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| Asa Thomas hit six three-pointers and scored 25 points in Furman's 90-72 win at VMI Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
LEXINGTON, Va. - In Asa Thomas' first two games back from an injury that cost him nearly a month of the season, his three-point stroke was a little off. Thomas made two three-pointers in 11 minutes of action in Furman's first meeting with VMI before leaving with that injury on Jan. 10. In Saturday's rematch, Thomas resumed that pace.
Thomas matched his career-highs of points (25) and three-pointers (six) set earlier this season to lead the Paladins to a 90-72 victory at Cameron Hall. A balanced offensive attack produced 45 points each half as Furman shot 52.5 percent for the game. A tremendous defensive effort in the opening half helped Furman take a 20-point lead. While that lead was cut into quite a bit, it didn't sniff previous meltdowns as the Paladins had big answers to snap their three-game losing streak.
"We knew a game like that was coming for Asa. ... We needed to come out here and play Furman basketball and that's what we did. ... We had 21 assists. It's been a while since we've done that," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "The Mercer loss was hard. All three of these losses have been hard, but if you look at them our defense has been better than our all-year defense. We've been guarding at a high level, but playing bad offense. I tried to convince our group that it's not that we have bad offensive players. It's not that we have bad shooters. We were just not working to help one another get great looks.
"We had 23 instances in Macon where we had a guy wide open with nobody within five feet of him and we went in there and took a bad shot or threw a bad pass. ... If we make three of those, we win the game. ... Tonight, we had three substitutions on guys taking bad shots. We just can't accept it. As we get to the end of the season, there's got to be a certain standard to the shots we're looking for."
Thomas wasted no time in getting things rolling for Furman (17-10, 8-6 Southern Conference). His three-pointers on the Paladins' first two possessions forced a VMI timeout just 57 seconds into the game. While the Keydets' T.J. Johnson got going from three, Furman didn't stop. After Alex Wilkins missed a three on the Paladins' third possession, Charles Johnston grabbed the offensive rebound. That lead to another three by Thomas off an assist from Wilkins.
On the next possession, Thomas found Cooper Bowser for a layup. On the next, Johnston hit a three off an assist from Wilkins. Then Ben Vander Wal found Thomas for another three and Furman leads 17-6 just three-and-a-half minutes into the game. Outside of a couple of turnovers that followed, the Paladins didn't have a scoreless possession until the 14:22 mark.
"That's one of the best atmospheres we played in the league so far this year. It felt like they had the whole school here. The pregame stuff with the intros and music was a 10. This place was popping," Richey said. "I thought our guys did a good job of feeding off that."
Thomas' fifth three-pointer gave Furman its biggest lead at 45-25 with 2:15 left before halftime. The Paladins didn't score again in the half, but still took a 45-27 lead into the break. After holding VMI to 26.8 percent shooting for the game in its 69-48 win in Greenville, Furman held the Keydets to 21.9 percent shooting in the first half. VMI made 7-of-32 shots in the opening half, including 0-for-8 on two-pointers.
"I don't know if I've ever seen that (a team with no made twos in a half) before," Richey said.
The Keydets made their first two-pointer technically on a long jumper by Johnson that was originally ruled a three-pointer at the 16:53 mark of the second half. Then they started driving for more while Linus Holmstrom got hot from the outside. The midway portion of the second half has been dicey for Furman when it's held a big lead and that's when VMI made its biggest threat.
A Holmstrom three with 11:37 left started a 14-5 Keydet run that Holmstrom capped with a three with 7:45 left. That cut the lead to 65-58 and forced a Furman timeout. Coming out of the break, Thomas threw an alleyoop that Bowser slammed home. After a VMI turnover, Bowser found Wilkins for a three-pointer and the Paladins never led by fewer than 11 the rest of the way.
"That was one of our best timeouts of the year. We come out and get three stops in a row and we run the same play three times in a row," Richey said. "We get Coop on the dunk, a three and then a putback by Cole (Bowser). All of a sudden, we're back up 14. ... Teams are going to punch. You've got to be able to punch back."
Furman finished things off in style as the Keydets tried to full-court press as a last resort over the final minutes. That led to layups by Wilkins and Abijah Franklin, a dunk by Vander Wal and a pair of Bowser dunks off alleyoop lobs. The Paladins shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the second half, including 12-for-12 on two-pointers.
Furman put up its season-high point total in league play despite Wilkins being held to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting before fouling out late. He did have a game-high six assists and only two turnovers though. Johnston finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds in just 22 minutes of work for his ninth double-double this season and second in SoCon play. Cooper Bowser went 6-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the foul line to finish with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, three blocks and no turnovers.
Tom House made 3-of-6 three-pointers to finish with nine points and four rebounds off the bench for the Paladins. Also making a big contribution was Vander Wal, who was coming off one of the more bizarre games of his career. At Mercer, he only played 15 minutes and didn't score as the 70 percent shooter was 0-for-2 from the floor. With just under eight minutes remaining in Macon, Vander Wal left with Furman up 51-50 and he never returned in what became a five-point loss.
Vander Wal responded with the type of stat line you'd expect from the senior "glue" of this team. He actually took fewer shots on Saturday, as his lone one was the late dunk, but he finished with eight points as the 41 percent foul shooter made 6-of-8 free throws. He also had seven rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, one turnover and one foul while drawing six.
"I called him Thursday night and apologized for (the lack of normal playing time). That was my fault. Sometimes when the floor gets tight and we feel like Alex doesn't have enough space, the natural reaction is to try to put space out there and get Ben off the court," Richey said. "The reality was we were better with him on the court than off it once I watched the film. The spacers weren't taking good shots and weren't guarding. It was one of those things that sounds good in the moment, but in totality Ben's got to be out there. He's got to be out there in crunch time. He's just been in too many big moments for us to not be."
Johnson scored a game-high 26 points and had six rebounds and two steals to lead VMI (6-21, 1-13).
Furman will go from facing the SoCon's last-place team to the first-place team when the Paladins host East Tennessee State Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. Furman will try to avenge a heartbreaking 75-71 overtime loss to the Buccaneers two weeks ago.
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