tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36865873739635484632024-03-10T14:28:12.241-04:00Furman Sports ReportGame reviews, previews, notes and features about Furman University football, men's basketball and other sports.
This blog exists as a way for me to continue to cover Furman athletics, which I did for several years for The Greenville News.
Special thanks to Furman Sports Information for photo use and to original blog sponsor, Tommy's Country Ham House.Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.comBlogger546125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-5902383952271825842024-03-10T14:27:00.001-04:002024-03-10T14:27:12.597-04:00Paladins oust Catamounts in another classic<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaiBNPlb1_SFEKV22J8TkEZcGAd2zWhJLdioRrOORa0N8yfNLEdAa3cXXihoFdICCzrJKSyOmjtnH6rRpyQLBsDxBDiezj3QfXlxPas9efzx0pf_P6gXoB_Jsm8Fzp4pAoe-GhIVxV7oDipdSCg0oHPdr_AfVu6Rr-AVGxZG47v9yYg0lOtWbJY_Rk2fC/s2968/PJay-Western.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1979" data-original-width="2968" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaiBNPlb1_SFEKV22J8TkEZcGAd2zWhJLdioRrOORa0N8yfNLEdAa3cXXihoFdICCzrJKSyOmjtnH6rRpyQLBsDxBDiezj3QfXlxPas9efzx0pf_P6gXoB_Jsm8Fzp4pAoe-GhIVxV7oDipdSCg0oHPdr_AfVu6Rr-AVGxZG47v9yYg0lOtWbJY_Rk2fC/w400-h266/PJay-Western.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman's PJay Smith knocks the ball away from Western Carolina's Russell Jones as the final seconds<br />expire in the Paladins' 79-76 win at the SoCon Tournament Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Much like The Godfather and The Terminator, somehow the sequel was even better than the amazing original. After a thrilling overtime battle in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals last season, Furman and Western Carolina put on another overtime classic in the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals Saturday.</p><p>Once again, the Paladins found a way to advance. Unlike last year when Furman had to battle back after blowing an 18-point second half lead, the Paladins had to withstand a blistering shooting start by the Catamounts Saturday. Furman trailed by as many as 12 in the first half before rallying for the 79-76 overtime win. The fifth-seeded Paladins (17-15) advance to face top-seeded Samford in Sunday's semifinals at 4 p.m.</p><p>"What an unbelievable college basketball game. I've been trying to tell everybody how good this league is. I just don't think people understand it. I don't think they've understood it for years. But the high quality of basketball, you saw it on display from noon to tonight," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "Give (Western Carolina coach) Justin (Gray) a lot of credit. I've got a lot of respect for Justin and we've had some classics with them."</p><p>There were tons of storylines Saturday, but none bigger than the job Furman's defense did on SoCon Player of the Year Vonterius Woolbright and the turnaround it pulled off. With four minutes left in the first half, Western held a 40-28 lead and was shooting 72.7 percent from the floor. They were shooting like that with no points from Woolbright. He had seven assists and five missed shots before making his first with 52 seconds left in the half. That was the Catamounts' final points of the half as they took a 42-40 lead into the break.</p><p>It was like Western picked up where they left off in last Wednesday's home win over Furman when it shot over 60 percent in the second half and scored 55 points that half. But after that four-minute mark left in the first half in which the Catamounts were 16-of-22 from the floor - including 8-of-13 on three-pointers, they made just 15-of-40 (37.5 percent) shots the rest of the way - including 0-for-6 on threes.</p><p>"We knew coming into the game that we were going to have to do a much better job on Woolbright. ... Give our team a lot of credit. To have a player that good score 11 points on 14 shots and turn him over six times, that's why we were able to win the game," Richey said. "We were able to survive an incredible shooting display by (Kamar) Robertson and (Tre) Jackson to start the game. It felt like they were hitting everything, but our players kept fighting.</p><p>"I couldn't be more proud of our team. Every single person that played did something to help us win. That's the power of the unit. That's how Furman won and that's how we will always win. ... When this team guards we can beat a lot of people. Once we got transition defense shored up after the first five minutes of the game and once we did a much better job guarding their shooters, you saw an unbelievable defensive effort that allowed us to get a classic victory."</p><p>The other major storylines Saturday were redemption and classic Furman "team" basketball. Those two things went hand in hand.</p><p>J.P. Pegues was his typical phenomenal self with a game-high 28 points thanks in part to making 6-of-11 three-pointers. Dating back to his game-winning three against Virginia in last year's NCAA Tournament, Pegues' reputation for making clutch shots has only grown as he has added more throughout this season.</p><p>Western knows fully well about Pegues exploits in the final seconds and were defending him as such. So Pegues relied on his teammates in those final moments on Saturday. It's a pretty safe bet that nobody had who those teammates would be on their bingo card. The game was tied at 67 with 38 seconds left in regulation when Pegues found Garrett Hien for a go-ahead layup and a foul.</p><p>Hien missed the free throw and Woolbright drove all the way to the bucket and hit a layup with his non-shooting hand to tie the game at 69-69 with 29 seconds left. After calling timeout with 17 seconds left, Carter Whitt replaced Hien as the Paladins went with a small lineup. As Furman played for the final shot, Pegues for Whitt for a layup that he couldn't get to fall and overtime commenced.</p><p>Essentially the same scenario came about in overtime. After Pegues hit a three, the Paladins led 74-71 with three minutes left. Woolbright answered back getting a circus shot to foul while drawing Hien's fifth foul. Woolbright made the free throw to tie the game with 2:47 left. Once again, Whitt came in after Hien fouled out.</p><p>Marcus Foster and Woolbright exchanged layups to leave the game tied 76-76 with less than a minute to play. Foster got the ball down low and drew a double team, so he fired to Pegues on the perimeter. Once again, Pegues quickly drew a double team as well and once again, he fired a pass to Whitt for a layup. Whitt came through this time with what turned out to be the game-winner with 47 seconds left.</p><p>"That's just the trust and confidence that we have in each other," Pegues said. "Like coach said, there were some plays like on the pass to Garrett Hien where I could've shot it, but I trust him so much I can live with the results with the ball in his hands at a time like that. I feel like that confidence that instills in him helps our team overall."</p><p>After Russell Jones missed a layup on the other end, Whitt came away with the rebound. Alex Williams got caught in a trap before midcourt and despite Richey signaling for a timeout with 21 on the shot clock, it got to 20 and Furman turned it over on the 10-second violation. Undaunted, Williams brilliantly defended Woolbright who couldn't get his layup to fall and Foster grabbed the rebound. After Foster hit 1-of-2 free throws, the Catamounts had one more chance trailing 79-76 with 13 seconds left.</p><p>Jones' three-pointer from the top of the key missed to the left and went off Foster, who tapped it towards Whitt. Whitt tapped it forward and PJay Smith hit the deck to tap it further away from Western's bucket. Just after the ball crossed midcourt, Williams finally corralled the rebound and glided towards Furman's basket as the final clock expired.</p><p>"I thought we had as good a practice on Wednesday and Thursday as we've had in this calendar year. Probably going back to October actually. I challenged our team coming off that Mercer game, but we didn't watch any of it. We just moved on because we know why we didn't win that game," Richey said. "We didn't play good second half defense in Cullowhee or in Greenville (against Mercer in the last week of the regular season). We gave up 103 points in two second halves. Tonight we give up 27 in the second half. It's a choice and that's life. You've got to make to the decision to do hard things and tonight we did that.</p><p>"We got the boxscore (at the under-four timeout in the first half). I told them 'they're shooting over 70 percent and you're only down nine. We can shut this thing down or we can go out there and get this defense better.' And PJay Smith's defense from that timeout forward was incredible. They didn't make a three-pointer from that point on. That was the final 29 minutes without a three and that was part of the game plan."</p><p>Furman's last basket in the final seconds of regulation which led to overtime was by Hien, who finished with six points, five rebounds, four assists and no turnovers in more than 25 minutes - his biggest playing time in four games. Hien was involved in a kerfuffle with Furman trailing 40-31 in the first half. It wasn't bad enough to draw any technical fouls, but it certainly seemed to spark something in Furman as it got the lead down to two by the half.</p><p>With just over two minutes left in regulation, Hien was in the middle of a huge sequence that began with Furman trailing 67-63. As Foster got a shot to fall, Hien and Western's Charles Lampton were fighting for rebounding position when Hien took a shot to the throat and fell to the court. After video review, the foul was deemed flagrant. While Hien missed both technical free throws, Furman retained possession and Foster hit another floater in the paint to tie the game.</p><p>Furman's winning basket was by Whitt, who played less than four minutes in the regular season finale last Saturday. He finished with four points, two assists, two steals and no turnovers in 15 minutes. It was Whitt's first game with more than one steal since he had four in the win over Western Carolina in Greenville on Jan. 20.</p><p>Furman's game-sealing rebound and run out was by Williams, who had played anywhere from 11 to 24 minutes off the bench in the final three games after serving a three-game suspension for a violation of team rules. Williams had eight points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals in 36 minutes off the bench. The only game in which Williams played longer this season was Furman's double overtime loss at Tulane.</p><p>"Just unbelievable grit by Alex Williams on defense. I couldn't be more proud of him," Richey said. "He had the guts to take the three in transition in a tie game. He missed it, but he continued to just get stops. ... To see him play that hard with everything he's been through, it was incredible."</p><p>In addition to Pegues (28), Foster (18) and Smith (12) also reached double figures for the Paladins. Foster also grabbed seven rebounds, while Smith had essentially a perfect game. Smith was 5-for-5 from the floor with a pair of threes, and also had three steals, two assists and no turnovers. Cooper Bowser had all three of Furman's blocked shots including two huge ones back-to-back on one Western possession.</p><p>Furman had only six turnovers and outside of Hien, no other Paladin had more than one foul. Furman outscored Western 15-7 on points off turnovers. The Paladins also somehow had an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points despite having only six offensive rebounds while Western grabbed nine.</p><p>Woolbright finished 5-of-14 from the floor, but still barely missed his fifth triple-double as he had 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Robertson had 17 points, while Jackson scored 15 to lead Western (22-10).</p><p>After wrapping up Saturday's night win around 10:45 p.m., Furman's attention had to quickly turn to preparing for regular season champions who they split with this season. Samford wrapped up its quarterfinal win Saturday about nine hours earlier than the Paladins thanks to the new structure of the tournament schedule this season.</p><p>"We've just got to go home, get to bed and get to our plan. We've already got a play. We know how we want to play tomorrow," Richey said. "We get past this win the same way we got past last year. That was a semifinal game last year and we had to regroup and get ready for the championship game and we will do the same thing. Everybody's going to make a big deal about the game time ... but at the end of the day, (Sunday's) going to be two really good teams squaring off in a really high-level semifinal game."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-8756682282125153582024-03-09T11:19:00.002-05:002024-03-09T11:19:36.774-05:00Paladins hope to regain championship form<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6hmCOF1Tv2x6BUjd2xr98663ejvwOsFg7MYnZMroC5bnhsti8cNurwHZvdoSyMqPRvlLryI_CjsDuCz2zQ1abFjULwtkXyZFWUVw0GW8zvb24jD90HlTN2q9tZeyi4tzGxnus4CBnc5_WsT94H8hSILiI3zV0vELbOVsWo6HLTBEU19M8s47LjDtrmVY/s3756/Richey-Mercer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2504" data-original-width="3756" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6hmCOF1Tv2x6BUjd2xr98663ejvwOsFg7MYnZMroC5bnhsti8cNurwHZvdoSyMqPRvlLryI_CjsDuCz2zQ1abFjULwtkXyZFWUVw0GW8zvb24jD90HlTN2q9tZeyi4tzGxnus4CBnc5_WsT94H8hSILiI3zV0vELbOVsWo6HLTBEU19M8s47LjDtrmVY/w400-h266/Richey-Mercer.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman will try to win back-to-back Southern Conference Tournament<br />championships this weekend in Asheville. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The Furman men's basketball team is experienced enough to know everything it takes to be successful at the Southern Conference Tournament. The Paladins arrived in Asheville this weekend with hopes of making the championship for a third consecutive season and becoming the first SoCon team to cut down the nets in back-to-back seasons since Wofford in 2015.</p><p>The fifth-seeded Paladins (16-15) are also smart enough to know one thing that absolutely won't work this weekend. That is any defensive effort like they gave in the final week of the regular season. Western Carolina and Mercer each shot better than 60 percent in their respective second halves to send Furman into the tourney on a two-game losing streak. The loss to the Bears last Saturday completed a season sweep for Mercer, which had lost each of the previous 18 games in the series. It also gave the Paladins two SoCon losses at Timmons Arena this season. Furman had lost only three SoCon games at home over the previous four seasons combined.</p><p>Losing two straight and three of your last four isn't an ideal way to enter your conference tournament, but it also doesn't automatically seal your fate. Furman is more battle-tested than any team in the SoCon. That hard schedule in November and December was designed to pay off in March. It's not like the Paladins are alone in how they closed out the regular season.</p><p>With the top seed secured, regular season champion Samford rested its three leading scorers in a loss at Wofford last Wednesday. The loss wasn't surprising given the circumstances, but the margin was. With three-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, the Bulldogs led the Terriers by one. With three-and-a-half minutes left in the second half, Wofford led by 39 and went on to a 91-69 win. Meanwhile, second-seeded UNC Greensboro and third-seeded Chattanooga each lost two of their last three. The only SoCon team that didn't lose over the final 10 days of the regular season was fourth-seeded Western Carolina, who will face Furman in Saturday's last quarterfinal at approximately 8:30 p.m. The Catamounts enter on a three-game winning streak.</p><p>"We talked about momentum going into Asheville all week and how important it is. We lost at Samford two years ago, then beat Citadel to get some momentum and the next thing you know we're in the championship. Last year we go win down at Samford to win the league (and then win the tournament)," Furman coach Bob Richey said following the Mercer loss. "Two years ago in the COVID year, we go to Wofford and lose at the buzzer on that offensive rebound and then we lose in the quarterfinal game.</p><p>"I'm not saying that if you lose today, you can't win in the tournament. It just gives you more that you've got to crawl through. You've got to work through it when you're not playing your best. You want to be feeling good about things this time of year. We've let two get away here back-to-back and you know, it's the same story."</p><p>The key is consistency. It's not like the Paladins have played bad defensively all season. There have been times this season where their defense has been excellent. Examples of that were displayed against one of the best offenses in the country in Samford.</p><p>The Bulldogs, who rank fourth nationally in scoring at 86.9 points per game, had their lowest scoring output in league play at Greenville Jan. 24. Furman snapped Samford's NCAA-best 17-game winning streak with a 78-68 victory that night. Only Purdue and Virginia Commonwealth, who were Samford's first two opponents, held the Bulldogs to fewer points this season. The Bulldogs were averaging more than 97 points per game at home when Furman visited Birmingham on Feb. 21. The Paladins led that game 72-67 with 40 seconds to play before Samford made a furious rally for a 74-72 win.</p><p>"We've won five in a row in this league at one point and four out of five in this league at another," Richey said. "We've had some very good defensive performances and a lot of the year we've been in the top three defensively. But we have to be consistent with it. It can't be selective. ... We're going to fight like heck to figure it out.</p><p>"My biggest hope for this team is now they know that it's the next game and if you lose it, you're done. That's where we are now. There's no like, 'hey, come back to practice.' You go out there with your back on the wall and you have to make a choice: How determined are we going to be?" </p><p>The key to Furman's success during that five-game winning streak after starting 0-2 in SoCon play was finally having a fully healthy squad and every member of it contributing. The four out of five streak in February came about after Richey changed the starting lineup following Furman's loss at Mercer on Feb. 7.</p><p>Carter Whitt and Alex Williams have not been able to have the same kind of impact coming off the bench down the stretch. After making 5-of-8 three-pointers in a 21-point night at VMI on Jan. 17, Whitt is 0-for-14 from three since and played less than four minutes last Saturday. Whitt had 10 steals over three games of that five-game streak in January, but only six since. Williams has been working his way back into the mix following a three-game suspension for a violation of team rules. He's still third on the team in scoring averaging 13.8 points per game and still leads the team in three-point shooting at 40.7 percent, but hasn't scored more than six points since his return. If he can hit that scoring average and be that lethal outside threat this weekend, it would obviously be a huge boost for Furman.</p><p>In addition to defense, three-point shooting is also a key for the Paladins. Richey is still fully confident in his team's shooting ability, but it's been a struggle the last two games. One of Furman's sharpshooters, Marcus Foster, hit 1-of-10 threes at Western and made 1-of-8 against Mercer. It hasn't affected his overall game though as Foster recorded his fifth double-double of the season. Foster, who was named to the All-SoCon second team this week, is averaging 17.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.</p><p>While J.P. Pegues has hit clutch shots all season, he's been particularly dominant down the stretch. Following a perplexing four-point performance in the loss at Mercer, Pegues has averaged 23 points per game over the final seven games. After somehow being left off the All-SoCon team last season, Pegues was named to the first team this year after leading the Paladins in scoring (18 points per game) and assists (4.9 per game).</p><p>While Pegues has been pouring in points of late, he's also led the team in assists each of the last three games. That's not necessarily a good thing. This offense isn't built for someone to score 30-plus points and have half of the team's assists in the same game. It's designed to be more spread out through ball movement and playing connected.</p><p>Furman's offensive connection seems to coincide with its defensive connection and vice versa. The Paladins are 12-2 when having more assists than their opponents and 2-12 when having fewer. Furman is 11-0 when holding opponents to fewer than 70 points and 5-15 when allowing 70 or more.</p><p>The Paladins may push all the right buttons to get themselves right and that would certainly boost their chances, but it might still not be enough Saturday night. Even if its a modest three-game winning streak, Western Carolina is the hottest team going into the tournament.</p><p>The Catamounts are also led by the SoCon Player of the Year Vonterius Woolbright, who recorded his fourth triple-double this season in last Wednesday's win over Furman. That led to his record ninth SoCon Player of the Week honor. The last SoCon Player of the Year to lose in his team's opening game of the tournament was UNCG's Isaiah Miller in 2020. The league's top player has led his team to a tournament championship win four of the last five years, including Jalen Slawson last season.</p><p>Having a team full of guys who have been here and done this before, the Paladins still have hope. In the words of Andy Dufresne, 'Hope is a good thing.'</p><p>"It all resets in Asheville. In life, you're always looking for hope. Well, we've got hope. We've shown that we can play with anybody in this league in a lot of different games," Richey said. "But it takes a certain intensity, a certain defensive mindset and a certain connection on offense. That's all paramount to how we have to be successful. There's going to be no other way to get this done."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-32661230951650115712024-03-06T18:42:00.003-05:002024-03-06T19:30:57.218-05:00Another defensive meltdown costs Furman in loss<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMtg5KxihS7iwgNglMRUU_5gTcSorhX8DS3Ll6GS1zleRQOoZuBto1twsr3ZPPxPq2ampuItVRBKLRtTbzHOtX5t59lj92W0cpCeqieXVZipvSqsLh7R5MWHVrcRbr_wBuRdmQOWCxnI2zXwqHTDfFeOtJuU1TPU8xbNENwkG2c8-vrO-mgEJPAz3dm2Q/s4357/JP-Mercer.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2905" data-original-width="4357" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMtg5KxihS7iwgNglMRUU_5gTcSorhX8DS3Ll6GS1zleRQOoZuBto1twsr3ZPPxPq2ampuItVRBKLRtTbzHOtX5t59lj92W0cpCeqieXVZipvSqsLh7R5MWHVrcRbr_wBuRdmQOWCxnI2zXwqHTDfFeOtJuU1TPU8xbNENwkG2c8-vrO-mgEJPAz3dm2Q/w400-h266/JP-Mercer.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues had 19 points and eight assists, but Furman lost<br />to Mercer 82-75 Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />When the Furman men's basketball team hosted Mercer in Saturday's regular season finale, great moments in Timmons Arena history were highlighted during timeouts as this marked the final men's game in the building before it undergoes a $40 million makeover. It was the last game there until the 2025-26 season, as the transformation into something more closely resembling a Mid-Major arena will take more than a year to complete.<p></p><p>Those highlights primarily came from the last nine seasons. The Paladins won at least 11 games at Timmons each of those years and compiled a 114-20 home record over that time entering Saturday. Unfortunately for most of those in attendance Saturday, Furman's play was more of a tribute to the "bad old days" of the program when it posted three winning records at home over eight seasons from 2007-2015.</p><p>For the second consecutive game, the Paladins' defense was completely shredded after halftime. Mercer shot 63.3 percent from the floor (19-of-30), including 71.4 percent (5-of-7) on threes, in the second half on its way to an 82-75 win. After carrying an 18-game losing streak in the series entering this season, the Bears completed the season sweep of the Paladins.</p><p>"(Mercer coach) Greg (Gary) did a great job having his team ready to play. I though they played harder than we did, collectively," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "It's hard to win this game when you've got guys that don't want to guard and play connected. We had some guys that did and some that didn't.</p><p>"It's a game of connection, chemistry and energy. When you play in your home gym and get beat in all three categories, you can't be surprised by the result. It's on me. It's my job to get a team playing defense. It's my job to get a team that looks like they want to play defense and to get a team connected."</p><p>Furman (16-15, 10-8 Southern Conference) entered Saturday with 100 more made three-pointers than Mercer (15-16, 8-10) this season and left Saturday with 100 more as each team made nine. The problem was it took the Paladins 35 attempts to make nine, while it took the Bears just 15.</p><p>When the teams met earlier this season in Macon, Mercer hit just one three in each half and went 2-for-9 from beyond the arc. The difference that night was that the Bears dominated down low, outscoring the Paladins 48-32 in the paint. Although that battle was closer Saturday, with Mercer outscoring Furman 40-38 in the paint, the Bears got way too many open looks for three.</p><p>"(Mercer's three-pointers) would've been a surprise if we hadn't just given them to them. It's a credit to their ball movement, but I feel like it's a lack of detail on our end," Furman's J.P. Pegues said. "If we give these guys open looks, they're Division I basketball players, they're going to make some. We gave them open looks and when they see one fall and then another, they gain confidence."</p><p>The lack of active hands defensively for Furman was highlighted in points off turnovers and fast break points. While the Paladins had just three more turnovers (11) than Mercer (8), the Bears had a 14-5 edge in points off turnovers and a 12-3 scoring advantage on fast breaks.</p><p>Furman did outrebound Mercer 40-29, including 19 offensive boards. The Paladins outscored the Bears 18-4 on second chance points, but that was more of a product of Mercer shooting the lights out and Furman shooting like the lights were out. The Paladins trailed by only five at the half despite making just 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) field goals in the first half, including 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) three-pointers.</p><p>After the Paladins turned the ball over to open the second half, Mercer got half of its six offensive rebounds and half of its second-chance points on its opening possession. After missing their first three shots of the second half, the Bears didn't miss consecutive shots the rest of the game. From the 13:42 mark of the second half to the 4:29 mark, Mercer made 10-of-12 field goals to turn a four-point lead into a 72-59 lead.</p><p>The Bears led by nine with 1:37 left before Pegues hit a three. After a steal by Marcus Foster, Tyrese Hughey drew a foul and hit both free throws to slice the lead to 76-72 with 1:18 left. Mercer ran down all the shot clock on its ensuing possession before 5-foot-10 point guard Caleb Hunter made a tremendous left-handed layup over Foster to push the lead to six with 48 seconds left.</p><p>On Furman's next possession, Hughey grabbed an offensive rebound and fired to PJay Smith for a three-pointer that cut the lead to 78-75 as Furman called timeout with 33 seconds left. Hunter was trapped by a pair of Paladins in the corner and had to call Mercer's last timeout with 30 seconds left. The Bears were then able to beat the press and the Paladins had to foul with 25 seconds left. Jalen Cobb hit both free throws to push the lead to 80-75.</p><p>After Pegues missed a heavily-contested three, Hunter made a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left to seal Furman's fate. After starting the game with four blocked shots in the opening five minutes, Mercer got its seventh block on the Paladins' final shot of the day.</p><p>"I'm not sitting here saying everybody didn't play hard. Let me be real clear. Basketball is a game of connection. It's a game where you have to care about one another and understand how important team is. ... We didn't have a group that just quit. We were down 13 and the game looked like it was cooked and baked, but we fought back to a three-point game," Richey said. "Imagine if we wouldn't have given up wide open threes and would've have everybody crashing (for rebounds). And if we been the more physical, connected team playing with the best energy from a totality standpoint. Maybe it's a different outcome."</p><p>Pegues was just 1-of-7 from three, but finished with team-highs in points (19) and assists (8) for Furman. Smith had 17 points and six rebounds. Foster collected his fifth double-double this season with 13 points and 10 rebounds, but had another rough night shooting as he made 1-of-8 three-pointers. Smith and Foster had two assists apiece as they and Pegues combined for all but one of the Paladins' 13 assists. That trio also accounted for all of Furman's three steals with one apiece.</p><p>After scoring 28 points on 13-of-21 shooting against Furman the first time the teams played, Mercer's Jalyn McCreary had a game-high 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting Saturday. Meanwhile, freshman David Thomas had 18 points and six assists.</p><p>"Jalyn played well and he's playing as good as anybody in our conference on film. We at least made him have to do it on a high volume, but we didn't turn him over. He only had one. We tried to force him to play in crowds, but didn't do that well enough. ... It wasn't just McCreary today. They had four different guys make two or more threes," Richey said. "Marcus is a great shooter. The ball's just not going in from the perimeter for him right now. We will get a lot of shots up this week and get him back on track."<br /></p><p>The loss left Furman tied for fifth-place with Wofford in the final SoCon standings. It's the lowest the Paladins have ended up in the standings since finishing in last place in the 2014-15 season. Furman finished at least third every season since until this year.</p><p>The Paladins will be the No. 5 seed at this week's SoCon Tournament in Asheville and will face fourth-place Western Carolina at approximately 8:30 p.m. in Saturday's quarterfinal round. The Paladins already knew they were locked into the 4/5 game no matter what happened against Mercer. Richey doesn't believe that factored at all in Furman's play Saturday, and he added that it certainly should not have.</p><p>"Heck no. I mean have some pride. You win today, you get the fourth seed. You want to be fourth or fifth? If I get to pick one of those two, I want to be fourth," Richey said. "We've got to make some decisions this week of what we're going to bring to Asheville. We've seen a side of this team that's high in effort, connectivity and defense and we look pretty good. But when you're at 1.24 (rating) on defense in your home gym, you can't expect to win games. Defense has to matter at some point. It's my fault."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-26385089223936661942024-03-02T12:43:00.003-05:002024-03-02T12:43:43.339-05:00Woolbright helps hand Furman another road loss<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizah-yhI0q4iceAQJdjn3w3Lq5AyZO8gW57CJt3hdkXOU-52bXiaw6yxTQFPW48LIgrKfuv1oV_tb0L_ZKdKPgEaSl3DPpqCTtFHfy08Km6LA6Qy4Vlg_2-U_PgHUvgONM1R5nuakzY8kiol8pUR-33cWmP0vkSpW4DuVi2E62837NfAVeZZeGG9jk7YEM/s4966/JP-Western.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3312" data-original-width="4966" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizah-yhI0q4iceAQJdjn3w3Lq5AyZO8gW57CJt3hdkXOU-52bXiaw6yxTQFPW48LIgrKfuv1oV_tb0L_ZKdKPgEaSl3DPpqCTtFHfy08Km6LA6Qy4Vlg_2-U_PgHUvgONM1R5nuakzY8kiol8pUR-33cWmP0vkSpW4DuVi2E62837NfAVeZZeGG9jk7YEM/w400-h266/JP-Western.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues (1) scored 35 points, but Vonterius Woolbright (2) had his fourth triple-double<br />this season in Western Carolina's 85-77 win over Furman. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CULLOWHEE, N.C. - For the second consecutive Wednesday, Furman wasted a career-high night by J.P. Pegues as the Paladins' Jekyll and Hyde, home and away act continued. Western Carolina used a 30-9 run over a nine-minute stretch of the second half to rally for an 85-77 win in Furman's final road game of the season.</p><p>The Paladins (16-14, 10-7 Southern Conference) were coming off a 15-point win over Wofford in which they allowed just one made field goal over the final four minutes - a meaningless three-pointer with 25 seconds left after the Terriers had missed six consecutive shots. On Wednesday, the Catamounts led 65-62 with six minutes left and didn't miss a field goal the rest of the way. Those five field goals - three of which were three-pointers - helped Western shoot 60 percent in its 55-point second half.</p><p>"We had 11 deflections the entire game. You're not going to beat a whole lot of people doing that. I just thought we were a half-second late on a lot of plays tonight. I'm not sure why that was. I thought we had two good days of practice and we just didn't appear fresh," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "We were up nine at one point in the second half and it was really similar to the game last year. They made a run and hit us and we didn't respond back real well."</p><p>Furman finishes with a 4-10 record on the road this season, in addition to 0-2 in neutral site games. It's the Paladins' worst road record since the 2015-16 team went 3-12 on the road. This year's 3-6 mark at SoCon opponents is Furman's first losing record in league road games since that 2015-16 team went 2-7.</p><p>"It wasn't all bad, it just wasn't consistent enough in a road environment like this against a team like that. ... This time of year, we've all got to be ready to be our best There's a process that you've got to go in to be ready to play," Richey said. "Unfortunately, that's two games on the road where we've had to put a lot on J.P.'s back. At home, we seem to be freer and looser and we play more connected and relaxed.</p><p>"We don't have to go win the conference (tournament) on the road, but we're not going to be in Timmons (Arena). We've got to figure out what we've got to do to come out and be free, be confident and look like we're out there enjoying the game."</p><p>In a matchup of what some would say are the two best players in the SoCon, Pegues and Western's Vonterius Woolbright put on a show. After a 33-point performance at Samford a week earlier, Pegues had a new career-high 35 points and a team-high five assists Wednesday. Meanwhile, Woolbright finished with 15 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his fourth triple-double this season and fifth of his career.</p><p>The difference Wednesday was that Woolbright's assist total matched that of Furman as the Catamounts (21-9, 10-7) had five players in double figures. They were led by Russell Jones, who hit numerous big shots down the stretch and was 4-of-8 on threes. After being held to three points on 1-of-8 shooting in 37 minutes during Western's loss at Furman earlier this season, Jones had a team-high 20 points Wednesday.</p><p>While much is deservedly made of Woolbright's eye-popping offensive numbers, his defense was also a factor Wednesday. The 6-foot-6 guard's length was a problem on quite a few of Marcus Foster's shots. Woolbright helped hold Furman's leading scorer to just five points on 2-of-14 shooting, including 1-of-10 on threes.</p><p>"J.P. was phenomenal. He really put the team on his back, but our formula has never been for one guy to do it all. ... We just didn't play with as much confidence as I'd like, outside of J.P.," Richey said. "They had five guys in double figures and we had two. That's why they beat us. ... Woolbright was really good. He played with a lot of juice and poise. I think he got a little frustrated with some turnovers early, but man he made some plays - especially when they were down."</p><p>Furman trailed by as many as 11 in the first half and was down 29-21 with three-and-a-half minutes left before an 11-0 run helped the Paladins take a 32-30 lead into halftime. Pegues' three-pointer and four free throws and Cooper Bowser's dunk and two free throws accounted for all the scoring in that run.</p><p>The Paladins led at the half despite shooting 34.5 percent, including 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) from three. There had to be the thought that if Furman simply played "okay" defense the rest of the way, its offense certainly would improve after halftime. The Paladins did shoot 47 percent in the second half and hit nine threes, but the defensive letdown made their shooting improvement meaningless.</p><p>Ben VanderWal hit back-to-back three-pointers sandwiched around a three-point play by Woolbright to start the second half. Then Pegues and Woolbright just starting going back-and-forth like a classic prize fight. In a less than two minute stretch, Pegues hit a pair of threes and a jumper while Woolbright hit a pair of layups and had an assist on a three by Jones. A minute later, Pegues had a three-point play that Western's Bernard Pelote answered with a three off an assist from Woolbright.</p><p>Alex Williams' lone three and Foster's lone three gave Furman a 57-48 lead with 11:52 left before the Catamounts went on a 9-0 run. After Garrett Hien answered that run with a dunk, Corneilous Williams came back with a dunk off an assist by Woolbright on the other end. That sent the game to the under-eight timeout tied at 59. Coming out of the timeout, Pegues hit a pair of free throws before Woolbright once again found Williams for a layup.</p><p>With the game tied 61-61 and 7:10 left, perhaps the biggest play of the night gave Western a lead it never relinquished. After Woolbright's layup didn't fall, Williams grabbed the offense rebound and was fouled hard by Hien on the putback attempt. After video review, Hien's fouled was changed to a flagrant technical. Williams hit one free throw and after retaining possession, Tre Jackson made a three-point play giving Western a four-point possession and a four-point lead. After a VanderWal free throw cut the lead to three, Pelote hit another three to start a 13-4 run that put the game out of reach.</p><p>"They outplayed us tonight. Let's give them credit," Richey said. "We've got to bounce back quickly. We've got to move on and go close out this season well at home on Saturday versus Mercer."</p><p>Pelote had 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks and Western outscored Furman by 26 during his 22 minutes off the bench. Williams had just five points and four rebounds in his 13 minutes off the bench, but he had a plus-minus of plus-14.</p><p>VanderWal was the lone other Paladin in double figures, as he had 10 points, six rebounds and two of Furman's four steals.</p><p><b>Looking ahead</b></p><p>Furman will wrap up the regular season by hosting Mercer Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised locally by The CW Ch. 62. It will be the final game in Timmons Arena until the 2025-26 season as renovations will take place all next season.</p><p>The Paladins could turn around and face Western Carolina again as the No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed game in the final quarterfinal game of the SoCon Tournament next Saturday in Asheville, but a Furman-Wofford matchup seems more likely. The Paladins and Catamounts are currently tied for fourth at 10-7 in league play, while the Terriers are 9-8.</p><p>The only guarantee entering Saturday is that Furman will be in that 4/5 game, which means the Paladins will hang around all day waiting to play. This is the first season in which the SoCon has gone to a quarterfinal schedule where the top four seeds' games will be played in order, one through four.</p><p>This Saturday, Western Carolina plays at second-place Chattanooga at 2 p.m., while Wofford will play at last-place VMI at 1 p.m. If no upsets (according to standings) occur, Furman and the Terriers would be victorious while the Catamounts would lose. That would leave the Paladins alone in fourth place and Western and Wofford tied. Those teams split in the regular season, but Wofford would earn the No. 5 seed tiebreaker by virtue of its blowout win over SoCon regular season champion Samford on Wednesday.</p><p>In any tiebreaker with Western or Wofford or both, Furman would get the tiebreaker for the No. 4 seed.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-72984994675164513782024-02-28T13:08:00.003-05:002024-02-28T13:08:30.314-05:00Second-half defense leads Paladins past Wofford<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggL3He-FxAscRkOyTSeFIN8CWHTItp5hzT5xqri8cBqN6rvE1TruUpkMiZ5P8jSQ_QfccsPrtb6HmiiEs4rpY2i6q_6WbTw-3OQcKh9E2QWy3PDV5iSQhA1tNpKmM8xrg3wIIZ-qfAgKW4-fJ0H6fNT6oBzdWalR3N_UiFjyfrOF2mluHa4bq5pajYHd2u/s3821/VanderWal-Wofford.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2548" data-original-width="3821" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggL3He-FxAscRkOyTSeFIN8CWHTItp5hzT5xqri8cBqN6rvE1TruUpkMiZ5P8jSQ_QfccsPrtb6HmiiEs4rpY2i6q_6WbTw-3OQcKh9E2QWy3PDV5iSQhA1tNpKmM8xrg3wIIZ-qfAgKW4-fJ0H6fNT6oBzdWalR3N_UiFjyfrOF2mluHa4bq5pajYHd2u/w400-h266/VanderWal-Wofford.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben VanderWal (4) blocks the shot of Wofford's Chase Cormier<br />during Furman's 82-67 win Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Playing Wofford at Timmons Arena for the first time since 2021 and for the last time until 2026, Furman enjoyed its biggest packed house of the season Saturday. The Paladins hosted the Terriers at the Bon Secours each of the last two years and will do so again next season while Timmons is being renovated. While those meetings at the Well were fantastic games in front of much bigger crowds, Saturday was a nice reminder of the electric home court advantage Furman has built over the past few seasons - especially in a rivalry game.</p><p>Among the 2,547 fans that produced Saturday's standing-room only sellout, the ones in purple and white had plenty to cheer about. J.P. Pegues and Marcus Foster scored 20 points apiece and the Paladins locked down defensively in the second half to post an 82-67 win. After the Terriers shot 51.7 percent in the first half, they were held to 35.7 percent (10-of-28) after halftime.</p><p>"There was a lot of offense in that first half and I thought it was going to come down to who could finally generate some stops. We had zero kills (three consecutive scoreless possessions for the opponent) in the first half and then got two or three in the second half. We had one early in the second half, which was big," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "Tyrese (Hughey) was defensive player of the game. That was big because they got 61 paint touches (in Furman's loss) in Spartanburg. We knew we had to do a better job there. ... Tyrese gave us some physicality down there, but it was a complete team effort.</p><p>"Thanks to our students. They showed up and showed out. I appreciate them filling that section up. ... When you continue to get consistent home crowds like that, it affects the energy. It's fun to be in that."</p><p>Furman (16-13, 10-6 Southern Conference) was coming off a heartbreaking, last-second loss at first-place Samford last Wednesday. In that game, Foster and PJay Smith combined to make just 3-of-16 three-pointers. One thing the Paladins have displayed this season is the ability to come back strong off of gut-punching losses. Foster and Smith displayed that ability when they confidently knocked down each of their first three-point attempts Saturday.</p><p>Foster made 5-of-11 threes, while Smith hit 4-of-6 in his 13-point performance. As a team, Furman made 12-of-33 threes, including 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) in the second half.</p><p>"I told Marcus after Samford, 'I don't care if you're 1-for-7 (on threes). That means you're about to go 3-for-4 (in the next game).' There's nothing more frustrating for me when I turn on the tape and I see really good shooters not taking great shots and really trying to overcomplicate the game," Richey said. "Those two guys (Foster and Smith) - and Pegues - are elite shooters. Those three are also perfectionists in a lot of ways. They want to see every single one of them go in. As a shooter, you've got to have an 0-for-0 mentality.</p><p>"I've got all the faith in the world in those three guys as shooters and I loved seeing Alex (Williams) hit that one at the top of the key. He's another great shooter. We tried to get those four on the court together a little bit more tonight. It's a cluster of a lineup we haven't played a lot, but just to get four shooters out there."</p><p>Another big factor in the loss at Samford was points off turnovers. While both teams committed 14 turnovers, the Bulldogs outscored the Paladins 23-10 off those. Furman remedied that Saturday by losing a season-low three turnovers, including none by its guards. Meanwhile the Paladins had 11 points off 12 turnovers, thanks in large part to nine steals. Four of those thefts were by Smith.</p><p>"This group's been growing so much. It was probably my worst ball security team for a lot of the year. ... It's funny when the ball starts moving more and you space correctly, you cut correctly and you depend on one another, you get a better quality look," Richey said. "When you get a better quality look your (shooting) percentage is going to go up and your ball security is going to go up."</p><p>In a first half where both teams shot 52 percent, it was a bit of a slow start. Furman trailed 12-7 five minutes in and the game was tied at 19 midway through the first half. Foster hit a jumper that started a 9-2 run over the next minute-and-a-half. Smith capped the flurry with a three to give the Paladins a 28-21 lead with 8:28 left in the first half.</p><p>Wofford (15-14, 8-8) regained the lead at 37-36 on a three-pointer by Chase Cormier with 2:24 left. Foster answered with a three, Pegues hit a jumper and Foster drew a foul on a three with 28 seconds left. Foster made all three free throws to give Furman a 44-39 lead at the half.</p><p>Foster hit back-to-back threes in the first two minutes of the first half as Furman took its first double-digit lead of the game. The Paladins led by as many as 16 with less than six minutes to play before Wofford went on a 7-0 run over a 63-second span to cut the lead to 71-62 with 4:08 remaining. Foster and Smith answered with back-to-back threes to push the lead right back to 15 with 3:10 left. That started an 11-2 run that stretched to 18 before the Terriers hit a three with 25 seconds left to close out the scoring. Wofford had missed six consecutive shots before that three.</p><p>"Defense wins these types of games. In the first half, we were a little sloppy, but we made the adjustment in the second half," Pegues said. "We made sure they weren't getting so many threes because they were getting really good looks and knocking them down in the first half. We knew we had to get back in defensive transition and once we did that and got them in the halfcourt, it kind of helped us."</p><p>In addition to his 20 points, Pegues had five rebounds, four assists and no turnovers, while Foster had eight rebounds in addition to his 20 points. Besides Smith's 13-point effort, Ben VanderWal was the other Paladin in double figures as he had 11 points, two blocks and two steals. After missing the previous three games due to a suspension for a violation of team rules, Williams played 11 minutes off the bench. Furman's third-leading scorer had an offensive putback immediately after checking in for the first time and later hit a three to finish with five points.</p><p>It would have been easy to make it a one-game suspension and have Williams return against second-place Chattanooga and certainly would've been easy to do for the game at first-place Samford. But that would kind of mock the whole point of the suspension.</p><p>"It's important in my job that I never forgot that I've got a responsibility for them. Instead of liking me at 20, I need them to love me at 30. He's going to look back on his life and he's going to thank me for what I've asked him to go through these past two weeks," Richey said of Williams. "I've asked him to understand in his heart what it means to be a player here. What it means to be a player here isn't about how many points you score or how many shots you get. For all the people that wore this jersey before him, that's not how this was built. It wasn't built on going and finding a bunch of scorers and a bunch of talent that we just threw out there. This has been sacrificial. This has been about the brotherhood and about building people.</p><p>"We love Alex. The reason we're asking him to do this is that we want him to be successful. I thought it was a good omen today that right when he got in the game, he got that offensive rebound. I've been begging him to get on the offensive glass. That's a sacrificial part of the game. ... A-Will's story is going to end up really well. He's got an unbelievable mother. He knows right from wrong. He's had to do some soul searching these last couple of weeks and I've seen him grow. These guys are kids. They're going to make mistakes and I've got to love them through it and help support them. ... I was really pleased with his effort today. He's going to have a big impact on this team over this stretch run, but this growth is going to pay off for him in the long term."</p><p>Next up for Furman is a trip to Western Carolina (20-9, 9-7) Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game that will be televised by ESPNU. Given the current SoCon standings with the Paladins in fourth place and the Catamounts in fifth, this same matchup might take place at the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals in Asheville 10 days later. Those seeds will all be sorted out this week as Furman wraps up the regular season by hosting Mercer at 2 p.m. Saturday.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-50595822961744354202024-02-24T12:51:00.000-05:002024-02-24T12:51:01.766-05:00Samford's late blitz thwarts Paladins' rally<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0euKtKELGwYCL5MBtErdAaX3sbyl1s-OiPruy0VOSNEksamHC6vSB3SA_IHGQxUnMFekVJ-BtBhmrPfgkdOKW-GdgdjdC3oWhDA4cvWVIuZBeLhUK2iDwHebhBUoqQYQGpcOjhg2gSCob5CoI44Je81LHaIIvKitAJkmccUFdb_kNXDPmTm3YUx8xstTM/s4229/Pegues-Samford.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2465" data-original-width="4229" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0euKtKELGwYCL5MBtErdAaX3sbyl1s-OiPruy0VOSNEksamHC6vSB3SA_IHGQxUnMFekVJ-BtBhmrPfgkdOKW-GdgdjdC3oWhDA4cvWVIuZBeLhUK2iDwHebhBUoqQYQGpcOjhg2gSCob5CoI44Je81LHaIIvKitAJkmccUFdb_kNXDPmTm3YUx8xstTM/w400-h234/Pegues-Samford.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues scored 28 of his career-high 33 points in the second half, but<br />Furman lost at Samford, 74-72, Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The Furman men's basketball team used the agony of a heartbreaking loss in the 2022 Southern Conference Tournament championship game to push itself to the 2023 SoCon title and its first NCAA Tournament win in nearly 50 years. That journey was captured by a film crew for the documentary "Better Together," which will be coming to Amazon Prime on March 6. An exclusive screening will be Monday at 6 p.m. at the Peace Center's Gunter Theatre. </p><p>If the Paladins' current plan is to use every heartbreaking loss and other turmoil this regular season to go dancing again this March, they will not be lacking in ammunition when they head to Asheville in two weeks. Much like losses to Princeton, Tulane and UNC Greensboro earlier this season, Furman received another gut punch Wednesday at Samford. An amazing second-half performance by J.P. Pegues was spoiled when the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run over the final 40 seconds to knock off the Paladins, 74-72.</p><p>"Give Samford credit. ... There's a reason those guys are undefeated in here. They made some huge plays," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "We made some critical errors late, but man our team fought. I thought it was a heck of a fight for us to get down 10 and come back in the way we did.</p><p>"I thought we settled in in the second half and played with a lot more composure. We were a little keyed up in the first half and that environment got to us."<br /></p><p>On a big night of basketball with the top six teams facing off against each other, this final game of the night undoubtedly had the attention of the rest of the SoCon. Those other teams were hoping for a Furman victory to pull first-place Samford closer to the pack. On Furman's last trip to Samford in last season's regular season finale, the game started with Mike Bothwell making basically every shot he fired up as the Paladins dominated from start to finish to earn a share of the SoCon regular season title and top seed for the SoCon Tournament.</p><p>This season's trip was the polar opposite start. While Furman (15-13. 9-6) missed each of its first nine three-pointers, Samford (24-4, 13-2) made four early to race out to a 14-4 lead. The Paladins trailed 30-21 late in the half before Garrett Hien hit a pair of free throws and Pegues drained a three at the buzzer to trim the deficit to four at the half.</p><p>That Pegues' three was a sign of things to come in the second half.</p><p>On a tough shooting night for Marcus Foster and PJay Smith, they hit back-to-back threes early in the second half to tie the game 32-32. Samford answered back though and later went on an 11-2 run to match its biggest lead of the night at 56-46 with 8:23 remaining. Furman answered back with a 9-0 run in less than two minutes thanks a Pegues' jumper, a Hien dunk, two free throws and a three by Pegues.</p><p>Furman trailed 60-55 with five minutes left when Pegues drilled three consecutive threes giving the Paladins their first lead of the night at 64-62 with 3:48 left. The Bulldogs' Jermaine Marshall answered with a layup and later a free throw before Pegues drew a foul on a three and knocked down all three foul shots to put Furman back in front, 67-65, with 2:25 left.</p><p>The game was tied at 67 when Pegues hit yet another three with 56 seconds left. On the other end, Pegues rebounded a Samford missed layup and was fouled. He hit both free throws to give Furman a 72-67 lead with 45 seconds left.</p><p>After making 10 three-pointers in the first half, the Bulldogs were just 4-of-16 from three in the second half before Jaden Campbell somehow got wide open and knocked one down with 39 seconds left to cut the lead to two. Smith had trouble inbounding against Samford's press and tried to throw it off Marshall. Instead, Marshall caught it, drew the foul and made both free throws to tie the game at 72 with 38 seconds left.</p><p>With two defenders hounding Pegues on the other end, his three-pointer from the right wing as the shot clock expired bounced off no good. You could tell from the angle of the miss that it could lead to a run out for Samford and that's exactly what happened. Marshall got the rebound and went coast-to-coast for the game-winning layup with 2.9 seconds left.</p><p>As soon as the ball went through the net, Ben VanderWal was in the middle of the Samford paint signaling for a timeout. No official stopped play to check the clock for how much time should be remaining or to honor the timeout. In a rush to try to beat the Bulldogs' press from getting set after the layup, Foster quickly inbounded the ball to Pegues who fired up a mid-court shot well before the buzzer. The prayer sailed away to the right as the horn sounded, Bucky ball snapped Furman's four-game winning streak in the series and improved to 16-0 at home this season.</p><p>"Three critical errors late that you obviously can't have happen with a five-point lead. ... We sub in Carter (Whitt) to get all guards out there and switch. We don't switch on one of their best shooters gets a three," Richey said. "Then we turn it over there. ... I thought for a second there we were going to be able to pull out a W, but there's a couple more things we can learn from this. We will get better from it."</p><p>Pegues finished with a career-high 33 points, including 28 in the second half, and six rebounds. The lone other Paladin in double figures was Hien, who had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. Smith had eight points on 3-of-11 shooting, while Foster - who scored 22 points in Furman's win over Samford in Greenville - had five points on 1-of-7 shooting all of which were threes. Alex Williams, the Paladins' third-leading scorer this season, missed his third consecutive game due to suspension.</p><p>Rylan Jones had 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals to lead Samford, while Marshall had 15 points and eight rebounds.</p><p>As always, there's no time for moping for Furman. The Paladins return home Saturday to host rival Wofford for a "White Out" game at 2 p.m. It will be the Terriers' first game on Furman's campus since 2021. Wofford's last two trips to Greenville were for games at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-18524117310342847622024-02-21T18:42:00.002-05:002024-02-21T18:42:17.974-05:00Classic Furman defense returns in win over Mocs<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubxba5oeE9j1NfYQgAgBlb8vqGwuZhNPXWc84WDu8H7GTPrheGXHSYp_w4IamXQdE08QLrLpSMQEMKU0UFUT0JLdsH7dFGo8ZH-Nb0y2_wYmKILPFk9K7DNcncMGoa0go8fMfKVBr9aYYrbLC1xkc_REy8PZ6KO4PWTQVI8XbWYnDtHwCnMQC9i2EFSqT/s3054/JP-UTC.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2036" data-original-width="3054" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubxba5oeE9j1NfYQgAgBlb8vqGwuZhNPXWc84WDu8H7GTPrheGXHSYp_w4IamXQdE08QLrLpSMQEMKU0UFUT0JLdsH7dFGo8ZH-Nb0y2_wYmKILPFk9K7DNcncMGoa0go8fMfKVBr9aYYrbLC1xkc_REy8PZ6KO4PWTQVI8XbWYnDtHwCnMQC9i2EFSqT/w400-h266/JP-UTC.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues drives to the basket against Chattanooga Sunday. Pegues<br />had 22 points in Furman's 82-65 win. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />It may have been purely coincidental that Furman played arguably its best game of the season Sunday after hearing from former Paladin Jalen Slawson in the team meeting that morning. Just to be sure, Furman may want to set up some kind of Zoom thing moving forward with Slawson back in California. The reigning Southern Conference Player of the Year is now a rookie with the Sacramento Kings. Slawson is averaging 12.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks per game for the Kings' G League affiliate (Stockton, Calif.).</p><p>The NBA All-Star break gave Slawson a chance to come home to Charleston last weekend, before he headed to Timmons Arena Sunday. He received his 2023 SoCon Championship ring prior to the Paladins' game against Chattanooga. Following the ceremony, Furman looked like that same kind of defensive team that Slawson starred on the past few years.</p><p>The Paladins limited the Mocs to 33.9 percent shooting for the game, including 20.7 percent in the first half, to roll to an 82-65 win before a near-capacity crowd at Timmons Arena. Furman forced 13 turnovers and outscored UTC 19-11 in points off turnovers. It's the first time in four games that the Paladins outscored an opponent in points off turnovers as they had just 16 points off them over the last three games combined.</p><p>"My whole pregame was just, 'we have to go out there and we have to win this game on our connection.' I think it was the most connected we've looked all year. That first half was definitely our best half of basketball all year," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "We get to halftime and they tell me we've got 17 deflections and I about passed out. We used to get 30 (a game) all the time but this year, we've had (entire) games without 17. You can just feel that energy and freedom.</p><p>"We've been fighting like heck for it. I've never spent this much time as a team, harping on how important and vital it is. ... It's all been pouring into that whatever happens on that court, we're going to be a connected group." </p><p>Furman's win sets up a big night of SoCon basketball Wednesday as the top six teams face off with two weeks remaining in the regular season. The fourth-place Paladins (15-12, 9-5) will try to complete the season sweep of first-place Samford (23-4, 12-2) at 7:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the two teams tied for second in the SoCon will face the two teams tied for fifth as UNCG (19-8, 10-4) hosts Western Carolina (19-8, 8-6) and Chattanooga (18-9, 10-4) hosts Wofford (15-12, 8-6).</p><p>Sunday's game was stunningly similar to what happened for the road and home teams during the first meeting in Chattanooga on Jan. 6. Playing without injured leading scorer Marcus Foster that day, the Paladins missed 16 consecutive shots in the first half. They made just 7-of-29 (21.4 percent) field goals before halftime that day, while the Mocs made 17-of-33 (51.5 percent). After taking a 43-20 lead into halftime, UTC went on to a 15-point win.</p><p>On Sunday, the Mocs missed each of their first 10 shots and was 6-of-29 (20.7 percent) from the floor for the first half. Meanwhile, Furman made 17-of-31 (54.8 percent) shots to take a 48-29 lead into halftime before going on to the 17-point win.</p><p>"Chattanooga's really, really good. We know that. (Coach) Dan (Earl) does a great job and they've got a ton of firepower," Richey said. "The way we defended that first half was pretty remarkable."</p><p>While Chattanooga got off to an 0-for-10 start before Myles Che hit a three-pointer with 13:41 left in the first half, Furman wasn't much better. The Paladins led 11-10 nine minutes in before the frontcourt started a 23-3 run over the next five-and-a-half minutes. After Cooper Bowser hit a pair of free throws, Carter Whitt rebounded a UTC miss and fired a long pass downcourt hitting Garrett Hien in stride for a dunk that electrified the crowd.</p><p>On Furman's next possession, Hien got a putback. On the one after that, Whitt made a dazzling bounce pass to a cutting Ben VanderWal. VanderWal's reverse layup made it 19-10 and forced a Mocs' timeout. Later, the Paladins made three consecutive threes - two by PJay Smith and one by J.P. Pegues - to push the lead to 30-13.</p><p>The Paladins took their biggest lead of the game with a minute left in the half when Foster's layup made it 48-24. The Mocs scored the final five points of the half thanks to a horrible technical foul call against Foster. Foster said it was the first technical he's ever had in his life.</p><p>UTC got the lead down to 11 nine minutes into the second half, but that's as close as it got. Foster and Tyrese Hughey hit back-to-back threes before Pegues made a layup and a three. Foster capped that flurry with another three as Furman regained command with at 73-51 with 6:18 left.</p><p>"I was super excited to play because I didn't get to against them the first time. That gave me a little bit of extra fuel and I was just really proud of our guys for coming in and displaying a great defensive effort to start the game," Foster said. "I'm just glad we all played well. It felt like a great team win. Everyone contributing makes it a classic Furman basketball game."</p><p>In addition to the deflections, the Paladins also outrebounded the Mocs 40-33. Furman posted a 30-16 advantage on points in the paint. Honor Huff scored a game-high 26 points to lead UTC. Mocs' leading scorer Trey Bonham was held to two points on 0-for-6 shooting before leaving after Furman's opening possession of the second half with an injury.</p><p>Furman was coming off a win over VMI in which it had 18 assists, but Pegues (8) and Whitt (7) accounted for all but three of those. Richey mentioned that he hoped the assists would be more spread out next time and that wish was granted. Furman had 20 assists Sunday - four by Whitt, three apiece by Pegues, Smith and VanderWal, and two apiece by Foster, Hien and Hughey.</p><p>"It's always better when it's more spread out because it just shows you the ball is moving everywhere," Richey said. "The go-to guy is the open guy and we're seeking the open guy. ... I thought we had a lot of really good possessions like that tonight."</p><p>Pegues had 22 points, five rebounds and no turnovers to lead the Paladins. Foster had 15 points and six rebounds, while Smith scored 11. After playing his way into the starting lineup, VanderWal finished with nine points and seven rebounds.</p><p>"He's (VanderWal) earned it. He's at plus-27 tonight and J.P. is at plus-31. Those two were sitting together here at the women's game on Thursday night. It's funny how that works," Richey said. "Ben's a warrior. He just cares about all the things we've discussed here (ball movement, defense, etc.).</p><p>"I told our staff after the game that I'd love to know our record when we play him 20 minutes or more. That may end up making me look like an idiot to be honest with you, but I want to see it. Maybe my gut is wrong but I think when he's out there, things that affect winning take place. You don't always know what that is, but it's just those plays where he lays it on the line."</p><p>Now Furman turns its attention to Samford. The Paladins, who snapped the Bulldogs' NCAA-best 17-game winning streak with a 78-68 win in Greenville on Jan. 24, will try to be the first team to win on the Bulldogs' home floor since they did in last year's regular season finale.</p><p>"It's going to be a great environment. They're going to have a great crowd and (Coach) Bucky (McMillan) does a really good job. We're excited about the opportunity and challenge. I think it's going to continue to show the quality of our league," Richey said. "We got four games left in the regular season. We're going to take them one at a time and just continue to try to get to us."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-49158940035990866942024-02-18T12:41:00.001-05:002024-02-18T12:41:13.249-05:00VanderWal helps Furman find a new path to win<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7TTUriKRwLMkAi2JMuzWeG93jI-G5hqvXbjsbbRn9tw4Mtok3du5dQsxFQOHfQObdgz_-4Nv3eh4HLrMdv8XF2AhaqGl3bhQBx8CnxbIQq7CHWDBM1nKAc7XFGUWfPy6A6L0jOClU_QtXSFReo0ooOPXWxGKPHo-VfAJ9PNa0C-Y-vfb-RXyJkqFoyE5w/s8192/VanderWalVMI.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5464" data-original-width="8192" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7TTUriKRwLMkAi2JMuzWeG93jI-G5hqvXbjsbbRn9tw4Mtok3du5dQsxFQOHfQObdgz_-4Nv3eh4HLrMdv8XF2AhaqGl3bhQBx8CnxbIQq7CHWDBM1nKAc7XFGUWfPy6A6L0jOClU_QtXSFReo0ooOPXWxGKPHo-VfAJ9PNa0C-Y-vfb-RXyJkqFoyE5w/w400-h266/VanderWalVMI.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman's Ben VanderWal dunks on VMI 6-foot-9 center D.J. Nussbaum<br />during the Paladins' 75-62 win Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />When Furman was trailing at ETSU midway through the second half last Saturday, Coach Bob Richey was faced with a defensive dilemma. The Paladins weren't turning the Bucs over and allowing too many easy shots and putbacks in the paint. With the thought of "if we can't do one, then let's at least try the other" in mind, Richey inserted Cooper Bowser into the lineup and the freshman big man sparked a comeback victory.</p><p>Back home on Wednesday night, Furman was facing a vastly different offense in VMI but still wasn't generating turnovers. Deflections leading to turnovers leading to transition offense has been the arguably the biggest staple of the Paladins' success over the past nine years. But if it's broke, you've got to fix it and on Wednesday, they dug into Ben VanderWal's toolbox to find the solution. VanderWal had a career-high 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds off the bench to lead Furman to a 75-62 win.</p><p>VanderWal had eight of those points and 10 of those rebounds - including all five of his offensive rebounds - in the second half as the Paladins (14-12, 8-5 Southern Conference) used a 21-1 run over a five-and-a-half minute stretch to take break free from a tie and take command. After getting outrebounded 21-20 and getting outscored 8-0 on second-chance points in the first half, Furman finished with a 51-39 rebounding advantage and a 14-10 edge in second-chance points for the game. That helped offset a 19-6 advantage the Keydets had in points off turnovers, as they committed just six.</p><p>"I'm proud of our group, specifically in our second half performance. I thought we played a complimentary game," Richey said. "In that 21-1 run, we just played the right way. We were getting stops, finally started keeping the ball out of the paint, limited second-chance points and started getting second-chance points.</p><p>"The first half wasn't all bad. We were up five, but we were minus-13 on second chance and points off turnovers. It was a similar story to Saturday in Johnson City in giving ourselves a deficit and not crashing the glass."</p><p>Earlier this season, Furman (14-12, 8-5 Southern Conference) forced just seven turnovers at VMI but it didn't matter that night as the Paladins shot the lights out in a 100-60 win. That wasn't the case on Wednesday. At times, it appeared that both teams were shooting with the lights off. After taking a 39-34 lead into halftime, Furman made two of its first 10 shots of the second half, allowing the Keydets to come back and tie the game 46-46 with 14 minutes left.</p><p>Back-to-back three-pointers by J.P. Pegues roused the Paladins from their slumber. After a VMI free throw cut the lead to 52-47, Furman scored 15 consecutive points in less than four minutes. Garrett Hien's layup following an offensive rebound by VanderWal capped the 21-1 run to give Furman a 67-47 lead with 8:29 left. VMI (4-22, 1-12) never got the lead under 11 the rest of the way.</p><p>"That was one of Ben's best games since he's been here. ... Ben just plays the game the right way," Richey said. "He's willing to do all of what people think are small things, but really, there's no small things in this game. ... He's just a willing cutter and he goes to every single backboard, whether it be on the offensive or defensive glass."</p><p>While not nearly as impressive as their showing at VMI, the Paladins found a way to win without third-leading scorer Alex Williams. Williams was suspended for Wednesday's game for a violation of team rules. As to when Williams might be available to return, Richey said it's "day-to-day."</p><p>"It's a situation he and I are working through. ... I love Alex. He made a mistake and he's owned it. Our plan is to move forward and for him to be a big part of this," Richey said. "I think he's shown a lot of growth in his time here and and trust that he's going to continue to grow. I'm sure he missed being out there tonight and I look forward to hopefully getting him back out there sooner rather than later."</p><p>Pegues finished with 14 points and eight assists, while Marcus Foster added 13 points and seven rebounds. Hien had nine points and seven rebounds, and Carter Whitt had eight points, seven assists and four rebounds off the bench. While Furman was guilty of 14 turnovers, the big man trio of Hien, Bowser and Tyrese Hughey combined for zero.</p><p>Coming off an obviously emotional week for the Furman community and a thrilling last-second, comeback win at ETSU, combined with facing a team it beat by 40 points last month and being one man down, perhaps the Paladins went through the motions of trying to get back to some normalcy Wednesday. You really can't go through the motions against anyone in the SoCon and expect to win.</p><p>"I definitely think we grew as the night went along. We started off a bit slow to our standards. For us two (Foster and Pegues) as leaders, we've got to make sure the guys are not just looking at the opponent. Whoever the opponent is, we've got to come out and play to our standard," Foster said. "Ben just makes winning plays. He's a sparkplug for us because he's always going to do the dirty work. ... He's doing a great job and he's going to have a great career here."</p><p>Having Williams available Sunday certainly would be a boost for Furman as the Paladins host Chattanooga at 2 p.m. The game will be televised by CBS Sports Network. The Mocs (18-8, 10-3), who are currently in second place in the SoCon standings, defeated Furman, 73-58, in the Scenic City on Jan. 6. That was part of a nine-game stretch that the Paladins were missing Foster, their leading scorer, due to a knee injury.</p><p>It will be interesting to see what kind of defensive adjustments unfold for Furman Sunday. The Paladins actually forced 17 turnovers at UTC, but it didn't matter because Furman was colder than a banker's heart. The Paladins shot just 27.5 percent from the floor, including 4-of-33 from three. Furman missed 16 consecutive shots over a 13-and-a-half minute stretch in the first half as Chattanooga took a 43-20 lead into halftime and cruised to the win.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-39310069395443465932024-02-14T15:19:00.000-05:002024-02-14T15:19:02.140-05:00Paladins rally for emotional win at ETSU<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUo5SEnTAcEBtUqfauRqt4MvoSjzX5ylzvp-fNbxcVVJyCKeHPomkzvJ8O9db3ky-pL53UAL3SHLso2UVBoQ0IHyDyIvu95bn95o8w8e9kQTLypaGtkTdHuCmRCyMa3Bc38b__82HdBhuZFHKkJJ0RwZswppT2qJ-zfLinypsid_romqiee1bvT8iZj6aE/s2048/BryceETSU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUo5SEnTAcEBtUqfauRqt4MvoSjzX5ylzvp-fNbxcVVJyCKeHPomkzvJ8O9db3ky-pL53UAL3SHLso2UVBoQ0IHyDyIvu95bn95o8w8e9kQTLypaGtkTdHuCmRCyMa3Bc38b__82HdBhuZFHKkJJ0RwZswppT2qJ-zfLinypsid_romqiee1bvT8iZj6aE/w400-h300/BryceETSU.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman dedicated Saturday's win at ETSU to the memory of football<br />player (No. 97) Bryce Stanfield.<i> Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Nothing can take away the pain endured by the entire Furman community following the tragic death of rising senior football player Bryce Stanfield on Friday. The men's basketball team was able to provide a bit of a respite Saturday night though, in thrilling fashion. The Paladins rallied from an 11-point deficit with less than seven minutes to play and J.P. Pegues came up huge again in the final seconds as Furman defeated East Tennessee State, 65-63, at Freedom Hall.</p><p>Furman was coming off one of its poorest efforts this season in a rough loss at Mercer on Wednesday night. Earlier that day, Stanfield was attending a morning workout as the football team was preparing to open spring practice. Stanfield collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where he remained in critical condition until he passed away. Ever since the news broke on Wednesday, Furman received tons of support from those outside the school including fellow Southern Conference members. That continued prior to Saturday's game when ETSU held a moment of silence for Stanfield prior to the national anthem.</p><p>"The Furman family has had heavy hearts this week. That one tonight was for No. 97 (Stanfield's number), his family and the football team," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "Our school needed that win. Our program needed it and just the way it happened. To get in the hole we got into and fight until the bitter end. We had to just scrap and claw, and be thankful for the opportunity to compete."</p><p>After making just 12 of its first 35 field goals for the game, Furman (13-12, 7-5) hit 12 consecutive shots over the final 13 minutes. With the game tied 63-63 in the final seconds, Pegues once again delivered the game-winner albeit in a much different fashion than normal. He drove to the right baseline, pulled up, pump-faked his defender into the air and then went up for a jumper that didn't fall but he drew the foul with 1.8 seconds left. Pegues calmly drained both free throws to lift the Paladins to an emotional victory.</p><p>"I thought he (the defender) might bite on this one because I usually go straight up and he fell for it. I would rather make the (game-winning) jumper, but I'll take anything in that moment," Pegues said. "Credit to their guys. They played super hard, but we found a way."</p><p>Ben VanderWal's jumper with 12:56 started that run of 12 consecutive made baskets. Carter Whitt's layup on the Paladins' next possession cut the ETSU lead to three. But just three made Furman baskets later, the Bucs lead soared to 11 as they put together a quick string of seven consecutive made shots. That's when Richey turned to freshman big man Cooper Bowser to try to stop Furman's defensive bleeding.</p><p>Bowser, who had played a total of 43 minutes since Jan. 7, came on Saturday with 7:49 remaining and never headed back to the bench. When Bowser came on, ETSU big man Jadyn Parker had 12 points, nine rebounds and five blocks. Parker had one point, no rebounds and no blocks the rest of the way. Furman outrebounded the Bucs 9-2 over that time frame.</p><p>"To be honest with you, we weren't scoring and at that point I thought, 'well, let's at least protect the rim.' We put him in there in the paint to try to clog the rim up a little bit," Richey said. "It's one of those decisions that you don't know how it's going to go until you make it, but he continues to grow and mature. He grew up another step tonight."</p><p>The Paladins trailed 59-51 before Marcus Foster drilled a three-pointer with 4:17 left. Foster drove and hit a floater on the next possession to cut the lead to three. After ETSU's Ebby Asamoah answered with a jumper, Furman called timeout with 3:04 left. Coming out of the timeout, Bowser found Pegues for a three. After a missed three for the Bucs, Pegues grabbed the rebound and dribbled all the way down before lobbing an alley-oop to Bowser for the game-tying dunk with 2:12 left.</p><p>Bowser got the rebound on ETSU's next possession giving Furman a chance to take the lead. Pegues' jumper didn't fall though, snapping that run of 12 straight makes. Tyrese Hughey grabbed the offensive rebound and Pegues drew a foul, but it was only the Bucs' sixth. On the inbounds under Furman's basket, Pegues lobbed a pass that Hughey had no idea was intended for him. The ball sailed over everybody's head except ETSU's Jaden Seymour who caught it and slammed it home on the other end to put the Bucs in front 63-61 with 1:03 left.</p><p>Furman and Pegues didn't flinch under the stress of what could've been a backbreaking turnover as he drew a foul on a three-pointer with 43 seconds left. After missing the first shot, the SoCon's No. 1-ranked free throw shooter sank the next two to tie the game at 63-63. On the other end, Foster played incredible defense as Seymour tried to twist and turn his way for a clean look. Seymour never got it. His shot hit all backboard, no rim and deflected off of ETSU out of bounds. After a long video review, the ball remained with Furman setting the stage for Pegues' game-winning free throws.</p><p>"(Foster's) play was the biggest defensive play of the game. Seymour tried to get him off his feet probably four or five times. Marcus just did a great job of staying down, sticking to his discipline and walling up," Richey said. "J.P. is just a gamer and he's got the clutch gene. He loves those moments and I wasn't going to have the ball in anybody else's hands."</p><p>Pegues finished with a game-high 15 points and also had five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Foster had 11 points, eight rebounds and two steals. The Paladins found a way to win with only two fast break points and two points off turnovers as ETSU (13-12, 5-7) finished with eight turnovers. Four of those turnovers for the Bucs came in the first four minutes of the game. Their only turnover in the second half came when their long inbounds pass with 1.8 seconds left sailed out of bounds.</p><p>Quimari Peterson led five ETSU players in double figures with 14 points.</p><p>Furman returns to action Wednesday when it hosts VMI at 7 p.m.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-10648196703222121922024-02-10T13:38:00.000-05:002024-02-10T13:38:01.274-05:00Mercer snaps Furman's 18-game series win streak<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBsBFNxqBbnFx1KQ6HSOMlF-gopOTkNufocfIhp0VEfxmljIPmtdFzBWT6riK75X4oKh8OhYWg00bzrlVSLY4PxKElo_Ykc5BjNP4fpV1fXGse_-kvkTUEZOumkyxmKxL6QIebEFQcr4l4AnNnGeCUYPZOGT_RSWRJjke6zgg8FaZ0LlItuypCNTnHwdTf/s3413/Hughey-Mercer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2275" data-original-width="3413" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBsBFNxqBbnFx1KQ6HSOMlF-gopOTkNufocfIhp0VEfxmljIPmtdFzBWT6riK75X4oKh8OhYWg00bzrlVSLY4PxKElo_Ykc5BjNP4fpV1fXGse_-kvkTUEZOumkyxmKxL6QIebEFQcr4l4AnNnGeCUYPZOGT_RSWRJjke6zgg8FaZ0LlItuypCNTnHwdTf/w400-h266/Hughey-Mercer.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tyrese Hughey had 10 points in Furman's 78-69 loss<br />at Mercer Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The law of averages likely caught up with the Furman basketball team on its trip to Mercer Wednesday. More than anything, the law of poor play in the second half caught up with it. The Paladins shot 34.6 from the floor after halftime while allowing the Bears to shoot 56.7 percent as Furman lost, 78-69. The loss snaps the Paladins' 18-game winning streak in the series against Mercer. It mark Bob Richey's first loss to Mercer as a head coach as the Bears' previous last win in the series came on Jan. 14, 2016.</p><p>The loss also was the second in a row for Furman (12-12, 6-5 Southern Conference). In both games, the Paladins saw a halftime lead disappear thanks to a drop-off in the second half. In Sunday's classic 89-87 loss to UNC Greensboro, Furman scored 51 in the first half and 36 in the second. On Wednesday, the Paladins followed up a 40-point first half with a 29-point second half. While Richey was disappointed but not angered by the loss to UNCG in what was a classic, his postgame tone was different Wednesday in Macon, Ga.</p><p>"I'm not doing a very good job with this group right now and I've got to figure it out," Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "We didn't look like a team tonight. We didn't look connected. We didn't look like we had any desire to play defense. ... It was a very bad performance and a very uninspiring effort. It was a very poor defensive and rebounding effort. We've got to get it fixed."</p><p>The night started on a solid note. Marcus Foster entered needing seven points to become the 51st player in school history to score 1,000 career points and he checked that box quickly. After Tyrese Hughey scored Furman's first five points, Foster scored the next nine to stake the Paladins to a 14-7 lead six minutes in.</p><p>With Furman seemingly in control, Mercer's Jalyn McCreary began to take over and never really stopped. McCreary, who opened the game with a steal and a dunk, scored the Bears' next 12 points after they trailed 14-7. The last of those came on a dunk with 8:45 left that cut Furman's lead to 23-17. An Alex Williams' three-pointer with 13 seconds left gave the Paladins an eight-point lead, but Mercer was able to go the length of the court in six seconds before Robby Carmody's layup cut the lead to 40-34 at the half.</p><p>Carmody, a backup guard, had scored 11 points combined over his previous five games. The Notre Dame transfer only scored five Wednesday, but that layup was a sign of things to come and things that had already been seen as Furman was destroyed down low all night.</p><p>"Even with a lead at half, we could still sense it. We had a really low pass count at halftime. The ball wasn't moving," Richey said. "We had five assists and six turnovers (in the first half). We tried to talk about it at the half, but unfortunately it got worse."</p><p>Based on the series history and SoCon standings, things still seemed to be going as planned early in the second half. The Paladins made four of their first six shots to take a 50-41 lead just over three minutes into the second half, but then everything went downhill. After J.P. Pegues' first made field goal - a layup with 16:47 left, Furman hit just 5-of-20 shots the rest of the way.</p><p>Mercer took advantage as it went on a 13-1 run before the Paladins' next made field goal - a Williams' layup with 12:34 left. Foster followed with a layup on Furman's next possession as the Paladins regained the lead at 55-54 with 11:56 left. That lead lasted all of 29 seconds when McCreary buried a jumper and Mercer (11-13, 4-7) never relinquished the lead.</p><p>Over the final 11:55 of the game, the Paladins made 3-of-9 field goals and had eight turnovers. While Mercer made just 2-of-9 three-pointers, Furman hit just 6-of-22. The Bears had a 48-32 advantage on points in the paint.</p><p>A sign of just how odd this game got came in Furman's foul trouble. With 8:02 remaining, the Paladins had been called for just nine fouls but Pegues and Hughey accounted for eight of those with four apiece. Pegues' fourth foul came with 10:30 left. That certainly didn't help Furman's attempt to come back down the stretch.</p><p>"At the end of the day, we're not playing well and that's on me," Richey said. "I promise you that we're going to fight and scrap and get this thing worked out, but tonight was unacceptable. ... It was a pathetic, pitiful performance."</p><p>Foster finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and three steals to lead Furman. Williams had 15 points, while Hughey had 10 points and two blocked shots before fouling out. Pegues was held to four points on just 2-of-5 shooting and also had five assists, four rebounds and four turnovers along with the four fouls.</p><p>McCreary made 13-of-21 shots and finished with a game-high 28 points to go along with eight rebounds, a block and a steal.</p><p>Furman will try to get things back on track when it plays at East Tennessee State Saturday at 6 p.m. The game will be televised by CBS Sports Network.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-16885284068860648252024-02-07T18:42:00.004-05:002024-02-07T18:42:47.534-05:00Furman falls short in classic against UNCG<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwnxOrLVY3XHu00WeZEfekhkzCm2rhK2OcEm_ecIlrr4A3amfSx6yIuhFlmmOMDZYg_eJ_KE-AMWwVPeIPO0E6ySKa4Wtj8KUo2dr7LrQVLrwjiWaCSJOQ4Gbzv5jJtgJWEwxLHDKJaMjjCOKdFEaKxcqlVCYjD6DA0C3X8gndd-C_qz_Mv0T5b15QBlN/s4684/FosterUNCG.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3122" data-original-width="4684" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwnxOrLVY3XHu00WeZEfekhkzCm2rhK2OcEm_ecIlrr4A3amfSx6yIuhFlmmOMDZYg_eJ_KE-AMWwVPeIPO0E6ySKa4Wtj8KUo2dr7LrQVLrwjiWaCSJOQ4Gbzv5jJtgJWEwxLHDKJaMjjCOKdFEaKxcqlVCYjD6DA0C3X8gndd-C_qz_Mv0T5b15QBlN/w400-h266/FosterUNCG.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marcus Foster had 26 points and six rebounds in Furman's 89-87<br />loss to UNC Greensboro Sunday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />By the first media timeout less than five minutes into Furman's game against UNC Greensboro Sunday at Timmons Arena, two things were pretty evident. First, The Southern Conference could not have asked for a better national showcase for a game that was televised by ESPNU. Second, whoever came out on the losing end would likely do so in heartbreaking fashion.</p><p>Both of thoughts came to fruition. By that first media timeout, the Paladins led 16-15 and there were three lead changes and one tie. By the end of the game, there were 18 lead changes and nine ties. At the end, a Furman team that had made each of its first 21 free throws missed each of its last three, and J.P. Pegues finally proved to be human in the final seconds as UNCG prevailed, 89-87.</p><p>"That was an unbelievable college basketball game. The national TV audience got a treat as did every fan in this building. Unfortunately, we fell one play short. Credit UNCG for its performance," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "It was two really good teams playing each other. ... We will look at this and find ways to improve. ... This group has grown a ton, but there's a lot of growth that we can still have."</p><p>Furman trailed 87-81 with 2:28 left after the Spartans' Keyshaun Langley drilled his sixth three-pointer giving him 30 points. Pegues answered with a three, which was followed by a Carter Whitt steal. Whitt found Pegues who drained another three with 1:29 left to tie the game 87-87. On its ensuing possession, UNCG (17-6, 8-2) masterfully ran out all the shot clock before Jalen Breath's reverse layup put the Spartans ahead with 59 seconds left.</p><p>Coming out of a timeout, the Paladins came up with a great play. With Pegues getting plenty of attention on the perimeter, Garrett Hien made a terrific backdoor bounce pass to a cutting Pegues. His reverse layup rolled agonizingly along the rim and off though. After the Spartans missed on their end, Marcus Foster grabbed the rebound with 15 seconds left.</p><p>Furman quickly got up the court and the ball got to Pegues. After hitting so many clutch three-pointers in the final seconds this season and last March, Pegues could not get this one to fall with six seconds left. Whitt got a hand on the loose ball and hit it off the backboard before he got the rebound. Whitt's short jumper missed but Marcus Foster grabbed the rebound. While his putback didn't go in, Foster drew his 11th foul of the game just before the final horn sounded. After review, Foster headed to the foul line with 0.6 seconds left to play. </p><p>Foster, who was 10-for-11 at the foul line at that point, had his first shot hit the back of the rim and bounced off no good. Having to intentionally miss the second free throw in hopes of a game-tying tip-in, Foster's high-arcing shot rattled in-and-out but the Paladins couldn't get the loose ball as time expired. Foster finished with 26 points on just nine field goal attempts and also had a game-high six rebounds and three assists.</p><p>"I thought our kids played their hearts out and I'm sick for Marcus. There's nothing more I wanted for him than to see those two free throws go in and put the game into overtime," Richey said. "I hate that he has to deal with that. I hate that J.P. has to deal with missing that back-cut layup. Those two kids did everything they could to help us try to win the game today."</p><p>In the first half, there were 15 lead changes and five ties in one of the most entertaining 20 minutes of basketball this season. Each team was 16-of-27 from the floor in the first half and UNCG made 9-of-14 (64.3 percent) three-pointers and all six of its free throws. Furman hit 6-of-13 threes and was 13-for-13 at the foul line to take a 51-47 lead into the break. Entering Sunday, the Spartans led the SoCon in scoring defense allowing just 69 points per game.</p><p>"You could think (in the first half) 'well maybe neither team was guarding,' but I think it was a little bit opposite," Richey said. "I think you just had a lot of really good players on the floor and a lot of guys making plays."</p><p>Furman maintained the lead for the first seven minutes of the first half, but never by more than six as the teams continued to battle back-and-forth. With 13:19 left, UNCG's Donovan Atwell converted a four-point play to cut the lead to one. On the Spartans' next possession, Langley's jumper gave UNCG a 64-63 lead.</p><p>Over the next six minutes, that back-and-forth balance went away as Furman went four minutes without a field goal as the Spartans stretched their lead to 10 with 6:30 left. PJay Smith and Foster hit threes around a pair of Pegues' free throws to cut the lead to 80-78 with 4:54 left. Langley's brother, Kobe, hit a long two-pointer. After a putback by Tyrese Hughey, Kobe Langley then got a runner to fall with Foster draped all over him. Keyshaun Langley's three with 2:28 pushed the lead to 87-81 before the final wild two minutes.</p><p>"We did battle back in the end, but we needed to execute a little bit better on the defensive end and get a couple of more stops," said Pegues, who finished with 25 points and four assists. "On the other end, some nights they just don't go in. My missed layup was wide open. It just rolled out.</p><p>"Then I had that other shot for three, but I don't really take those just because I think I'm going to make them. I take them because I'm okay with missing them. I can live with that (shot) result. ... We didn't really play the way we wanted to and for us to lose a one-possession game, I still see a bright future for us."</p><p>It's hard to imagine how UNCG could've had a better game offensively. The Spartans shot 53.7 percent for the game, including 59.1 percent (13-of-22) on three-pointers, and made 18-of-19 free throws (94.7 percent). In addition to Keyshaun Langley's 30-point effort, UNCG big man Mikeal Brown-Jones was nearly just as big of a problem. By the midpoint of the second half, Hughey and Hien had already drawn four fouls trying to guard Brown-Jones, who finished with 19 points and two blocked shots.</p><p>While it was a heartbreaking loss, Furman has had plenty of experience rebounding from those this year. Conference play doesn't allow much time for gloom anyway as Furman will hit the road to take on Mercer (10-13, 3-7) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.</p><p>"Mercer went to Greensboro and won this season. ... It doesn't matter if it's Mercer, if it's Citadel or if it's VMI, you'd better be prepared to play your best every single night," Richey said. "We've lost some gut-wrenching games this season, but our effort, our fight and resiliency was right tonight. I'll be able to sleep well tonight even though that doesn't mean I'm satisfied or happy. We're not going to mope around. It's Sunday, so there's no day off. We've got to go right back to work (Monday)."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-10262761453147546332024-02-04T12:37:00.005-05:002024-02-04T14:04:56.468-05:00Pegues, Foster help Paladins rally past Citadel<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusjkh9jBdpIPFLuRtsoslkJMpx7ilNJJVxqF9SMhNKUAhhK3wyBzxLwIm-xaxn0t2hdml-Is2DvqjgMaArCrbyuJ3LlYmFCw1yawtkizX4o2vh6omzlmgfQz0MDpvbu3FDAMm28pyciy_pb3N5xU6-eF-tIRdYj4v3ZADjDpP6b-amck308y1j5plYs3N/s4042/JPCitadel.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2695" data-original-width="4042" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusjkh9jBdpIPFLuRtsoslkJMpx7ilNJJVxqF9SMhNKUAhhK3wyBzxLwIm-xaxn0t2hdml-Is2DvqjgMaArCrbyuJ3LlYmFCw1yawtkizX4o2vh6omzlmgfQz0MDpvbu3FDAMm28pyciy_pb3N5xU6-eF-tIRdYj4v3ZADjDpP6b-amck308y1j5plYs3N/w400-h266/JPCitadel.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues hit another clutch three-pointer in the final second of regulation during<br />Furman's 82-79 overtime win at The Citadel Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Wednesday night in Charleston, J.P. Pegues did that thing he's become known for and Marcus Foster did that thing he's becoming known for. Pegues hit another clutch three in the final second of regulation to force overtime and Foster had another double-double to help Furman rally for a fairly amazing 82-79 win at The Citadel.<p></p><p>Pegues has followed up his heroic game-winning three-pointer over Virginia in the opening round of last year's NCAA Tournament, by hitting three similar threes this season. Wednesday's was the first that didn't give Furman the lead, but it tied the game at 72-72. That didn't seem like a very likely proposition when the Paladins (12-10, 6-3 Southern Conference) trailed by 18 late in the first half. Foster who had three double-doubles in his career entering this season, had his fourth in five games since returning from a knee injury. He just missed a triple-double as he finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists.</p><p>"There's a lot of guys we're proud of, but Marcus, good grief. There's not much more I could ask him to do tonight. He drew seven of their 13 fouls. I thought he played an exceptional game with his effort," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "I was proud of J.P. too because I thought he just stuck in there. I asked him to play more aggressive tonight. I thought he was aggressive early, but he wasn't seeing the ball go in. I was glad that he stayed with it and obviously hit the huge shot to put us into OT."</p><p>"We led for three minutes and 48 seconds tonight, but sometimes that's how you have to win. Especially on the road when you get into the kind of environment we ran into tonight."</p><p>The kind of environment Furman ran into was none like these group of Paladins have ever seen at Citadel. Any Furman fan who's made that trip in the last few years know that finding a seat at McAlister Field House has never been an issue. Given that the Bulldogs are in last place in the SoCon, one would've expected that to remain the case on Wednesday. Instead it was a packed house of with more seats brought out that are usually not available because of no need.</p><p>It also faced a fired-up Citadel squad that showed no fear against a Furman team it lost by 14 to earlier this season in Greenville. After taking more than eight minutes to make their second field goal in a loss at Wofford the last time out, the Paladins got off to a similarly lousy start Wednesday as their second field goal was made at the 14:20 mark.</p><p>"I've been in games here since 2006 when I was an assistant at Charleston Southern. I've never seen anything like this tonight. This thing was wall-to-wall. They must have made the whole school come out here," Richey said. "That's the best crowd I've ever seen here and I thought it kind of rattled us at first. Moreso than us being startled was that they (the Bulldogs' team) really fed off the energy of it."</p><p>The Bulldogs (9-13, 1-8) fed off that energy after what was also a slow start for them before Elijah Morgan got cooking. The game was tied 14-14 midway through the first half before a three-pointer by Morgan started a nine-minute stretch in which Citadel outscored Furman by 18 points. Another Morgan three gave the Bulldogs a 42-24 lead with 1:14 left in the first half. That also gave Morgan 22 points in the first half.</p><p>Furman closed out the half with just its second and third made three-pointers to that point. Those threes by Alex Williams and Pegues cut the lead to 42-30 at the break.</p><p>"Fortunately, we got those back-to-back threes. Besides J.P.'s shot, Marcus' offensive rebounds and some other second-half plays, those were probably the two biggest plays of the game," Richey said. "In the second half, we really settled in defensively. After 22 in the first half, we held Morgan to two over the next 25 minutes and I thought that was the big difference in the game."</p><p>Citadel got the lead back to 15 two minutes into the second half. PJay Smith drilled a three-pointer that started a 13-4 run for Furman over the next three minutes. It was still a six-point Citadel lead when Smith hit another three with 11:27 left to slice the lead to 54-51. Three minutes later, another Smith three tied the game at 56-56. On the Paladins' next possession, Foster found Carter Whitt for a layup giving Furman its first lead since early in the first half.</p><p>Foster's three with 4:09 left gave Furman a 67-64 lead, but the Bulldogs responded with an 8-2 run to take a 72-69 lead with 1:32 left. At that point, Foster, Smith and Pegues all missed three-pointers. Meanwhile, Citadel missed a three and the front end of a pair of one-and-one free throws. That last one with eight seconds left, opened the pay phone door for Pegues to change into his Superman suit one more time.</p><p>Williams rebounded the free throw and flipped the ball to Pegues, who dribbled all the way down and pulled up from that same spot to the right of the top of the key for the game-tying three with 0.1 seconds left. After reviewing it, officials put the clock at 0.8 seconds left - just like after every other one this season. The Bulldogs could not get a shot off taking the game to overtime.</p><p>Citadel actually hit a pair of free throws to take the lead in overtime, but another Smith three with 2:48 left gave Furman a lead it never relinquished. Foster's three-point play off a putback with 1:57 left pushed the Paladins lead to five to help seal the win.</p><p>"I kept thinking they were going to go foul (Pegues in regulation) but they didn't. They let him get it off and he hit it," Richey said. "This is one we're going to look back on. Yes, we can turn games, turn our energy and do it on the road. I really think we will feed off this as we go into the stretch of the season."</p><p>Pegues finished with 16 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Foster and Pegues played 40 and 41 minutes respectively, and had just one turnover apiece. Smith finished with 15 points off the bench and Williams scored 12.</p><p>Morgan and A.J. Smith led Citadel with 24 points apiece. Smith also had team-highs in rebounds (eight) and assists (five). They also each played 40-plus minutes with one turnover apiece.</p><p>Furman returns to action at home Sunday, hosting UNC Greensboro at 2 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPNU.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-48489694903907385562024-01-31T17:40:00.003-05:002024-01-31T17:40:28.639-05:00Wofford dominates paint to knock off Furman<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbbslTu1vLZQlt3_L4rcrC6tvMt4ruR3FwRSEPMAadEfjxTjbvvPJQspxBWUh-e7Yi93DMVhqiZhbZywRLhs0y_K-nA5Ry0RGJakCSvjZIlRLa0hM9T4rZF5q4qUx2MVahLPCncYD5MqLAT3RoCSm397qR1NNmKWyjoYaU8xkQP8Za9IQEPOZGkYYgpfO/s1594/FosterM_24Belmont6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1594" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbbslTu1vLZQlt3_L4rcrC6tvMt4ruR3FwRSEPMAadEfjxTjbvvPJQspxBWUh-e7Yi93DMVhqiZhbZywRLhs0y_K-nA5Ry0RGJakCSvjZIlRLa0hM9T4rZF5q4qUx2MVahLPCncYD5MqLAT3RoCSm397qR1NNmKWyjoYaU8xkQP8Za9IQEPOZGkYYgpfO/w400-h225/FosterM_24Belmont6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marcus Foster had his third double-double in the last four games Saturday,<br />but Furman lost at Wofford, 77-67. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />SPARTANBURG - When your first made field goal of the night doesn't count, that's probably not a good sign. Furman had no idea what a bad sign that would turn out to be at Wofford Saturday night. One minute into the game, Marcus Foster's pretty left-handed running jumper was erased after video review determined that he didn't release it before the shot clock expired.</p><p>As it turns out, not making two-pointers was a theme for the Paladins before a sold-out crowd at Richardson Indoor Stadium. On a night when Furman made 20 free throws and 11 three-pointers, it was just 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) on shots inside the arc. It was a different story for the Terriers, who dominated inside and led from start to finish to record a 77-67 win. Wofford had a 46-14 advantage on points in the paint to snap the Paladins' five-game winning streak.</p><p>"I thought it was energy more than anything. They had the right energy and played harder than us. They had a lot of people here. The place was juiced and they fed off that juice," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "I didn't expect us to come out like we did on our heels. I thought we had a good practice (Friday) and we were ready to roll, but you could feel that difference in energy early."</p><p>Defense sparked the Paladins' win streak it carried into Spartanburg, especially in big wins over Western Carolina and Samford their last two times out. That continued in the first half Saturday, but outside of Foster hitting free throws, Furman's offense was non-existent early on. The Paladins' lone field goal over the first eight minutes of the game was an Alex Williams putback at the 16:14 mark. Furman trailed 17-6 before it's next field goal came on a three-pointer by Williams with 11:50 left. </p><p>As bad as things were going for the Paladins in the opening half, Williams' driving layup with 1:36 left cut the Terriers' lead to 31-29. But that second made two-pointer for Furman turned out to be its final points of the half. Over the final 81 seconds, Wofford had two layups, a dunk and two free throws while Furman had two turnovers, a foul and a missed layup as it was a 39-29 game at the break. It marked the first time since its last loss that Furman didn't score on its final possession of the first half. In a quirky stat, the Paladins fell to 2-6 this season when not scoring in that situation.</p><p>"The start of the game and the finish of the first half, that's what got us," Richey said. "And they killed us in the paint. They really did a good job of driving it, kicking it and moving it. They had us rotating all night."</p><p>Furman played much harder in the second half, but it's pressing defense led to some easy buckets for Wofford which shot 51.9 percent from the floor after halftime. The Terriers expanded their lead to 15 by the first media timeout of the second half. The Paladins cut it to 52-47 with 11:01 left on Foster's layup, but Wofford big man Kyler Filewich answered with a hook shot on the other end. After a missed layup by Foster, Jeremy Lorenz drilled a three-pointer and Terriers led by double figures for most of the rest of the game.</p><p>The Paladins (11-10, 5-3) had no answers for Filewich. In 25:33 on the court, the Southern Illinois transfer hit 8-of-9 shots and finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, a steal and no turnovers. Corey Tripp led Wofford (12-9, 5-3) with 20 points and five assists.</p><p>Foster had his third double-double in four games since returning from injury as he finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds for Furman. Williams and J.P. Pegues scored 15 points apiece, while PJay Smith had 11. For the game, Furman shot 31 percent (18-of-58) with just 10 assists. For comparison's sake, Chattanooga made 23-of-30 two-pointers in a 79-65 win on Wofford's home floor three days earlier.</p><p>"We saw this at Chattanooga and we saw it tonight. We've got to figure it out - do we want to play connected or do we not want to play connected. Connection is depending on one another and working with one another," Richey said. "Connection is using five people to create a really good shot, not one person trying to create a shot. Then you let that energy get into your defense and you don't guard as well.</p><p>"One of the big elevations of our defense here lately was that we've been moving it on offense to a point where the whole game just comes easier and more enjoyable. That connection bleeds into our defense. Tonight we weren't connected on either end and I've got to be better there."</p><p>The Paladins will look to get back on track when they play at The Citadel at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Furman should have plenty of motivation to come out focused to try to avoid back-to-back losses at in-state rivals. The Bulldogs were the last team to defeat the Paladins last season before Furman's run to round two of the NCAA Tournament.</p><p>"You've got to be ready to go. ... If you think you're just going to go into somebody's own environment and win without playing your best game, you're going to have something bad coming for you," Richey said. "That's what we've got to learn and grow up a little bit. This team has responded and I've got full confidence that they'll continue to respond."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-17820854212801657922024-01-27T15:06:00.002-05:002024-01-27T15:06:34.790-05:00Defense helps Furman end Samford's win streak<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3v0IckIedQ_yJ-HVAiEmGsiEMOCUD59sZjF-dsZ4xdxf6ZM_FscZzZ0urcV6khHPJ1aSiBPu_J-etaUdytu0EyI_Pi-4NFykucIGLo_2pfrm-TMbDL9BC9q_voB0ASprYySn2ZbLWcqxc4FnP78aNN2Im6eLoPINTitCr9q4Ql8uojytEuqKfNl1Qyemt/s4281/HienSamford.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2854" data-original-width="4281" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3v0IckIedQ_yJ-HVAiEmGsiEMOCUD59sZjF-dsZ4xdxf6ZM_FscZzZ0urcV6khHPJ1aSiBPu_J-etaUdytu0EyI_Pi-4NFykucIGLo_2pfrm-TMbDL9BC9q_voB0ASprYySn2ZbLWcqxc4FnP78aNN2Im6eLoPINTitCr9q4Ql8uojytEuqKfNl1Qyemt/w400-h266/HienSamford.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garrett Hien (13) defends against Samford's Josh Holloway (1) during<br />Furman's 78-68 win Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />As the Furman men's basketball team toiled through an injury plagued first two months of the season, a prevailing idea by those in the know was that once the Paladins were at full strength they'd be just fine. That's proven to be the case, but here's the thing. "Fine" is no longer good enough for this program. As the great Roy Kent once said, "Don't you dare settle for fine!" (If only one person gets that reference, it's still totally worth it.)</p><p>A fully healthy squad has been more than fine the past couple of weeks. It's been great. Greatness has come from not only getting back key players, but also getting back to the biggest key to "Furman basketball" - defense. Coming off its best defensive performance of the season in holding Western Carolina to its season-low point total in a 65-62 win last Saturday, Furman faced another challenge Wednesday when Samford came to Greenville with the nation's longest winning streak at 17 consecutive games. The Bulldogs were also second in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 90.4 points per game.</p><p>The Paladins rose to the challenge, displaying the kind of defense Samford hasn't seen in two-and-a-half months. The Bulldogs were held to their lowest scoring output since they started the season 0-2 as Furman posted a 78-68 win at a nearly sold out Timmons Arena. In snapping Samford's winning streak, Furman (11-9, 5-2 Southern Conference) extended its to five consecutive games in what was the 150th victory of Bob Richey's career.</p><p>"It was a heck of a ballgame. We knew we were facing a team with the longest winning streak in the country and its a credit to our group for playing connected. ... I love the confidence they're playing with. They've got a little chip on their shoulder and they should," Richey said. "Everybody thinks Furman's an offensive team but in the analytics report tonight, the offense was red and the defense was green. The defense was great. It's why we won tonight. It's why we won Saturday. It's why we're having the improvement we're having.</p><p>"I also want to thank everybody that took the time to come out here on their Wednesday night. ... We fought for years to get these consistent crowds and get the energy where it's at and that's what makes it fun. Environment matters."</p><p>Neither team was cooking offensively early on as the game was tied 16-16 with less than eight minutes left in the first half. Coming out of the under-eight media timeout, J.P. Pegues missed a jumper, but Garrett Hien batted the rebound out of the scrum with enough force that PJay Smith was able to track it down in the backcourt. The ball made its way back to Hien, who found Alex Williams open for a three-pointer and Williams drilled it.</p><p>That ignited a 13-3 run and Furman never relinquished the lead. The fact that Smith and Hien were heavily involved in the play that put the Paladins in front for good would turn out to not be a coincidence. Later in the half, a Hien dunk extended the lead to 31-21 and made Timmons as loud as it has been all season. Hien and Smith, who started coming off the bench when this win streak began, led Furman in plus-minus Wednesday at plus-22 and plus-14, respectively.</p><p>"Garrett Hien was big tonight. ... We had to take him out of the starting lineup and just like our team, when everybody thought we were going to fold up and quit, he didn't. He kept working. He's been in the gym and he earned the right to play like he did tonight," Richey said. "PJay Smith was phenomenal. He played with confidence and swagger. ... When we've got (point guards) PJay, Carter (Whitt) and J.P. out there and you're trying to press them, it can be difficult especially if we keep two feet on the ground."</p><p>Furman got a pair of offensive rebounds on its final possession of the first half before Pegues found Marcus Foster for a layup that pushed the lead to 34-25 at the break. It's the fifth consecutive game - and 13th time this season - that the Paladins have scored on its final possession of the first half.</p><p>Samford shot 37.5 percent in the first half, including 0-for-9 on three-pointers. The Bulldogs 25-point output was its lowest in any half since their 98-45 loss at Purdue in the season opener on Nov. 6. </p><p>"It's a very high-powered offense. They get the tempo really, really fast and you've got no chance if you don't guard them," Richey said. "I think our guys took tremendous pride in playing defense tonight."</p><p>Furman actually shot worse than Samford in the first half as it made 36.4 percent from the floor, but a difference was making six three-pointers. The Paladins, who've had at least 12 offensive rebounds in 11 of their last 12 games, also outscored the Bulldogs 12-2 on second-chance points in the opening half.</p><p>Samford got the lead down as close as four twice after halftime but Furman had a quick response each time. After the Bulldogs scored the first five points in the second half, Hien had a layup off an assist from Whitt. Samford used a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 44-40 with 14 minutes left before Foster found Smith for a three-pointer. That started a 12-3 run as the Paladins took command again.</p><p>Foster led Furman with 22 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and a block. After having just one double-double last season, Wednesday's was Foster's second in the past three games since returning from his knee injury. Williams made 4-of-6 threes and finished with 16 points, while Pegues scored 12 and Smith had 11. Whitt finished with six points, seven assists and five rebounds, while Hien had five points, four assists and two steals.</p><p>"I think we stayed composed and didn't try to force things against their press," Smith said. "I think we handled the pressure well and I think that's why we ended up getting the win."</p><p>Furman joined Purdue and VCU as the only teams to hold Samford under 75 points this season. VCU defeated the Bulldogs, 75-65, in game two this season. Achor Achor led Samford (17-3, 6-1) with 19 points, six rebounds and three blocks.</p><p>Furman will travel to Wofford Saturday for a 6 p.m. game. It will be televised locally by the CW Ch. 62.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-74642919466762286272024-01-24T17:29:00.001-05:002024-01-24T17:29:20.933-05:00Pegues does it again as Paladins win thriller<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuXABkjbzDb7Tqj-xMIcM85u680g78KQfMlim8CGgiOc_pBoCrzKMwP7w0LPUEJlpkB400kadW5pE0oyT1IZdijVibvMH4ctBrNs7z2O0_jYn2NoP_Z2KFXiZowytj9c6Td-wW2IHqt2q2zqjQ9vOB208SQIcOOZs8Dy95Xr8IIHN01A2c-h-8WdXy0rq_/s6000/JPWCU.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuXABkjbzDb7Tqj-xMIcM85u680g78KQfMlim8CGgiOc_pBoCrzKMwP7w0LPUEJlpkB400kadW5pE0oyT1IZdijVibvMH4ctBrNs7z2O0_jYn2NoP_Z2KFXiZowytj9c6Td-wW2IHqt2q2zqjQ9vOB208SQIcOOZs8Dy95Xr8IIHN01A2c-h-8WdXy0rq_/w400-h266/JPWCU.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teammates celebrate with J.P. Pegues (1) after he hit the game-winning three-pointer<br />in Furman's 65-62 win over Western Carolina Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Mr. Clutch? Onions? Stone cold killer? No matter what nickname you might like to use to describe Furman's J.P. Pegues after his latest game-winning heroics, he's seemingly going to have enough for every thrilling victory.</p><p>Much like he did to Virginia last season and what should've been done at Tulane this season, Pegues once again delivered at the finish line Saturday. Pegues' three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left lifted the Paladins to a 65-62 win over Western Carolina at Timmons Arena Saturday.</p><p>"The coaching staff and the players on this team trusted me in that moment. ... Thanks to them for putting that confidence in me because that plays a big part," Pegues said. "I was just looking at the clock, knowing I had time to shoot it or drive it. ... I work on that shot every day, so I decided to shoot it and had full belief it was going in.</p><p>"At the end of the day, we had five guys out there who could've made that shot. ... I got sprayed for them to tie it up on the three, so I just knew I wanted the last shot. I just crave those moments."</p><p>There were six ties and seven lead changes in this instant classic and nearly all of them were in the final three minutes. After the Catamounts' phenom Vonterius Woolbright found D.J. Campbell open on the wing for a game-tying three pointer with 17.3 seconds left, Furman played for the last shot but first called timeout. Coach Bob Richey had a play in mind, but history overruled it.</p><p>"I had a play ready that we haven't shown yet if we needed a game-winner. We got to the huddle and we'd gone small over the last seven minutes," Richey said. "We said, 'we're just going to put the ball in J.P.'s hands and let him get us home."</p><p>Coming out the timeout, Campbell - a 6-foot-2 guard - was on Pegues as he dribbled into the half court. At the top of the key, Alex Williams set a screen and Campbell followed him switching 6-8 forward Bernard Pelote on Pegues. With the final seconds ticking down and Pelote's feet just inside the free throw circle, Pegues took a step back and drilled the three with 0.6 seconds showing on the clock.</p><p>After video review, 0.8 seconds were left - just like the nightmare scenario at Tulane. This time, Furman didn't guard the inbounder and didn't have an officiating crew rewrite the list of things humanly possible on a basketball court in 0.8 seconds. Campbell's inbounds pass was tipped away by PJay Smith and Timmons erupted in celebration of the Paladins' fourth consecutive win.</p><p>"What a college basketball game. There won't be five better in the country today. The last two times we've played, we've just made one more play. Both times, it's been blow-for-blow, hit-for-hit," Richey said. "It was eerily similar to Tulane having the clock reset at 0.8 seconds, but that's the beauty of sports. The hard can feel like it's caving in on you a little bit.</p><p>"This time, I trusted my conviction and played it with a centerfielder. We told them to use the arc like an electric fence and don't go past it. We get the deflection and it's ballgame. Sometimes sports can teach you and that was one of those little funny moments. In New Orleans, I was in my hotel room that night just kicking myself. I was thinking I could coach for 30 more years and not see another full court, 0.8 (seconds) left and up three. I'll be darned if we didn't have one tonight. ... Seeing our team be able to celebrate a huge win after that exact situation tonight was a nice little bonus after a heck of a game."</p><p>In a rough game where both teams fought like crazy, bodies hit the floor on a routine basis. Furman (10-9, 4-2 Southern Conference) found a way down the stretch without Tyrese Hughey, who rolled an ankle with 15:43 left and never returned. The Paladins also played much of the second half without Pegues, who was battling leg cramps.</p><p>Much like he did to end the game, Pegues ended the first half with a three-pointer in the final seconds to give the Paladins a 36-26 lead at the break. Furman held the Catamounts to 34.4 precent shooting including 1-of-8 on three-pointers in the first half.</p><p>Western flipped that script on the Paladins in the second half. That 10-point was all gone when Woolbright hit a layup with 14:26 left to give the Catamounts a 39-38 lead. While it never grew larger than five, Western maintained that lead for most of the next 11 minutes. With 3:22 left, Alex Williams' putback tied the game 55-55.</p><p>Marcus Foster was called for a foul on the other end and Woolbright hit both free throws to put the Catamounts back in front. Woolbright then blocked Foster's layup but Furman maintained possession. With time running out on the shot clock, Pegues found Foster who drilled a three to put Furman up 58-57. That was the Paladins' first made three of the second half, on its eighth attempt.</p><p>"Marcus' three was one of our best possessions of the second half. We got some movement, side-to-side, got the ball in the paint and kicked it out," Richey said. "It's just great seeing him back out there. Then we make the plays that we need to make late."</p><p>Woolbright again answered when he followed his own miss on a layup with 1:57 left to put Western back on top. In what will be overshadowed by the game-winning three, this is when Pegues really came through when needed most. His left-handed layup with 1:38 left gave Furman a 60-59 lead. Officials failed to see Richey calling timeout after the bucket, but that turned out just fine for the Paladins.</p><p>After being hounded by Foster most of the day, Woolbright found himself facing Carter Whitt on a switch. No longer facing Furman's top defender, Woolbright drove Whitt down towards the basket. As Woolbright spun to his left, he turned right into a double team and Foster made the steal. After a Furman timeout, Pegues drove to the basket and perfectly put a high spinning, left-handed layup over the outstretched arm of the bigger Woolbright to push the lead to 62-59 with 39 seconds left.</p><p>Campbell's tying three-pointer on the Catamounts' ensuing possession set the stage for Pegues' winner. Richey wasn't the only one confident in leaving it in the hands of Pegues.</p><p>"Everyone has a willingness to just play for one another. We really just just to see each other win," Foster said. "I knew J.P. was going to hit that shot as soon as Coach drew it up. When we play our best together, it's going to be hard to beat us."</p><p>Pegues finished with 17 points and four assists to lead Furman, while Foster had 14 points and nine rebounds. After hitting 15-of-21 three-pointers over the previous three games, Williams was 0-for-2 from beyond the arc Saturday. He came up huge in other ways though as he had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the first double-double of his career. Whitt, who had scored 35 points over his previous two games, was just 1-of-5 Saturday but he had four of the Paladins' 10 steals.</p><p>Woolbright had game-highs in points (27), rebounds (16), assists (6) and fouls drawn (8) for Western (15-4, 4-2).</p><p>Furman has another huge test Wednesday when it hosts Samford at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs (17-2, 6-0) enter on Division I-best 17-game winning streak.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-70505535537784426702024-01-20T11:49:00.000-05:002024-01-20T11:49:02.413-05:00Foster powers Furman to dominant win in return<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZs8EfFL1phzoRjMfyJOV8yf3E3TPxM5h4bAjnMBb8kaPTcL1wcYWJ7nlZSIU7Y7_r0M7WrUZrKTzPG0KN0m5wX9QUHCyTpWGSqM9sOqmTwTyMdhOmzJhZiIyK4346d1-XPEEKsBFoTBkB8qIRjCSHyvNtFDyA47sNiB2T_YoDhGrYAB21tr4x4Preqjr/s1607/FosterM_23Samford3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1087" data-original-width="1607" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZs8EfFL1phzoRjMfyJOV8yf3E3TPxM5h4bAjnMBb8kaPTcL1wcYWJ7nlZSIU7Y7_r0M7WrUZrKTzPG0KN0m5wX9QUHCyTpWGSqM9sOqmTwTyMdhOmzJhZiIyK4346d1-XPEEKsBFoTBkB8qIRjCSHyvNtFDyA47sNiB2T_YoDhGrYAB21tr4x4Preqjr/w400-h270/FosterM_23Samford3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marcus Foster (5) had 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Alex Williams (24) scored<br />23 in Furman's 100-60 win at VMI Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Furman men's basketball coach Bob Richey deployed his 14th different starting lineup this season when the Paladins played at VMI Wednesday night. This is the one Furman had been waiting on though. After missing nine games since suffering a knee injury at Princeton on Dec. 2, Paladins' leading scorer Marcus Foster returned to the lineup.</p><p>After not having a big immediate impact in the first half, Foster's second half helped Furman transform a comfortable lead into a dominant win. Foster had all 18 of his points and seven of his 10 rebounds after halftime as the Paladins pounded the Keydets, 100-60. Alex Williams scored 23 points and Carter Whitt had 21 as Furman (9-9, 3-2 Southern Conference) scored at least 99 points for the fourth time this season.</p><p>"It was great to see old '5' back out there. We missed him and he looked like a kid at Christmas. He was so excited to play," Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "Having Foster back out there is a whole other weapon and another dimension. It was really fun to see him get comfortable there in the second half. I think that's his first double-double since at ETSU about a year ago."</p><p>The play of Williams and Whitt has spearheaded the Paladins' three-game winning streak and that continued in the opening half Wednesday. About the only thing Whitt had not done of late was shoot three-pointers as he had made 24.2 percent (15-of-62) this season entering Wednesday. After Furman trailed 6-5 three minutes in though, Whitt drained three consecutive threes in a 95-second stretch. That gave the Paladins a 14-6 lead and they led the rest of the way.</p><p>Whitt and Williams accounted for all of Furman's first 20 points. That lead grew to 38-23 on Williams' dunk off a steal and assist by Foster with 5:27 left. Suddenly, all that momentum came to a screeching halt. Unlike earlier times this season when a bad offensive stretch by Furman would be compounded by bad defense, that didn't happen Wednesday. While the Paladins were nearly shut out for the rest of the half, so were the Keydets.</p><p>After Williams' dunk, there wasn't another point scored until VMI's Tyran Cook had a dunk off a steal and assist by Brennan Watkins with 1:10 left. Cook's free throw with 32 seconds left cut the lead to 12. Furman managed to avoid going scoreless over the final 5:27 when J.P. Pegues was fouled on a three-pointer with six seconds left. Pegues drained all three foul shots as Furman took a 41-26 lead into halftime. Whitt scored 15 points in the opening half, while Williams had 14.</p><p>"We got a lot of different contributions tonight. We made 18 threes, so the Dins can make some shots. The Dins can play some defense too. I thought we really guarded," Richey said. "We talked about that a lot in preparation for this game. When we've come up here and played well, it's typically been that our defense has spurred our offense."</p><p>Threes by Williams and Whitt helped extend the lead to 19 just over two minutes into the second half. Furman led 52-39 with just under 14 minutes to go when the "Marcus Foster Show" began. Foster got his first field goal on a jumper with 13:43 left. Then PJay Smith hit a three. Then Foster hit a three. Then Smith converted a four-point play to extend the lead to 64-39 with 11:49 left.</p><p>It was 73-45 with nine minutes to play when Foster returned to the court following a three-minute breather. He went out like Prince ending a concert with an epic performance of "Purple Rain" - only in about half the time of the iconic song. From the 8:50 mark to the 5:11 mark, Foster had:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>a blocked shot</li><li>a three-pointer</li><li>a defensive rebound</li><li>two free throws</li><li>a defensive rebound</li><li>a three-pointer</li><li>a defensive rebound</li><li>a layup</li><li>a defensive rebound</li><li>a layup</li></ul>With 4:57 left, a VMI turnover allowed Foster to exit the stage for the final time. There was no need for any encore as Furman led 85-49.<p></p><p>"I felt great, but to be honest that first media (timeout) kind of got me because it took about eight minutes to get to. Once I got through that and realized I wasn't too gassed, I knew I was going to have a good game eventually," Foster said. "I really just let the game come to me. I knew eventually it was going to turn for me as long as I kept my cool and just played within the offense."</p><p>The Paladins hit each of their final five three-pointers to close out the scoring. Williams had another extremely efficient night shooting. After going 5-of-18 (1-for-11 from three) from the floor in Furman's loss at Chattanooga, Williams has shot 59.5 percent (25-of-42) and made 15-of-21 (71.4 percent) three-pointers over the last three games.</p><p>Smith was the other Paladin in double figures as he scored 13 thanks to hitting 4-of-5 three-pointers. It's an encouraging sign for Smith, who was 9-of-39 from three over his previous six games. Ben VanderWal had nine points, seven rebounds (five offensive) and three assists off the bench for Furman, while Pegues finished with eight points. Pegues and Tyrese Hughey shared the team lead in assists with five apiece.</p><p>Cook and Stephen Olowoniyi each scored 14 to lead VMI (3-15, 0-5).</p><p>It will be quite a turnaround for the Paladins Saturday. After the victory at three-win VMI, Furman will host three-loss Western Carolina (15-3, 4-1) at 2 p.m. The Paladins will then host SoCon first-place Samford Wednesday at 7 p.m.</p><p>"Once you get into league play they're all huge, but Western's had a great year. (Western Carolina coach) Justin's (Gray) done a great job and I'm sure they're excited to play us again after that semifinal game (in last year's SoCon Tournament)," Richey said. "We've got a lot of respect for what they do and how they operate. It's going to be a heck of a ballgame. We need to have Timmons rocking."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-19083607499058387782024-01-17T17:10:00.001-05:002024-01-17T17:10:15.409-05:00Paladins stay connected in win over ETSU<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWloi5nrbPef1j8DPHP3Tm6zjg30D1WN2oCw6v4t5bY7SIhnzqnRSaBc_ydaE77g2lbHCaQ6FjzpA5FZO3oS5E-6ajqB3dhMBsdJR_oVGW6jMJuWo3kAne1h13E-wqWA2DSdpMI9ayFyV1-U-4hTgBv38ou3eoHs5H7Bsz7fiRTZGsxshcoEOcFDs-YDL/s1023/fit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1023" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWloi5nrbPef1j8DPHP3Tm6zjg30D1WN2oCw6v4t5bY7SIhnzqnRSaBc_ydaE77g2lbHCaQ6FjzpA5FZO3oS5E-6ajqB3dhMBsdJR_oVGW6jMJuWo3kAne1h13E-wqWA2DSdpMI9ayFyV1-U-4hTgBv38ou3eoHs5H7Bsz7fiRTZGsxshcoEOcFDs-YDL/w400-h266/fit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carter Whitt had 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in<br />Furman's 82-73 win over ETSU Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />For just the third time this season, the Furman men's basketball team had the same five starters as it did in the previous game Saturday when the Paladins hosted East Tennessee State. That consistency led to another satisfying outcome. Alex Williams and J.P. Pegues scored 20 points apiece and Carter Whitt's level of play continued to rise as Furman recorded an 82-73 victory before a crowd of 2,273 at Timmons Arena.</p><p>Saturday marked the Paladins' sixth consecutive win over the Bucs, which pulled them even in the all-time series at 34-34. The win also got Furman (8-9) even in the Southern Conference standings at 2-2. While the Paladins weren't quite as hot as they were when they shot a season-high 55 percent from the floor in a win over The Citadel last time out, they held a lead for all but 89 seconds Saturday. Furman led by as many as 21 with 11:40 left in the second half.</p><p>"That was a fun Saturday afternoon in front of a great crowd with great energy. I thought the crowd really affected the game, especially on that run in the second half," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "We started making some mistakes there late and it was kind of like, 'what's going on?' but did what we had to do to close it out.</p><p>"I'm really proud offensively of how we're moving the ball all of a sudden. It's amazing to go from what we saw a week ago with very little movement and a bunch of bad shots to the last two games with just guys trusting each other and playing with one another and making shots easy for one another. I think in the first half, we were 1.33 offensively. That's incredible, especially versus a team like ETSU with how well-coached they aren't how hard they play."</p><p>The only other time the Paladins had the same starting lineup in consecutive games this season came in a three-game stretch against Arkansas, Bob Jones and Tulane. That was right after Marcus Foster was injured at Princeton. The difference in the lineup the last two games from those three has been Ben VanderWal and Carter Whitt starting in place of Garrett Hien and PJay Smith.</p><p>Richey said the change wasn't about Hien and Smith as much as it was about just finding the right mix to start. This new lineup allows Williams to shift from the three to the four position and he's responded by hitting 10-of-13 three pointers over the past two games.</p><p>"I give A-Will a lot of credit. He gets 20 points and seven rebounds and does it on 13 shots, going 3-for-4 from three. I thought he let me coach him in terms of the shot selection. He's really trying to do better there," Richey said. "He's been so much more coachable there and I can see him really trying. We challenged him defensively tonight too. ... Going with A-Will at the four, we knew we were going to have to fight and scrap like heck on the glass. We won the boards by four and I thought that was a big key to the game."</p><p>The lineup change has seemed to benefit all involved but most importantly, the team. Hien came on and scored all 10 of his points consecutively in a less than three-minute stretch to turn Furman's 16-14 deficit into a 24-16 lead midway through the first half. VanderWal had six points, six rebounds and three assists, while Smith was 0-for-2 from the floor, but grabbed five rebounds and drew three fouls.</p><p>No one has seen their personal stock rise as much as Whitt has the last two games though. Whitt had 14 points, five assists, five rebounds and four steals Saturday. While Whitt also had five turnovers, they weren't the same out-of-control kind that have been an issue for him at times in the past.</p><p>There's often a fine line between a turnover and a spectacular play and Whitt pulled off the latter right out of the gate Saturday. He made an incredible pass through traffic to Williams, who in turn, made an incredible reverse layup to open the game's scoring and get the crowd roaring from the start.</p><p>"Carter's vision is exceptional. Sometimes he can see what others can't. That's his gift. ... I saw A-Will cut and thought, 'man, that's going to be a tough window,' but he led him and A-Will made an unbelievably talented play," Richey said. "I'll take five turnovers if I get 14 points, four steals, nine deflections, 5-for-9 from the floor, all free throws made and five rebounds."</p><p>After Hien's flurry, Furman led the rest of the way. The Paladins led by as many as nine in the first half on two occasions - one on a Whitt steal and layup and then a pair of Whitt free throws on Furman's next possession.</p><p>Much like Hien did in the first half, Pegues had a personal run in the second half to give Furman a commanding lead. With just under 15 minutes to play, the Paladins led 55-45 before Pegues outscored ETSU 11-3 over a stretch of two minutes and one second. Williams' three-point play - off an assist from Pegues - made it a 16-3 run to give Furman a 69-48 lead with 11:40 left.</p><p>The Bucs (9-8, 1-3) cut that 21-point lead down to seven with 4:48 left. After a free throw by Williams, Whitt was all over the play-by-play for the next couple of minutes. He had a blocked shot, a jumper, a rebound and then an assist to Tyrese Hughey. In addition to making the layup, Hughey drew the fifth foul of ETSU big Jadyn Parker. Parker fouled out with 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots, so his absence obviously helped Furman close things out.</p><p>"There's a certain creativity in Carter's game that you've got to let flow. In the year-and-a-half we've been together, the compromise has been 'I want you to be in free space and I want you to go, but here are the things I need you to do.' The big battle for he and I on that is that I want feet on the ground." Richey said. "Once you launch into the air, you have to make a decision and it's a rushed decision. ... I'm just really proud of him. His growth is why we do what we do."</p><div>Jaden Seymour had a game-high 23 points to lead the Bucs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Furman will try to move above .500 in the SoCon Wednesday when it plays at VMI at 6 p.m.</div>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-40850698934499504952024-01-13T12:04:00.000-05:002024-01-13T12:04:02.435-05:00Williams' shooting lifts Paladins past Citadel<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0QwJ-JuAlznmVuo6-95ssl7TKzi8awDkpFkSqoRAovOhid9MoGmK7JVE01vtlo0rjDKgoCWIISzMxIosDR64GEvXN-JA3-jkKFFE48eCLSzG6ZZdwR8dDk6WgS6LyV25w4CCLW8NrGH_eyg55bt4u9f1cVMgOiytik8MTmY8b7z8oFmWT6o4eNbcpqBB/s1473/WilliamsA_Citadel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1473" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0QwJ-JuAlznmVuo6-95ssl7TKzi8awDkpFkSqoRAovOhid9MoGmK7JVE01vtlo0rjDKgoCWIISzMxIosDR64GEvXN-JA3-jkKFFE48eCLSzG6ZZdwR8dDk6WgS6LyV25w4CCLW8NrGH_eyg55bt4u9f1cVMgOiytik8MTmY8b7z8oFmWT6o4eNbcpqBB/w400-h225/WilliamsA_Citadel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alex Williams hit seven three-pointers and scored 26 points in Furman's<br />82-68 win over The Citadel Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />When Furman basketball's top shooters are going through a slump, Paladins coach Bob Richey may have to remind them to shoot their way out of it. Alex Williams doesn't appear to be one that ever needs that reminder.</p><p>Coming off Furman's worst shooting night of the season in a loss at Chattanooga last Saturday, Williams led the Paladins to their best shooting night of the season in an 82-68 win over The Citadel Wednesday at Timmons Arena. Williams hit seven three-pointers and scored 26 points for Furman, which made 55 percent (33-of-60) of its field goals after making 27.5 percent (19-of-69) at Chattanooga.</p><p>In defeating their oldest rival, the Paladins (7-9, 1-2 Southern Conference) snapped a three-game losing skid in a game that finally looked like "Furman basketball" again. Backed by Williams' 7-of-9 showing, the Paladins made 13-of-31 three-pointers. This came after a four-game stretch in which Furman was just 18-of-111 from three.</p><p>In addition to the poor shooting night at Chattanooga, Furman also had only six assists - its fewest in a game in four years. On Wednesday, the Paladins had 28 assists led by Carter Whitt's career-high 10.</p><p>"We made sure we came out and looked like a Furman team. We'd gotten a little bit outside of our identity," Richey said. "I've had to do a better job of getting this thing into structure and demanding that we take great shots and demanding that we depend on one another.</p><p>"We took 26 bad shots on Saturday according to our grading system. Unfortunately for us, we can't do that. No team can do that. You can sit there and say 'we can't make shots.' Well, we didn't earn the right to make shots (Saturday)."</p><p>After missing the SoCon opener at UNC Greensboro with an injury, Williams came off the bench at Chattanooga and was 5-of-18 from the floor, including 1-for-11 from three. In Furman's national-high 13th different starting lineup this season on Wednesday, Williams rejoined those five and immediately went to work leaving the Chattanooga game in the dust.</p><p>Williams scored Furman's first point at the foul line, made a steal and then hit the Paladins' first field goal - a three-pointer - in the opening 84 seconds. That three started a spurt that Tyrese Hughey capped with a three and a dunk to give Furman a 14-6 lead less than four minutes in.</p><p>Furman took its first double-digit lead of the game thanks to a flurry of Williams' threes midway through the first half. Williams hit three threes in a span of 80 seconds, each one seemingly further away than the last, as the Paladins took a 33-20 lead and forced a Citadel timeout with 9:42 left. On Furman's next possession out of the timeout, Williams used the attention he was getting defensively to find Cooper Bowser for a layup to push the lead to 15.</p><p>"We just got back to our identity - passing up a good shot for a great shot," Williams said. "When I get hot like that, I feel like I can shoot it from anywhere but I still have to make sure it's at least a good shot."</p><p>The Paladins did have a dry spell that allowed the Bulldogs (8-8, 0-3) to trim the lead down to four with 1:35 left. J.P. Pegues found Garrett Hien for a layup as time expired to give Furman a 44-36 lead at the break. The Paladins made 9-of-18 three-pointers in the opening half and had assists on 16 of their 17 buckets.</p><p>Citadel got the lead down to 48-45 three-and-a-half minutes into the second half before Pegues again found Hien for a layup. That was followed by back-to-back threes by Pegues and Williams to push the lead back to double figures at 56-45.</p><p>From the 14-minute mark to the 5:13 mark, Furman outscored the Bulldogs 21-8 to take its biggest lead of the night at 77-57. Highlights of that stretch included a beautiful bounce pass from Whitt to Ben VanderWal for a dunk and later a defensive deflection by VanderWal that Whitt corralled. Whitt then raced down the middle of the floor before dishing to Pegues for a layup.</p><p>"That's Furman basketball - defense leading to offense, getting out in transition and running," said VanderWal. "Carter was awesome. ... He is lethal off ball screens and off the drive and he made really good decisions tonight."</p><p>Not to be overlooked by the offensive turnaround, Furman's defense got back to what it wants to be as well. Citadel's 3-of-16 shooting from three were the fewest makes by a Furman opponent since Belmont hit 3-of-21 on Nov. 10.</p><p>After missing a few games with an injury, Citadel leading scorer A.J. Smith was held to 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting in his return. Elijah Morgan, the Bulldogs' second-leading scorer, had 15 points but it came on 6-of-15 shooting including 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. Morgan entered Wednesday ranked No. 1 in the SoCon - and near the top 10 nationally - in three-point shooting at 46.5 percent (46-of-99).</p><p>"Our defense has been getting progressively better each game. We still have a long way to go, but tonight was a great step in that direction," Williams said. "We know J.P.'s going to play defense every time. He's just a warrior and we get that energy from him. We just all feed off the way he plays and talk to each other a lot more on the court."</p><p>Williams was one of five Paladins in double figures and also had four assists. Coming off the bench Wednesday, Hien and PJay Smith had 11 and 10 points, respectively. VanderWal and Pegues each scored 10 with Pegues adding six assists and four rebounds. Hughey finished with eight points, five rebounds and three assists.</p><p>The two leaders in plus-minus for Furman were Williams and Whitt, each at plus-18. After probably trying to do a little too much given the Paladins' injury situations of late, Whitt still played at his typical fast pace but seemed more in control than ever Wednesday. In addition to his 10 assists, Whitt also had five points on 2-of-5 shooting, four rebounds, a steal, a block and two turnovers.</p><p>"Confidence is a funny thing - up or down. I've been really proud of Carter's fight in the last year-and-a-half and it has not been an easy road for him," Richey said. "We infused him in that lineup last season and won 15-of-17 from that point forward. He came back this summer and his work ethic increased. He's in here every day, watching film, getting shots, popping in my office asking what he needs to get better at.</p><p>"I challenged Carter tonight to 'just go play to your strengths. You have elite vision and elite creativity with the ball. ... Take some pressure off yourself to make all these shots and just go play.' ... I looked at the boxscore during a couple of timeouts and he had no points and was at plus-20. He was affecting winning."</p><p>Furman will try to keep the momentum going when it hosts East Tennessee State Saturday at 2 p.m.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-40847826097411769052024-01-10T17:04:00.004-05:002024-01-10T17:04:34.198-05:00Cold first half dooms Paladins in loss at UTC<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4c05kXuVNKQrgT_O82CbzfcI1V4bP-uNGc8eqPFvt4xVnTtqOD2oKT55YgTALDUagrTw6HzwA_adxffTxAoQtFPJfgQ34Apy9CwCtxl-pEg8Zkqt9EzBtXZ4N2fsmSxYbEh9tzX3l13DT9aX7cqCLIrocVd96oCivD_4hIJyIvlfCunTTWdeQzMJRpie6/s2000/PeguesJP_atUTC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="2000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4c05kXuVNKQrgT_O82CbzfcI1V4bP-uNGc8eqPFvt4xVnTtqOD2oKT55YgTALDUagrTw6HzwA_adxffTxAoQtFPJfgQ34Apy9CwCtxl-pEg8Zkqt9EzBtXZ4N2fsmSxYbEh9tzX3l13DT9aX7cqCLIrocVd96oCivD_4hIJyIvlfCunTTWdeQzMJRpie6/w400-h225/PeguesJP_atUTC.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues had 16 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in Furman's<br />73-58 loss at Chattanooga Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Furman welcomed back two of its three leading scorers from injury Saturday night, but that didn't prevent the Paladins from suffering an astoundingly bad first half of basketball. Furman missed 16 consecutive shots over a stretch of 13-and-a-half minutes in the opening half to fall behind by 23 and went on to a 73-58 loss to Chattanooga.</p><p>While leading scorer Marcus Foster remained sidelined due to injury, second-leading scorer J.P. Pegues and third-leading scorer Alex Williams returned. Like most of their teammates Saturday, neither could get much to fall. Pegues and Williams were a combined 11-of-39 from the floor, including 1-of-19 on three-pointers. As a team, the Paladins (6-9, 0-2 Southern Conference) shot 27.5 percent (19-of-69) overall and 12.1 percent (4-of-33) from three. It marked Furman's most lopsided SoCon loss since a 79-56 defeat at ETSU on Dec. 29, 2018.</p><p>"We weren't making shots. I didn't think we were taking great shots and we weren't getting back in transition. They were driving the heck out of us," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "They were in a good home crowd with good enough and they played the game the right way."</p><p>Early on Saturday, there were no signs of the struggles the Paladins were set to endure. Pegues missed his first shot, but after Garrett Hien grabbed an offensive rebound, Pegues drove for a layup less than two minutes in. That turned out to be his last made field goal out of 10 first-half attempts. Williams' jumper cut Chattanooga's lead to 18-12 with 14:23 left in the first half.</p><p>Sixteen missed shots and six turnovers later, Furman's next made field goal came on a Ben VanderWal three-pointer with one minute left in the half. That cut the Mocs' lead to 38-20. Chattanooga answered eight second later on Trey Bonham's three-pointer. Bonham added a layup at the final horn to give the Mocs a 43-20 lead at the break. Furman was 7-of-29 (24.1 percent) from the floor in the first half, and VanderWal's three was its lone successful one out of 14 attempts.</p><p>The abysmal offense should not overshadow what was a pretty dismal defensive showing in the first half by the Paladins as well. Chattanooga shot 51.5 percent (17-of-33) in the opening 20 minutes.</p><p>"We were letting not making shots affect our effort (in the first half) and we've got to make sure not to do that," Richey said. "I've always said, 'this game is connected and complimentary.' Bad offense turns to bad defense. Good defense turns to good offense. You can't pick and choose which side of the ball you're going to play."</p><p>Furman opened the second half with a beautifully orchestrated play that saw Pegues find Cooper Bowser for a dunk. The Paladins then went to a full-court press and made two deflections before Tyrese Hughey got a steal. Furman couldn't capitalize though as Williams' three-pointer missed.</p><p>While the Paladins clearly played harder in the second half, UTC maintained the big advantage by making four of its first five shots - all in the paint. The Mocs took their biggest lead of the night on Jan Zidek's three-pointer with 14:14 left that made it 54-26. Furman managed to get the lead down to 12 twice in the final three minutes, but couldn't get any closer.</p><p>"In the second half, I thought we played with much better effort and won it by eight, but it was too late. ... We ended the game 1-for-14 from three and it's hard to win like that," Richey said. "We've got all kinds of stuff to figure out. Some games, certain guys are playing hard and well and then the next game, it's somebody else.</p><p>"We're having a hard time getting some consistency out of some guys. ... We're going to dive into this and figure out how we can get back to making some shots."</p><p>Despite their rough nights shooting, Pegues and Williams were the lone Paladins in double figures with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Pegues also had a career-high 11 rebounds, three steals and two assists. Williams also had two assists as that duo accounted for four of Furman's six as a team. It was the first single-digit assist total for the Paladins this season and their fewest in a game since recording six in a 77-68 loss to Wofford at the SoCon Tournament in 2020.</p><p>Tyler Millin led five Mocs (9-6, 1-1) in double figures with 16 points.</p><p>Furman will try to end its three-game losing streak Wednesday when the Paladins host The Citadel at 7 p.m.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-80245154390310887932024-01-06T11:48:00.002-05:002024-01-06T11:48:13.983-05:00Outmanned Paladins fall in SoCon opener<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4mKkQCXEDy06HmznZi_ae9mECbrmRP1x7JSvItzAxtIQSbg_-7E6LpoISORayEy5VW34TRViINpuMkPhzTcIp6g6SCXyHXD8W02yYeKIJ-QKRFFzXdQfeg6AQV9r9v6Hx_29Y_GYW3FtqfmxoKrSTwQID5-5n7L59n4NMJNrZ3IBeGQdU8HLO2SCgHK5/s1265/WhittatUNCG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="1265" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4mKkQCXEDy06HmznZi_ae9mECbrmRP1x7JSvItzAxtIQSbg_-7E6LpoISORayEy5VW34TRViINpuMkPhzTcIp6g6SCXyHXD8W02yYeKIJ-QKRFFzXdQfeg6AQV9r9v6Hx_29Y_GYW3FtqfmxoKrSTwQID5-5n7L59n4NMJNrZ3IBeGQdU8HLO2SCgHK5/w400-h225/WhittatUNCG.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carter Whitt scored a career-high 23 points in Furman's loss<br />at UNC Greensboro Wednesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The Furman basketball team spent the non-conference portion of its schedule seemingly playing every game one or two players short of a fully healthy squad. When Southern Conference play began Wednesday in Greensboro, the injury list only grew longer. The Paladins opened conference play without their three leading scorers - Marcus Foster, J.P. Pegues and Alex Williams, who are averaging a combined 52.8 points per game. That left Furman with seven scholarships players available - two guards, one wing and four post.</p><p>If you're missing scorers, there's quite a few SoCon teams you'd probably rather face than a UNC Greensboro program built on defense, but that's the way the schedule opened. A new 1-3-1 defensive set necessitated by the injuries and a gutsy effort helped Furman hang around for the first half before the Spartans pulled away for a 79-68 win.</p><p>"We competed. I didn't think we were always smart, but we played hard. We're out there with triple big lineups and lineups we haven't played with all year. They had multiple opportunities to fold up with seven guys who are exhausted," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "They laid it on the line the best they could with the situation we had.</p><p>"It looked like the game was about to really get away from us and then we'd make another little push. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. That's just the storm we're in right now."</p><p>Staying out of foul trouble was obviously an imperative necessity Wednesday and the 1-3-1 defense, which Furman had not played all season, helped do that. At the same time, the defense itself was also effective early on. A pair of Carter Whitt free throws gave the Paladins a 19-13 lead midway through the first half.</p><p>Furman's first foul didn't occur until PJay Smith was whistled for one at the 9:03 mark of the first half. A jumper by Whitt gave the Paladins a 23-18 lead with 7:50 left in the half. The Spartans answered with a three-pointer by Donovan Atwell 14 seconds later. That triggered a 13-0 run capped by Atwell's three-pointer with 4:58 left that gave UNCG a 31-23 lead. At some points in the first half and particularly during this less than three-minute stretch, Furman fell into a rut of launching threes early in the shot clock on a night when slowing down things down seemingly was the plan.</p><p>The Paladins trailed by nine with just under four minutes left in the half before an 8-0 run capped by Cooper Bowser's three-point play cut the lead to 34-33 with 1:49 left. One of the most critical points of the game came on Furman's final possession of the half. Trailing 35-33, the Paladins played for the final shot hoping to tie or take the lead into halftime. Instead, UNCG's Kobe Langley poked the ball away from Whitt with nine seconds left and retrieved the ball in the paint on the other side of the court with six seconds left. Langley's layup missed, but Jalen Breath's tip-in before the horn gave the Spartans a 37-33 lead at the break.</p><p>"Carter really, really competed in situations that he's never been put in before tonight," Richey said. "On that particular play right before half, he goes the wrong way. ... If we get a bucket there, we go in tied. Instead, we turn it over and then give up the offensive rebound on the putback."</p><p>Each team had six turnovers in the opening half. While UNCG scored 11 points off those, the Paladins had zero points off them. That trend continued in the second half. Furman's first three turnovers turned into seven points for the Spartans which gave them a 49-38 lead with 16:41 to play.</p><p>"It felt like all theirs were pick-sixes," Richey said. "It seemed like the turnovers we got were more interior passes."</p><p>After Smith hit a three-pointer nine seconds into the second half to cut the lead to 37-36, Furman didn't make another field goal until Smith's three-pointer with 14:54 left. Furman's next field goal was another Smith three with 12:02 left.</p><p>Davis Molnar became the second Paladin with a field goal in the second half on a jumper with 10:57 left. That sliced the lead to 59-50. Atwell answered with a three on UNCG's ensuing possession and the Spartans led by double figures for much of the rest of the game. The only other time Furman got the lead to single digits was at 74-65 on another three by Smith with 2:39 left. Of course, that was answered on another three by Atwell on UNCG's next possession.</p><p>"We come out of the gate after halftime and execute a nice action right off the board, hit the three and cut it to one," Richey said. "Then for whatever reason, we just hit a lull right there."</p><p>The Spartans (10-4, 1-0) made 7-of-10 three-pointers in the second half to shoot 50 percent (11-of-22) from beyond the arc for the game. Meanwhile, Furman (6-8, 0-1) made just 7-of-31 (22.6 percent) threes. UNCG finished with 20 points off 12 Furman turnovers, while the Paladins had three points off of 12 UNCG turnovers.</p><p>"We won the glass (42-37 in rebounds). We won the free throw line (19-of-23 to 6-of-8). It's another night where we got beat on the three-point line. We lose the game by 11 and they win the three-point line by 12 with way less volume (of shots)," Richey said. "I thought that ended up being the difference in the game.</p><p>"We've got to keep fighting the good fight and I trust this group will do that. ... We've got to use this to figure out how this can help us."</p><p>Whitt was 5-of-20 from the floor, including 1-of-9 on threes, but made 12-of-13 free throws to finish with a career-high 23 points. Whitt also had six assists, four rebounds and four turnovers. Smith made 6-of-20 field goals, but his five three-pointers helped him score 19 points. He also had six rebounds and three steals.</p><p>Atwell and Keyshawn Langley had 17 points apiece to lead the Spartans, while UNCG big man Mikeal Brown-Jones returned from injury to put up 16 points and 11 rebounds.</p><p>Furman will have to quickly move on as another road challenge awaits Saturday night at Chattanooga. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised locally by CW 62. It appears that Foster will be out for at least another week, while Pegues and Williams could be game-time decisions Saturday.</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-24763200347763664172023-12-08T20:54:00.004-05:002023-12-08T20:54:29.540-05:00Battle-tested, beaten up Paladins return home<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojZLFevWT8skOMVciJClw_bOTvcoXk-zjUZoVS8J7N7DoSfiY2QZVqMBpLvtRHmZDPTqd_z1Ajaia0XriRhdgwSEpC7PHdpabX18pekBugu7AILtoAztKg2Yhxb-ElVa2up0xa_8WoVx9oZ-a1hIFk9xMk_v0Dap8vsVTBXOCQEnjZCxWuy6dYQhn-p4d/s4316/Pegues-BJUpregame.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2877" data-original-width="4316" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojZLFevWT8skOMVciJClw_bOTvcoXk-zjUZoVS8J7N7DoSfiY2QZVqMBpLvtRHmZDPTqd_z1Ajaia0XriRhdgwSEpC7PHdpabX18pekBugu7AILtoAztKg2Yhxb-ElVa2up0xa_8WoVx9oZ-a1hIFk9xMk_v0Dap8vsVTBXOCQEnjZCxWuy6dYQhn-p4d/w400-h266/Pegues-BJUpregame.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.P. Pegues had 21 points and six assists in Furman's<br />loss at Arkansas Monday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Barely a month into basketball season, Furman has seemingly already dealt with a season's worth of adversity. They've faced most of it in between flights from one solid program to another. After playing six of their last seven games on the road, the Paladins (4-5) will play three of their next four at home starting with a game against Bob Jones Saturday at 2 p.m.<div><br /></div><div>Furman is coming off a three-day road trip in which it faced a pair of 2023 Sweet 16 teams 1,300 miles apart. The Paladins lost in heartbreaking fashion at undefeated Princeton last Saturday before falling by 14 at Arkansas on Monday in a game that was closer than the final score indicated. While Furman came up short in both games, in some ways they were two of its best performances this season.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It's a hurt locker room right now because they went out there and played hard. We've chosen this schedule and we're not going to shy away from playing anybody. That's something that's important to us," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Sports Network's postgame show Monday. "Obviously, there was heartbreak on Saturday and a tough fight tonight. But I'm telling you right now, anybody that knows an ounce about basketball knows that we got better on this trip.</div><div>"We've had all kind of rotational things to figure out, navigating injuries and now with Marcus (Foster) not being here. With all those things, this team went out and fought tonight. That's really all I asked them to do was to go play for one another. We had four double-figure scorers and to get 15 assists against that pressure is hard to do. I think we see guys growing up."</div><div><br /></div><div>Following its last home game - a win over South Carolina State on Nov. 28 - Richey was excited to possibly have his full squad healthy for the first time when the Paladins traveled to Princeton. After tip-off, that feeling lasted nearly one half. With 35 seconds left in the first half, Foster got tangled up and his knee twisted in a nasty way. Furman's leading scorer never returned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Prior to Monday's game, Richey said that Foster would be out until around the middle of January. While that's undoubtedly a tough blow, Richey was thankful that it wasn't a season-ending injury. At first glance, it appeared it could be one.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the second half at Princeton, the Paladins persevered without Foster. A J.P. Pegues jumper before the first half buzzer gave Furman a 28-27 lead. That also started a 10-0 run as the Paladins scored the first eight points of the second half to push the lead to 36-27. That Furman advantage grew to as many as 11 points on four separate occasions in the second half, the last coming at 65-54 with four minutes remaining.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Paladins led 67-58 with less than three minutes to play before Princeton went on a 9-0 run over a 62-second span to tie the game. Pegues' jumper with 1:23 left put Furman back in front 69-67. Over the final 67 seconds, the Paladins had two turnovers and the Tigers had three offensive rebounds on its final possession before Princeton's Matt Allocco drilled a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.</div><div><br /></div><div>Furman had no time to dwell on the heartbreak. After flying to Arkansas and having a walkthrough on Sunday, the Paladins took on a Razorbacks' team coming off a five-point win over Duke their last time out. On Monday, Furman hit each of its first five three-pointers before it's first two pointer. Carter Whitt's layup with 13:03 left cut Arkansas' lead to 18-17.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Paladins kept things pretty close throughout the half and Davis Molnar's putback at the buzzer cut the Razorbacks lead to 40-35 at the break. Arkansas (6-3) shot 61.3 percent from the floor and 73.7 percent from the foul line in a 57-point second half. Furman cut the lead to 58-52 with less than 11 minutes left before the Razorbacks went on an 12-0 run. Pegues scored 11 consecutive points for the Paladins to help slice an 85-70 lead to 88-81 with 1:12 left. Arkansas ended the game on a 9-2 spurt to win 97-83.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pegues hit 10-of-10 free throws and scored a game-high 21 points with six assists to lead Furman. Alex Williams hit five three-pointers on his way to a career-high 20-point effort. Whitt finished with 14 points, while Garrett Hien added 10.</div><div><br /></div><div>"We've got a pretty clear picture of who we are. We've seen some tremendous growth. We can be disappointed, but I'm not going to let this team be discouraged," Richey said. "A year ago right about now, we played a similar type of team and lost by 30 (at N.C. State) in Raleigh. It's part of the growth process. We won't see a team like this until we get to the NCAA Tournament, but when you get to the NCAA Tournament these experiences prove beneficial.</div><div>"This schedule is objectively tougher than last year's. That not debatable at this point. ... Like I told everybody last year, once we get to league play we're going to be fine. We're going to be calloused. When you get to league play, you've got to be able to deal with adversity. ... Learning how to grow through things is critical if you want to build a championship team."</div><div><br /></div><div>After facing Bob Jones on Saturday, Furman plays at Tulane Thursday at 7 p.m. The Paladins will close out 2023 with home games against Presbyterian on Dec. 19 and Anderson on Dec. 30.</div><div><br /></div>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-29405999834384394292023-12-08T06:08:00.000-05:002023-12-08T06:08:27.302-05:00Defense on display when Furman visits Montana<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5uJrKdp1ocyPZnwr4EjMItvZabLo9-h-mYoKpWvn9Beqa7aU5cPL0BzTD4jdVmA9yyQZoyVEX1eiY2LRL3pETU4Gfqs0ytmn4w0pgXgV389iACQW6gOdByTbaltuaENo_bBF-LatCngxvLnEGtjefwydGybU1TEbvHZlFr-7nF2EeEQjEp-Bz6iXAmrRn/s2909/MaierMontana.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1939" data-original-width="2909" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5uJrKdp1ocyPZnwr4EjMItvZabLo9-h-mYoKpWvn9Beqa7aU5cPL0BzTD4jdVmA9yyQZoyVEX1eiY2LRL3pETU4Gfqs0ytmn4w0pgXgV389iACQW6gOdByTbaltuaENo_bBF-LatCngxvLnEGtjefwydGybU1TEbvHZlFr-7nF2EeEQjEp-Bz6iXAmrRn/w400-h266/MaierMontana.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman's Alex Maier (46) hauls in an interception as Hugh Ryan looks on in the<br />Paladins' 26-7 win over Chattanooga last Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />When Furman takes on Montana Friday night at 9 p.m. in a nationally televised FCS playoff quarterfinal, it will be just the second meeting between the two FCS traditional powers. The other came in the 2001 national championship game when the Grizzlies defeated the Paladins, 13-6, in Chattanooga.</p><p>There's not many 13-6 games these days, but based on both teams' defensive numbers this season a similar score Friday night on ESPN2 would not be all that shocking. Montana ranks fourth nationally in scoring defense, allowing 14.8 points per game, while Furman is seventh at 16.8 points allowed per game.</p><p>Both defenses have been especially stingy over the second half of the season. On Oct. 14, the Paladins won at Samford 27-21 while the Grizzlies won at Idaho 23-21. Since then, Montana's defense has allowed six touchdowns and 43 points over five games, while Furman's defense has given up six touchdowns and 54 points over six games.</p><p>"When I watch Montana, it's like I'm kind of looking at us. Just the way they're built and the way they play. I think we believe in a lot of the same things," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said during his weekly press conference Monday. "They're probably not as big, but a little more athletic up front offensively and defensively. I mean they've got the (defensive) player of the year as an interior defensive lineman (Alex Gubner) in the Big Sky.</p><p>"They're just big, strong and tough. You can just tell that's the way they play and that's how we try to play. In their home environment, they're that much tougher."</p><p>Turnovers and sacks have been keys to the Paladins' defensive success. After leading the country in takeaways last season, Furman leads the country in turnover margin this season with 26 forced turnovers and nine allowed. The Paladins' regular season school record of 36 sacks ranks sixth nationally.</p><p>While those two factors have been huge for Furman's defense, last week proved they aren't necessarily a must-have for defensive success. Last Saturday's 26-7 win over Chattanooga was the second time this season that the Paladins didn't record a sack. Last week's 2-1 edge in turnover margin wasn't that much of an advantage as Furman scored 10 points off its two interceptions and the Mocs' lone score came after its interception.</p><p>Following an 81-yard touchdown drive Chattanooga had on its opening drive, the Mocs were held to 119 yards the rest of the way. That included just 42 yards in the second half.</p><p>"We've really been good at rushing the passer and it's definitely helpful. Our reputation of getting to the quarterback only helps us in the back end," Furman safety Hugh Ryan said. "But I think we have shown we can be successful in a lot of different ways on defense."</p><p>The Paladins were a couple of dropped touchdown passes away from a really outstanding day offensively last week as well. In his first game back since a shoulder injury four weeks earlier at Chattanooga, Tyler Huff was unfazed by an interception on Furman's opening drive as completed 18-of-29 passes for 192 yards and rushed for 32 yards on seven carries.</p><p>That improved Huff's record to 18-1 as a starter against FCS competition. Montana is fully aware of what the SoCon coaches' Offensive Player of the Year brings to the table.</p><p>"Huff is the guy that makes them go. I just love that dude. He's a great player and competitor," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said during his weekly press conference. "He's a tough runner, a good thrower and a military guy. He's awesome."</p><p>Furman's defense will also have to contend with a dual-threat quarterback, which is something it really hasn't seen very much this season. Montana's Clifton McDowell, who's now at his fourth school, has thrown for 1,493 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing for 616 yards and eight scores this season. The Grizzlies are 8-0 since he took over as the starter.</p><p>In the backfield with McDowell is this year's Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in the FCS in Eli Gillman. Gillman has rushed for 899 yards and 10 touchdowns.</p><p>The lone Friday game out of the four FCS quarterfinal games this weekend made for a short, busy week for Furman, which included final exams that began. On Thursday, the Paladins made the not quite five-hour flight to Missoula. Hendrix said he told the team it was basically the bus ride to Samford that it makes every other season.</p><p>Whether its the short week, long flight, cold weather, hostile environment or being a 17.5-point underdog, Hendrix is confident none of those things should affect his team.</p><p>"We have the chance to go play in one of the great venues in FCS football. I didn't have to look up Washington Grizzly Stadium. I knew about the place," Hendrix said. "It will be great, tough environment to go play against a really, really good team. ... We will have to play exceptionally well to have a chance. I'm not sure a lot of people give us a chance, but we're going to go anyway."</p><p>What makes Montana's home stadium one of the great venues is the raucous home crowds. Last week, 20,580 braved a snowstorm to watch the Grizzlies defeat Delaware 49-19. Every other home game this year, Montana has had an attendance of more than 25,000 fans. That's where the experience of playing in SEC and ACC stadiums can help Furman.</p><p>"The only way we can affect the crowd (noise) is to play well. ... We played at South Carolina in a sold-out stadium. That game was tied with 50 seconds left in the first half, so it wasn't like they (fans) weren't into the game. I thought we handled that incredibly well and it wasn't a factor in the game. What took us out of that game was a lack of execution," Hendrix said. "The weather isn't a concern. There's a reason why we have spring practice in February. Even in South Carolina, it can be pretty nasty out there in February.</p><p>"We've been working for a year to get in this position. If we let two-and-a-half hours of cold weather and crowd noise have that big of an effect on us, then we're not who I thought we were. ... At the end of the day, the biggest challenge is that team you're playing. They're a really good team with really good players who are well coached."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-77618895847633108802023-12-04T03:35:00.001-05:002023-12-04T03:35:18.120-05:00Defense leads Furman past Mocs and to Montana<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuld7RMiQxgoQtCkbZdHlu2n9fM9SBNXiY1QDFT9FkJX-P9gAFKzbTKTezt-4U3ZB5zdxJuZDifOQNVGGE5MigBYRhyphenhyphenEZWTEDkXMXtzXwJmP2ymnubL6zzseTmWe91nPZonsCHi6c5NtRdQLLu-Rys6u2cElgKJhdPje7b8FjEK4KBT7TVdQNrGYliEJD/s2735/BlackshearUTC2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1823" data-original-width="2735" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuld7RMiQxgoQtCkbZdHlu2n9fM9SBNXiY1QDFT9FkJX-P9gAFKzbTKTezt-4U3ZB5zdxJuZDifOQNVGGE5MigBYRhyphenhyphenEZWTEDkXMXtzXwJmP2ymnubL6zzseTmWe91nPZonsCHi6c5NtRdQLLu-Rys6u2cElgKJhdPje7b8FjEK4KBT7TVdQNrGYliEJD/w400-h266/BlackshearUTC2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Travis Blackshear intercepts a pass during Furman's 26-7 win<br />over Chattanooga Saturday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />For the second consecutive game, Furman's defense limited the opposition to less than 50 yards of total offense in the second half Saturday. If the Paladins could only win one of those games, picking the one in the FCS playoffs was the right decision.</p><p>After allowing 81 yards, four first downs and seven points on Chattanooga's opening drive, Furman allowed 119 yards, five first downs and zero points the rest of the day as the Paladins defeated the Mocs, 26-7. Seventh-seeded Furman (10-2) advances to play at second-seeded Montana (11-1) in the FCS quarterfinals at 9 p.m. Friday on ESPN2. It will be the Paladins first quarterfinal appearance since 2005.</p><p>While the Southern Conference's best defense did it's thing Saturday, Furman's healthier offense had a balanced day with 192 yards passing and 191 yards rushing. The Paladins welcomed back to the starting lineup their two leading rushers Saturday in running back Dominic Roberto and quarterback Tyler Huff. Sophomore running back Grant Robinson, who had not played since being injured in the South Carolina game three months ago, also returned and played a key role in the victory.</p><p>"I can't say enough about our staff and the job they did preparing our guys. ... Certainly, getting some guys healthy was big," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said. "We ran the ball well and were really solid offensively. With the exception of some third downs in the first half, our defense played really, really well. And we were really solid in the kicking game.</p><p>"That's how we have to win games. We're not going to out-talent a lot of people. We have to grind to find a way to win games and that was one of those kinds of games today."</p><p>In Furman's shocking regular season finale in which Wofford won despite a 49-yard second half, the Terriers became the second Paladins' opponent to score on their opening possession this season and the first FCS team to score on Furman's defense following a turnover. So it was a little eerie when Chattanooga did both by the midpoint of the first quarter.</p><p>A day in which Paladin Stadium's beautiful view of Paris Mountain was completely hidden by fog got off to an unusual start as Furman received the opening kickoff for the first time since September. The Paladins had won seven consecutive coin tosses and nine overall before UTC won Saturday's and deferred to the second half.</p><p>Wayne Anderson got the home crowd off to a roaring start with a 40-yard return to the Furman 41. Huff looked fully healed as he scampered for 16 yards on a third-and-four play to the Chattanooga 37. On the next play, Huff made a beautiful throw to the end zone where a lunging Kyndel Dean could not haul the pass in. On the next play, the Mocs' Clay Fields made a leaping interception over the middle at the UTC 19.</p><p>Chattanooga (8-5) converted all three third downs on its ensuing possession, including Reggie Davis' 11-yard touchdown run on third-and-two.</p><p>Furman drove inside Mocs' territory again on its second drive but on fourth-and-seven from the 38, the punting unit came on. Punting inside an opponents' 40 is like nails on a chalkboard for some of us, but Ryan Leavy's perfect kick was fielded beautifully by Travis Blackshear at the UTC one-yard line. After one controversial third-down conversion, the Mocs had to punt from their own 14 and Furman took over at its own 40.</p><p>The decision to punt paid off when Furman marched 60 yards on 10 plays for a score. The Paladins didn't face a third down until third-and-goal at the one. With 260-pound defensive end Jeremiah Jackson leading the way as a fullback, Roberto bulled his way into the end zone for the touchdown.</p><p>While Furman's defense was in the process of transitioning to complete shut down mode, the Paladins' offense missed a couple of chances to take a big lead before halftime. On the second play of Furman's next drive, Myion Hicks broke free out in the open for a 40-yard run before he pulled up with a hamstring injury and went out of bounds at the UTC 45. On fourth-and-one at the 36, Furman was in a bunch formation that screamed run. However, Huff faked a handoff and rolled out. He had nowhere to throw and nowhere to go and was dropped for a three-yard loss.</p><p>The Paladins drove to UTC's 26 on their next drive. On second down, Huff fired another beautiful throw to the end zone that Luke Shiflett couldn't hang on to. Furman settled for a 44-yard field goal by Ian Williams with 25 seconds left and took a 10-7 lead into halftime.</p><p>"I'd like to say that I was knocking off the rust (on the interception), but it was a bad decision and a bad throw. All the guys around me just patted me on the back and told me it we'd be alright and that they trust me," Huff said. "I haven't won much in my life, so winning a playoff game is huge. I'm just thankful and blessed to be a part of this team and we're excited to go play in the quarterfinals." </p><p>The teams exchanged three-and-outs to start the second half. On Chattanooga's first play of its next drive, redshirt freshman Luke Schomburg - who was making his third consecutive start in place of injured starter Chase Artopoeus - made a throw to the right sideline that Blackshear read like a book. Blackshear jumped the route perfectly for the interception and just missed the fourth pick-six of his career as he returned 29 yards to the two-yard line.</p><p>"We knew they had a young quarterback back there that they were trying to protect with the type of personnel they had in. I was just able to make a play on that one," Blackshear said. "It (defensive success) really just started in practice. Thanksgiving break was much needed and we came back ready to go. We knew we had a big challenge this week and had a great week of prep."</p><p>Roberto scored from two yards out on the next play to push the lead to 17-7. That was the first of four consecutive scoring drives for Furman as Williams made field goals of 31, 37 and 20 yards out, respectively, to push the lead to 26-7. The last score was set up when Alex Maier tipped and then intercepted a pass from UTC third-string, walk-on quarterback Matthew Clemmer. Maier returned the interception 19 yards to the Mocs' seven-yard line.</p><p>"I wish we could've stuck that one in there. ... We were up 16, so we just wanted to get it to a three-score lead," Hendrix said. "Ian was just so solid today."</p><p>Huff threw for 192 yards on 18-of-29 passing and ran seven times for 32 yards. Anderson caught five passes for 53 yards, while Shiflett had four catches for 51 yards. Roberto ran for 51 yards and the two touchdowns, but Robinson was Furman's leading rusher with 62 yards on 13 carries.</p><p>While Chattanooga played without two-time SoCon Defensive Player of the Year Jay Person due to an injury suffered last week in the Mocs' win at Austin Peay, it still has a lot of talent on that side of the ball. Saturday was still a battle of the top two defenses in the SoCon and a rematch of a defensive slugfest in the regular season in which Furman needed a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to pull out a 17-14 win.</p><p>"You watch Grant move around and you can tell he brings a little something. That was a big bonus for us. With Dom, I think we got what we got out of him today and we tried to just be smart with him later in the game," Hendrix said. "Wayne and Myion certainly add to that mix as well. Myion's been dealing with that hamstring a little bit. When he popped that run, I think he did the right thing getting out of bounds before making it even worse.</p><p>"It was a pretty complete win in all three phases and Tyler was a huge part of that too. ... He made a couple of great throws and kept some plays alive (with his feet). A big key for us was going 9-of-17 on third down. I don't think many teams have been able to do that against that defense."</p><p>Chattanooga had eight total yards in the third quarter and 34 in the fourth. It didn't have a first down in the second half until it was 26-7 with 9:42 left to play. After converting six of their first eight third downs, the Mocs went 0-for-6 on third down the rest of the way. Furman had an 11-minute advantage in time of possession, including 20:56 to 9:04 in the second half.</p><p>"It's awesome (to reach the FCS quarterfinals). I think it's just a credit to the group of guys we got to come back from last year," Furman all-American offensive guard Jacob Johanning said. "That feeling in San Antonio (after a second round loss at Incarnate Word) a year ago stuck around and it's been the motivating factor for this season.</p><p>"We're going to fight to keep everybody together for one week at a time."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-78729413926895056472023-12-02T10:11:00.003-05:002023-12-02T10:11:41.758-05:00Furman set for round two with Chattanooga<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgzEdunl-dYVM13dsj4FX9G876yRWPvA1fwaDYs-pfSfIFKy7KRJAKdHIMHJrnzupaMSNsmY-Y-KJrAUh7mexVUmzs5NnFALvgXDRaxEzGo9xY-flrvQIRzKNyqT14XKqdmCv77kZML3Y7ljL9Dt0hK8wD12NYmCIx5q8kQEG5Askf4x_KCys6WwteMBh/s5113/HuffWCUpregame.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3410" data-original-width="5113" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgzEdunl-dYVM13dsj4FX9G876yRWPvA1fwaDYs-pfSfIFKy7KRJAKdHIMHJrnzupaMSNsmY-Y-KJrAUh7mexVUmzs5NnFALvgXDRaxEzGo9xY-flrvQIRzKNyqT14XKqdmCv77kZML3Y7ljL9Dt0hK8wD12NYmCIx5q8kQEG5Askf4x_KCys6WwteMBh/w400-h266/HuffWCUpregame.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Furman quarterback Tyler Huff is set to return Saturday when the Paladins host<br />Chattanooga in round two of the FCS playoffs. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The second round of the FCS Playoffs Saturday will also be "round two" for Furman and Chattanooga when they kick off at 1 p.m. at Paladin Stadium. It will be a rematch of the Paladins' thrilling 17-14 win at Chattanooga four weeks ago that clinched Furman's Southern Conference record 15th league championship.<div><br /><div>While Furman had last week off thanks to receiving a bye as the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, Chattanooga traveled to Austin Peay for the opening round last Saturday. The Mocs overcame injuries to key players to leave with a 24-21 win thanks to a 35-yard field goal by Clayton Crile as time expired.</div><div><br /></div><div>"We prepped a little bit for both teams before last weekend, but I'm not surprised at all that it's Chattanooga," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said during his weekly press conference Monday. "I said it before and I said it after (they played), it's the most complete team we've played in terms of offense, defense and special teams.</div><div>"I think one of the great things is there will be a Southern Conference team in the final eight. We're going to do everything we can to make that be us."</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to this crazy thing here in 2023 college football where every team in the SoCon still plays each other every season, this will be the seventh playoff rematch for Furman against a league team. The Paladins are 2-4 in those games, with some of the most joyous and painful memories that will be etched in the minds of Furman followers forever.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first rematch came in 1983. After the Paladins and Western Carolina tied 17-17 in the regular season meeting at Cullowhee, N.C., the Catamounts won 14-7 in Greenville on their way to the national championship in their only playoff appearance ever. After the game, a group of Western fans proceeded to tear down Furman's goalposts drawing a lifetime of ire for the Catamounts from many Furman fans.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1988, the Paladins lost at Marshall 24-10 in the regular season before winning the rematch 13-9 on Dwight Sterling's touchdown run with 2:09 left in the game. Winning in the "wretched hive of scum and villainy" that was Marshall's Fairfield Stadium helped power Furman to a rout of Idaho back home the next week and a victory over Georgia Southern for the national championship two weeks later.</div><div><br /></div><div>Furman lost at Georgia Southern 24-10 in the 2001 regular season, but in the FCS semifinals the Paladins became the first visiting team to ever win a playoff game in Statesboro. Furman outscored the Eagles 17-0 in the second half to record a 24-17 victory and advance to the national championship.</div><div><br /></div><div>The only time Furman won in the regular season in any of these matchups came in 2005 when the Paladins defeated Appalachian State in Greenville, 34-31. The rematch came in Boone in the FCS semifinals. With Furman leading 23-21 midway through the third quarter, Ingle Martin had a clear path to the end zone on a third-down bootleg. Martin slipped on a patch of ice at the three-yard line and came up limping after falling at the one. On fourth down, Jerome Felton was stuffed short of the goal line. The Mountaineers went on to score the lone points of the second half on a touchdown with 2:17 remaining in the game to pull out a 29-23 win.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The last time a rematch from the regular season occurred was twice actually in 2017. Furman fell to departed SoCon member Elon 34-31 in Greenville before winning at Elon, 28-27, in the opening round of the playoffs. The next week, the Paladins fell at Wofford 28-10.</div><div><br /></div><div>Beating a good team twice is hard to do simply because beating a good team once is hard to do. Hendrix believes any philosophies on playing a team twice will become moot at 1 p.m. Saturday.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>"I think one of the disappointments last year for our guys was seeing that they weren't going to Samford for the second round because they wanted that (rematch). Chattanooga may feel the same way," Hendrix said. "That's something to talk about before the game but once you kick it off, all that's forgotten. It's all about who can go execute."</div></div><div><br /></div><div>From a personnel standpoint, this Saturday's rematch could have some different looks than last month's meeting. Most notably at quarterback, where the roles seem to have reversed.</div><div><br /></div><div>After Furman starter Tyler Huff was injured early in the second quarter at Chattanooga, redshirt freshman Carson Jones threw a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to left the Paladins to the win. Jones started Furman's final two games of the regular season as Huff rested his injured shoulder, but Huff is ready to return this Saturday.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I feel good. The rehab and recovery has gone well," said Huff, who said he could've played last Saturday had Furman not received a bye. "It was difficult not being out there. ... Wofford was especially tough (not being able to play).</div><div>"The best thing is this team hasn't forgotten about that. I think a lot of that pain, anger and the embarrassment we felt, we're excited to let that out against somebody else."</div><div><br /></div><div>After being sacked five times by Furman, Chattanooga standout quarterback Chase Artopoeus hasn't played since. The Mocs have turned to redshirt freshman Luke Schomburg at quarterback. In last Saturday's win at Austin Peay, Schomburg completed 21-of-36 passes for 259 yards with a touchdown and an interception.</div><div><br /></div><div>"(Schomburg) reminds me a lot of Carson Jones. I think they did a really good job of protecting him in some of the things they asked him to do (last Saturday), " Hendrix said. "He moves around well. He's athletic and poised. You can see that about him and he's pretty accurate with a good arm."</div><div><br /></div><div>Sophomore running back Reggie Davis ran for a career-high 97 yards in the Mocs' win last week. David and Gino Appleberry have carried the load of the ground game after one of UTC's all-time great backs, Ailym Ford, was lost midway through the season due to a knee injury.</div><div><br /></div><div>Chattanooga also won last week with SoCon Defensive Player of the Year Jay Person on the sideline in the second half with his arm in a sling. He had recorded his 27th career sack and 56th career tackle-for-loss before the first-half injury.</div><div><br /></div><div>"What a great player he is. It seems like he's been playing for 10 years," Hendrix said. "I think he's like our guys. I think he will find any way he can to go play, so I fully expect him to be playing.</div><div>"I don't know if you change much of anything in terms of preparation. We just need to be more concerned with ourselves. ... I don't think either team changes vastly based on who's out there."</div><div><br /></div><div>In addition to getting Huff back, Furman could also have leading rusher Dominic Roberto back. Roberto's been a little beat up much of the season and didn't play in the regular season finale at Wofford two weeks ago. Grant Robinson might also be back in the running back mix this week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Experience is never a bad thing to have. While Furman is trying to advance to the FCS quarterfinals for the first time since 2005, this veteran group has lots of experience including the postseason. For seniors like Matt Sochovka, who was born before the Paladins last played in the national championship in 2001, this whole season has been like a playoff.</div><div><br /></div><div>"When you get this point in the season, everybody is a good team and everybody's been through the ringer of close games. We've been in so many, it's like we've been playing playoff football all year especially with the target on our back," Sochovka said. "When you have 41 or 42 seniors like we have, this is the last time you're going to be with your brothers all in one place for the last month-and-a-half.</div><div>"It's about winning games, but it's really about not ending these moments we have together. I think that's what is going to fuel our team. We don't want to not be together anymore."</div><div><br /></div>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3686587373963548463.post-47781580463061467522023-12-02T01:51:00.006-05:002023-12-02T01:51:45.461-05:00Paladins top Bulldogs ahead of test at Princeton<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CAImsMpmApOiarSDuRg-4v1-WGA8YkfJFMJei43SImy8kNmNNTuJIBw7XIrPLr8Sm1q3ZhYFpm3SRCQb_O8bKnuBexxMf5yMPsG6GNZor6zqohNiyFebqbtAAGB_91P8Wx9BAuFKKBQk8LJjL3hqASHRHV3Mw42CXSrRqA_6P0fqyjJbi0k5s4h7B_uO/s1546/SmithP_24Belmont4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1546" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CAImsMpmApOiarSDuRg-4v1-WGA8YkfJFMJei43SImy8kNmNNTuJIBw7XIrPLr8Sm1q3ZhYFpm3SRCQb_O8bKnuBexxMf5yMPsG6GNZor6zqohNiyFebqbtAAGB_91P8Wx9BAuFKKBQk8LJjL3hqASHRHV3Mw42CXSrRqA_6P0fqyjJbi0k5s4h7B_uO/w400-h225/SmithP_24Belmont4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PJay Smith scored a season-high 20 points in Furman's 86-78<br />win over S.C. State Tuesday. <i>Photo courtesy of Furman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Coming off a tough stretch of road games and ahead of a really tough road stretch, Furman appeared to be set for a bit of a respite when South Carolina State visited Timmons Arena Tuesday. However, the Bulldogs played nothing like a team that's only won once away from home over the past two seasons. Instead, S.C. State played like it did here last season when it forced 20 turnovers and Furman needed a 19-4 second half run to break away for a victory.</p><p>On Tuesday, transfer guard PJay Smith scored a season-high 20 points and Furman shot 61 percent in the second half to rally for an 86-78 win in its first home game in 18 days. The Paladins (4-3) trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half and led by as many as 14 late in the second half. Furman then withstood a pretty horrific finish in which it had five turnovers and made 3-of-6 free throws over the final 3:09.</p><p>"A win is a win and we needed one, so we will take it. Trying to close that thing out was frustrating. It looked like we were trying to solve calculus problems," Furman coach Bob Richey said. "It wasn't the prettiest win, but give them credit. They played hard and really came out with some pressure. It took us a little while to settle in."</p><p>An Alex Williams dunk off a J.P. Pegues' steal gave Furman a 14-8 lead seven minutes in. The Bulldogs (2-6) responded with a 16-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 24-14 lead. S.C. State led 33-24 with four minutes to play in the first half. At that point, the Bulldogs had made 4-of-5 three-pointers while the Paladins were just 3-of-14 from three.</p><p>Smith knocked down back-to-back threes 23 seconds apart and that seemed to turn the tide from the outside. Furman made 7 of its final 17 three-pointers while the Bulldogs made 3-of-12. A three by Williams in the final minute cut S.C. State's lead to 36-35 at the break.</p><p>"My teammates were working for me. My first one rattled out, so I was just trying to get us back on track," Smith said. "They kept finding me and I got those two threes and we ended up going into half with a little bit of momentum.</p><p>"We've been putting a lot of pressure recently on J.P. and Marcus (Foster) to score a lot. I just felt like I needed to be more aggressive, get my teammates involved and look for my shot more just to take a little pressure off of them."</p><p>Furman trailed 40-37 just over two minutes into the second half before Williams tied the game on a three on a possession in which he grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds. Smith drained another three with 15:51 left to put the Paladins back on top for good. Another three by Smith pushed Furman's lead to 62-48 with just under 10 minutes to play and Furman never led by less than eight the rest of the way.</p><p>In addition to his Furman career-high 20 points, Smith tied his career-high by making 6-of-7 three-pointers. It was another great response from Smith, who didn't start for the first time this season Saturday at UAB. He did score 15 off the bench Saturday, but it wasn't enough in Furman's 92-86 loss to the 2023 NIT runner-up.</p><p>"We worked on defense all day in practice (Monday) and we kept stats on it live. We had a big board out there with all the things that matter on defense," Richey said. "We basically told them that the guy who has the most points (off deflections, steals, blocks, etc.) at the end is guaranteed to start. It was PJay. It's funny how that works.</p><p>"The game honors toughness. It always has and it always will. He was mentally ready to play today."</p><p>Smith was one of six Paladins in double figure scoring. Foster had 16 points and six rebounds. Williams and Garrett Hien had 12 points apiece, while Pegues scored 11 and Carter Whitt had 10. Pegues had game-highs in rebounds (8), assists (6) and steals (3) and also had a blocked shot.</p><p>"I'm very pleased with (offense), but we've got to continue to get better in our defensive focus," Richey said. "I think we will. This is a really hard stretch that we're in, but it's what we wanted. I think it's going to prepare us for what we need to be when we need to be really, really good."</p><p>Furman might not be "really, really good" yet, but they may need to play like it Saturday. That's when a pair of Cinderellas from the 2023 NCAA Tournament face off as Furman plays at Princeton at 2 p.m. The Paladins will then make it back-to-back games against teams that made the Sweet 16 last season when they play at Arkansas Monday at 8 p.m.</p><p>Richey believes that for the first time all season, Furman could be completely healthy Saturday. That would mean that Ben VanderWal would be available. VanderWal didn't dress out for the S.C. State game after having an appendectomy.</p><p>"I've watched them a couple of times live. I like how they play. It's a good brand of basketball. They're really good and they're tough," Richey said. "They can score it, pass it, move it and space it. They're as good as anybody we've played so far this year. ... If we go up there and play defense, I think it will be a great game."</p>Scott Keelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04601407157788289795noreply@blogger.com0