Short-handed Paladins earn gritty win at Samford

Alex Wilkins had a career-high 28 points and five assists as Furman
won at Samford, 77-73, Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman

The Furman men's basketball team went deep into its bench to help earn wins at Chattanooga and over VMI last week, but it couldn't do the same at Samford Wednesday night. Injuries to starters Tom House and Asa Thomas suffered in the VMI game left the Paladins with only eight scholarship players available Wednesday.

Three of those eight got in serious foul trouble, but "find a way" Furman somehow found another way. Freshman sensation Alex Wilkins scored a career-high 28 points as the Paladins knocked off the Bulldogs, 77-73. Wilkins also had five assists and maybe most importantly, managed to stay on the court for the final 6:28 while playing with four fouls. Despite the foul situation, Wilkins defended well enough to help Furman hold Samford to no field goals over the final 4:32.

"You can call it adversity or whatever. Injuries are part of the game. For guys to be hungry for their opportunities and to compete the way they're competing, they're not perfect, but they're playing their guts out," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "Life rewards that and sports rewards that. It's incredible what we're doing with what we have out.

"When we played the Alabama exhibition game, only four of these guys (who played Wednesday) played. It's tremendous to see how quickly guys are growing up. ... Lex had a special performance, but the entire group just stepped up. You look at the box and it's eight (points), nine, eight, eight, etc."

While the numbers may have called for the Paladins (13-5, 4-1 Southern Conference) to try to slow things down, just the opposite happened from the start. While Samford (9-9, 2-3) was more deliberate and pounded the ball inside, Furman was jacking three-pointers and throwing the ball all over the place early on. The Paladins offset turnovers by making five of their first eight threes - two by Wilkins, the second make of the season for Mason Smith and the first two attempts of Cole Bowser's career.

After assisting on Bowser's second three, Wilkins hit a jumper the next time down as Furman took a 21-19 lead with 11:45 left. Then a swoon hit the Paladins. Over the next three minutes, Furman went 0-for-5 from the floor - all threes - and had two turnovers. That helped the Bulldogs take a 28-21 lead before Smith hit his second three with 8:06 left in the half.

Then swooning resumed. The Paladins made two of their next 12 shots, including 0-for-4 from three, over the next five minutes. Fortunately for Furman, it had no turnovers during that cold stretch and it also turned the defense up. As such, Samford was only ahead by four points when Abijah Franklin made a steal and got the ball to Wilkins. Wilkins found Charles Johnston who soared in for a dunk to cut the lead to two with 3:03 left.

With 1:19 left, Franklin hit a three to put the Paladins back in front, 38-37. As the first half clock expired, Wilkins made a jumper to make it 40-40 at the break. The game was tied at the half despite Samford shooting 53.6 percent compared to Furman's 40 percent. The Bulldogs dominated points in the paint, 24-10, and points off turnovers, 14-7. The Paladins had just seven second-chance points despite nine offensive rebounds. Getting tied at the half required cleaning things up for Furman, which had seven turnovers in the first half but none over the final 8:34.

For the third consecutive game, the Paladins followed a great end to the first half with a great start to the second half. After Ben Vander Wal missed Furman's 14th three-pointer of the game as the shot clock expired on Furman's opening possession of the second half, the Paladins started attacking the basket.

Johnston hit Vander Wal on a backdoor cut for a layup the next offensive trip before Wilkins had layups on back-to-back possessions. After Eddrin Brown hit a pair of free throws, Owen Ritger hit a pretty turnaround jumper down low as the shot clock expired to push Furman's lead to 50-42 with 15:35 left. The only hiccup of the fast start came when Bowser picked up his fourth foul just over two minutes in.

"We were down 36-30 and the crowd was into it, but we finish the first half on a 10-4 run to knot it up at 40," Richey said. "This team has been pretty good coming out of the locker room after halftime and we go on another run to get a little bit of a margin. We've got to keep that up."

After trailing for much of the first half, Furman never trailed after halftime. The lead grew to as much as nine three different times on layups by Bronson, Johnston and Wilkins midway through the second half.

Vander Wal's layup with 8:37 left gave the Paladins a 65-57 lead, but Wilkins was whistled for his fourth foul just 12 seconds later and he headed to the bench. Less than four minutes later, Samford had the lead down to one at 67-66 on Keaton Norris' jumper with 4:33 left.

Furman made only one three-pointer in the second half, but it sure was huge. Johnston, who was also playing with four fouls, answered the Bulldogs' score with a three. Wilkins hit a jumper on the next possession and just like that, the Paladins were back up by six with 3:36 remaining.

After the jumper by Norris, Samford went 0-for-6 from the floor the rest of the way. Bowser hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left to push the lead to five and seal the win.

"Cole Bowser bangs two threes in the first half then has to step up to the line as a guy in his third college game," Richey said. "It's a one-and-one with a three-point lead and he hits both of them."

Wilkins' 28-point effort was the most by a Furman freshman since Devin Sibley scored 29 against East Tennessee State on Feb. 14, 2015. No other Paladin reached double figures, but Johnston scored nine, while Vander Wal, Bronson, Bowser and Frankin each had eight points. Johnston also had 14 rebounds, two steals and just one turnover before fouling out with 32 seconds left. Smith added six points and a career-high 11 rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.

Despite going 1-for-11 from three in the second half, Furman made 14-of-21 two-pointers and had just three turnovers. After shooting 53.6 percent in the first half, the Bulldogs were held to 34.5 percent (10-of-29) in the second half. Samford leading scorer Jadin Booth, who was averaging 20.4 points per game entering Wednesday, had 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Dylan Faulkner led the Bulldogs with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

"It's a true, glued together, connected team right now," Richey said. "Out of the eight we played tonight, six are freshmen or sophomores and they just continue to battle."

Furman improved to 4-1 on the road this season. Over the past decade, the Paladins have collected 78 true road victories. Nationally, only Belmont (92), Vermont (90) and UC Irvine (82) have more during that same time frame.

It will be the third consecutive sellout at Timmons Arena when Furman returns to action Saturday against Wofford at 5 p.m. Unlike the last two games, this one has been sold out since last Sunday. Prior to the men's game, the Furman women will host Western Carolina at 2 p.m.