and Stansberry hit a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left.

After Wilkins picked up his dribble near midcourt with 7.2 seconds left, Furman called timeout. It was another poor final possession for the Paladins as Wilkins fired up a long, off-balance three with two seconds left. With Western up three, it appeared that Wilkins may have anticipated the Catamounts fouling and was hoping to get fouled on a shot. Whatever the case was, his shot was well short and ended up being an airball out of bounds.

Wilkins finished with a game-high 24 points and six assists to lead the Paladins. Johnston had 14 points, six rebounds and no turnovers, while Vander Wal had 11 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and no turnovers.