Paladins' comeback falls short against UNCG

Alex Wilkins had 15 points and five assists in Furman's 67-64
loss to UNC Greensboro Sunday. Photo courtesy of Furman

As with every other Southern Conference loss this season, Furman suffered another close one Sunday as the Paladins fell to UNC Greensboro, 67-64. Three of Furman's five SoCon losses have come in overtime and none of the five have been decided by more than four points.

Unlike the previous three defeats, there was no blown lead this time. A subpar first half by the Paladins made sure of that. After winning at UNCG by 23 last month, Furman trailed by as much as 10 in the second half. The Paladins (16-9, 7-5) got the lead down to one on three separate occasions, but could never pull even. That included Alex Wilkins' desperation three as time expired.

"Give Greensboro a ton of credit. Both teams played extremely hard. Unfortunately, we didn't play hard enough in the beginning and gave them a pretty solid cushion at halftime," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "They were the tougher team in the first half and were more physical than we were. ... I thought we turned a lot of that around in the second half ... but we've got to put 40 (full minutes) together.

"At the end of the day, what stands out the most is they were 10-for-19 from three and we were 5-for-19 from three. It's always going to be a make-miss game. ... That's a 15-point separator there. We go 1-for-9 (from three) in the second half and that's a little bit of a trend for us. We're shooting the ball well in the first half, but not the second half."

Looking to bounce back from another gut punch of an overtime loss at East Tennessee State last Wednesday, Furman had a small lead over the first eight minutes Sunday. A three by UNCG's Justin Neely tied the game at 17-17 with 11:37 left in the first half and the Paladins never led again.

After a dunk by Ben Vander Wal cut the Spartans' lead to 20-19 with 10:11 left, Furman missed a pair of layups, a three-pointer and had a turnover over its next four possessions. That allowed UNCG (10-15, 6-6) to stretch the advantage to 26-19. Over the final six minutes of the half, the Spartans outscored the Paladins 11-6 to take a 39-32 lead into halftime.

Two of the best players in the SoCon squared off down the stretch. Wilkins had a layup with 3:35 left to cut the lead to 59-58, but Neely answered with a layup and was fouled. He completed the three-point play to push the lead to 62-58. Wilkins came back with a tough fadeaway jumper along the baseline. After a rare miss by Neely, Wilkins drove and drew a foul with 2:04 left. Wilkins suffered his only missed free throw of the game before making the second to cut the lead to 62-61.

UNCG's Noah Norgaard missed a layup with 1:38 remaining and Charles Johnston grabbed the rebound giving Furman a chance to take the lead. The golden opportunity slipped away when Cooper Bowser's pass sailed out of bounds where Asa Thomas should've been for a wide open layup. It appeared that Thomas was held on the play, but no whistle came and Richey voiced his displeasure to the officials. He didn't hold back his opinion of the play in the postgame press conference.

"He was definitely held. You could see it on the video board. The ref tells me he wasn't looking at it. (Thomas) is cutting and he's literally being grabbed, so I don't know what they're looking at," Richey said. "In a game of that magnitude with three guys out there, I don't know how they can't see that we have a cutter being grabbed as the ball goes out of bounds. ... That would've put him to the free throw line to shoot two. We act like it's not a big deal, but it's a critical missed call.

"If we make both and take the lead again, they answered every bell so they might go down there and bang a three. You never know what's going to happen but in those moments, those plays have to be seen. ... To think we're just going to chuck the ball out of bounds with a guy running free, that's not how the game goes."

After the turnover, the Spartans ran down the shot clock before Norgaard drilled a backbreaking three. Trailing 65-61 with 42 seconds left, Wilkins drew a foul and hit both free throws. Following a missed layup by the Spartans' Lilian Marville, bodies hit the floor diving for a loose ball rebound before it was scooped up by Johnston. Johnston quickly fired the ball to Wilkins, who raced down the floor and lobbed it to Bowser. The lob wasn't high enough for Bowser to simply catch and dunk though. After he came down with the catch, he was hacked before he could go back up for a shot.

Bowser, a 62 percent foul shooter, had the first throw bounce around and in. The second hit the back of the rim and into the hands of Neely, who was fouled with six seconds left. After Neely made both, Wilkins raced up the floor. The ball was deflected out before Wilkins recovered it, but he had to throw up an off-balance three as time expired and it bounced off the backboard no good.

"We had Asa there open with a second to go, but it was hard for Alex to see him as he's trying to recover that ball off the ground," Richey said. "Unfortunately, we had to take a tough one."

Making his first start since Dec. 18, Bowser led Furman with 20 points and six rebounds. Wilkins had 15 points, five assists and two steals in just 25 minutes of action as he once again dealt with foul trouble. In his first action since suffering an injury on Jan. 10, Thomas had nine points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench.

Neely had 24 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and a block on his way to earning SoCon Player of the Week honors. He also had one foul, but drew eight.

It will be a battle of two talented, but struggling teams when Furman next plays at Mercer Wednesday at 7 p.m. While they are currently tied for third place in the league, both will be trying to stop two-game losing streaks. Three teams are tied for fifth place, one game behind the Paladins and Bears. One of those five teams will very likely end up having to play on the Friday night session of the SoCon Tournament as the No. 7 seed.

"It's all going to come down to Asheville. You're playing for seeding in these games but most importantly, you're using these games to figure out what your best looks like," Richey said. "We've got to have the toughness, intensity and effort to go out there and play a game for 40 minutes."