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| Asa Thomas had 14 points in Furman's 69-64 loss at Mercer Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
When the Furman basketball team was dealing with an absurd amount of injuries earlier this season, "find a way Furman" was in full swing as the Paladins found different paths to success despite the obstacles. While Furman has gotten healthier lately, the wins have been hard to come by. On Wednesday at Mercer, the Paladins found a way to lose.
Furman held the Bears to 35.9 percent shooting, but Mercer pulled out a 69-64 win to improve to 12-0 at home this season. The five-point deficit was the Paladins' most lopsided loss in Southern Conference play. Among Div. I opponents, only VMI has shot a lower percentage against Furman (16-10, 7-6) this season. The Paladins have held 10 opponents to 41.0 percent shooting or lower and the Bears are the only one of those to win.
While Mercer won the rebounding battle 44-37, which included 14 offensive boards, second-chance points were even at 11. Both teams hit 23 shots, but 10 of Furman's were threes while the Bears only hit five. The difference came at the foul line as Mercer made 18-of-21 free throws, while the Paladins converted 8-of-13. The Bears' Baraka Okojie shot more free throws than Furman's entire team as he was 12-of-14 on his way to a 25-point night.
A big part of Mercer's poor shooting night came over the opening 13 minutes of the game when it started 3-of-19 from the floor. The Paladins weren't much better as they went 3-of-15 before a rapid flurry of makes ensued. In a span of just 4:17, Furman made 7-of-9 shots. That keyed a 16-4 run to stake the Paladins to a 25-15 lead with 5:43 left in the first half.
No Furman lead has been safe of late and it took Mercer less than four minutes to wipe that double-digit spread away with an 11-1 run. Cooper Bowser's layup with 48 seconds left helped Furman take a 31-29 lead into halftime.
The Paladins came out firing in the second half. Their first six attempts after halftime were three-pointers and four of those went down. Cole Bowser's three with 15:54 left pushed Furman's lead to 45-39. Then that hot shooting just stopped and never returned. The Paladins went 7-for-24 the rest of the way, including 1-for-10 from three. That comes on the heels of making just 1-of-9 threes in the second half in the loss to UNC Greensboro, and 2-of-9 in the second half and 1-of-6 in overtime in the loss at East Tennessee State.
After Asa Thomas hit a tough turnaround jumper to give Furman a 51-48 lead with 10:39 remaining, the Paladins had a run of particularly poor possessions. Collin O'Neal's cross-court pass sailed over the outstretched arms of 6-foot-11 Charles Johnston and into the stands. Johnston missed a three and then was called for his fourth foul with 8:53 left on the other end. Eddrin Bronson's three from the top of the key rattled in-and-out. Next time down, Bronson's desperation three as the shot clock expired was partially blocked. On the next possession, Bronson shot an air ball from three.
Those three consecutive missed threes were the only shots Bronson attempted the entire game. Prior to that last miss a seemingly significant substitution happened. After Bowser blocked the shot of Mercer standout big man Armani Mighty, Ben Vander Wal tied up Mighty and the arrow gave Furman possession with 7:20 remaining. It didn't appear that Vander Wal was shaken up on the play as he was set to inbound the ball, but he was called to the bench and never returned.
Furman still led 51-50 when Vander Wal left but Mercer got an offensive rebound on its next possession. The Bears then took their first lead since the 11-minute mark of the first half on a terrific up-and-under move by Okojie. They pushed the lead to four thanks to a three-pointer by Brady Shoulders on their next possession.
Cole Bowser snapped Furman's five-minute scoreless streak with the Paladins' lone made three of the final 15:53. Furman regained the lead on its next possession in spectacular fashion when Alex Wilkins delivered an alleyoop pass from midcourt that Cooper Bowser slammed home. That gave the Paladins a 56-55 advantage with 5:05 remaining.
Following a timeout by Mercer, the Bears responded by hitting four consecutive shots. That was part of scoring on each of their next five possessions to take a 65-59 lead with 2:23 left. The Paladins could never pull even despite having a couple of chances trailing 65-62 with 32 seconds left. Asa Thomas' three-point attempt from nearly on the Furman bench was an airball, but Bronson made a terrific play to save it off of Shoulders. Thomas tried another tough three that went in-and-out. Johnston tipped in the miss with 22 seconds left to cut the lead to 65-64. Mercer made four free throws, sandwiched around another tough three by Thomas that barely drew iron, to seal the win.
Shortly after Vander Wal left, Mercer had a string of 6-of-8 shooting from the floor including a pair of uncontested layups by Zaire Williams. Outside of that 6-for-8 shooting run, the Bears made 8-of-25 field goals in the second half.
Thomas finished with 14 points to lead the Paladins, while Cooper Bowser and Johnston each scored 11. Bowser also had seven rebounds. Furman leading scorer Alex Wilkins was held to seven points on 1-of-7 shooting and was at minus-16 in the plus-minus category. His lone bucket came on his final attempt with 2:02 left. Wilkins did have a game-high five assists.
The only other Paladin in double figures was Tom House, who scored 10 points. Despite playing 23 minutes and being a proven outside shooter, House logged only 54 seconds over the final 6:11 of the game and played none of the final 4:11. Vander Wal was held scoreless in a season-low 15 minutes of action. The 69 percent field goal shooter's only attempts were a layup and a three-pointer.
In addition to Okojie's game-high 25-point performance for Mercer (16-10, 8-5), Shoulders finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and two steals. Williams scored 13 points, while Mighty collected a game-high 14 rebounds and seven points.
Furman will try to snap a three-game losing skid when it plays at VMI Saturday at 1 p.m.
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