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| Furman senior forward Matt Rafferty |
With the win, Furman remained perfect on the young season, improving to 3-0 overall. The loss saw Gardner-Webb fall to 0-3.
Clay Mounce led all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field, including 3-for-5 from three-point range, and finished 1-for-3 from the charity stripe to finish off his career-high scoring night. Additionally, the redshirt sophomore from Elkin, N.C., added six boards, two assists, two blocks and a steal in 37 minutes of floor action.
Rafferty, a senior from Hinsdale, Ill, was sensational for the third time out this season, including matching a career-high established in the season opener with 24 points, and posted his first double-double of the season with 10 rebounds. Rafferty also connected on 9-of-12 shots from the field and was 6-for-8 from the charity stripe. In addition to his 10 rebounds, Rafferty added six assists and a steal.
Rounding out the Paladins in double figures in the contest was redshirt freshman Noah Gurley, who has now put together solid back-to-back games coming off his performace against Loyola Chicago Friday night, which saw him finish with 11 points, six boards in the 60-58 win over the Ramblers. In the 88-86 overtime win over the Bulldogs, Gurley added 12 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals. Gurley connected on 5-of-10 shots from the field, including going 2-for-6 from three-point range.
Furman found themselves in a dog fight down the stretch in the contest, and after holding a 13-point lead at halftime, leading by as many as 14 points in the opening frame with just under a minute left, however, Gardner-Webb would storm back in the second half and would take the lead in overtime, 80-78, following a Furman turnover and a David Efianayi layup.
Furman had a chance to assume to lead on its next possession after Tre Clark was fouled after converting a jumper in the lane with 4:24 remaining in the extra session, however, he missed the shot leaving the contest tied, 80-80.
Gardner-Webb looked like it might join UNC Greensboro as the only team to garner multiple wins on the Timmons Arena hardwood since the start of the 2015-16 season after Nate Johnson canned a three-pointer with 3:57 remaining in overtime to help the Bulldogs match their largest lead of the night, as the visitors took a 83-80.
Gardner-Webb even had a chance to to increase its lead to two possessions, following two empty possessions for the Paladins, however, the Paladins came up with a pair of strong defensive stands, forcing a missed layup by Nate Johnson and a missed triple attempt by Jose Perez on two heavily contested shot attempts.
Junior guard Jordan Lyons had struggled to find any open shots for much of the night, due in large part to being defended well by the Bulldogs, however, much like he did in Friday night’s win at Loyola Chicago, Lyons stepped up when the Paladins needed it the most, canning a three from the top of the key, tying the game, 83-83, with 2:07 left.
On Gardner-Webb’s next possession, Lyons picked the pocket of guard Eric Jamison, Jr., and drove in off the left side, laying off the glass to give Furman an 85-83 lead with 1:43 to play, forcing a Gardner-Webb timeout. The Paladins would come up with another defensive stop following a missed contested layup by Perez with 1:23 to play.
Mounce followed on the next possession by missing a jumper with just under a minute left, however, Rafferty corralled the offensive rebound, allowing the Paladins to run some precious clock. The ball eventually found its way back to Lyons at the top of the key, but his three-point attempt from straight-a-way caromed high in the air of the miss, but Mounce made perhaps his biggest high-wire play of the night, as he tipped the ball in with 23 seconds remaining, giving Furman an 87-83 lead.
“Jordan had a tough night offensively, but a lot of that was due to Gardner-Webb’s game plan,” Furman coach Bob Richey said. “But he hit the big shot and that’s what I love about him. “
The Bulldogs, however, wouldn’t go away easily, as Efianayi’s fall-a-way triple from the right elbow trimmed Furman’s lead to a point with 16 seconds left. Following the inbounds pass, Lyons was immediately fouled with 13 seconds left. Lyons missed the first, but made the second, giving the Paladins an 88-86 lead.
The Bulldogs turned it over on the following crucial possession, and Mounce was fouled with 3.7 seconds left. He missed both free throws, giving the Bulldogs one last attempt at the win, however, Jamison’s half-court heave was off the mark and the Paladins were able to escape with the win.
The opening half of play saw the Paladins play some of their basketball of the young season, racing to the half with a 46-33 haltime lead on the strength of shooting the basketball at a 64.5% (20-for-31) from the field, which included 17 first-half points from Rafferty on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting from the field, and 1-of-1 from the charity stripe.
For the game, Furman held advantages in points in the paint (50-46), fast-break points (7-6), and assists (21-12), while Gardner-Webb claimed advantages in points off turnovers (15-10), second-chance points (13-7), rebounds (35-34) and bench points (23-10).
The Paladins finished the night shooting the ball at a 53.0% (35-of-66) clip from the field, while connecting on 34.8% (8-for-23) from three-point range, and 58.8% (10-of-17) from the free throw line.
The Bulldogs connected on 50.0% (32-of-64) from the field for the game, and 40.9% from three-point range (9-for-22). The Bulldogs shot 65.0% from the free throw line, connecting on 13-for-20 in the game.
Six Bulldogs found their way into double figures in the contest, led by 23 points from freshman wing Jose Perez, who connected on 8-of-17 shots from the field, but was just 1-for-7 from three-point range. Senior All-Big South guard David Efianayi finished with 16 points, while senior forward DJ Laster chipped in with 15 points. Eric Jamison Jr. led the Bulldogs on the backboards with eight boards to go with his 10 points.
“Offensively, we did a pretty good job for the most part. We shot 53 percent from the floor, had 21 assists and 11 turnovers. These guys (Gardner-Webb) had turned VCU and Virginia Tech over on average of 20 a night,” Richey said.
“What we’ve got to learn from is that we’ve got guard the bounce better. They basically went five guards, putting their head down and driving (in the second half). It wasn’t anything complicated. Second, we’ve got to understand that a 13-point lead at halftime doesn’t mean you just go out there and walk through the next 20 minutes and everything’s going to work out,” he added.
The 40th win for the Paladins since the start of the 2015-16 season is a significant achievement, and has made Furman one of the toughest venues to play in mid-major college hoops. The victory saw the Paladins improve to 40-8 in the facility over the past three-plus seasons.
“It means a lot. We have great fans and you know we love it when the students come out, especially those people on the front row...the football team and we always really appreciate that and it gives us a lot of energy and we love playing here,” Clay Mounce said.
“Our fans are great, boosters, students, proffessors, and anyone that comes out and supports us, we’re happy to have them and its great to see new faces and familiar ones,” Matt Rafferty added.
All of those different pieces of the program have been building blocks for the Paladin basketball program over the past four years, as the program continues to undergo transformation and reach new heights, both in the Southern Conference, as well as nationally throughout mid-major basketball.
“We’ve been fortunate at home the past few years and we’ve shot it really well, we’ve defended, we’ve played with pretty good energy here, and you know this is home right and if we continue to find ways to build the environment and the atmosphere and really get some energy in there,” Richey said.
” I thought tonight we finally got some energy and you know what its not their fault, we weren’t guarding a lick and I understand it, but basically it was never a deal where we had the lead or we were down a possession and it was never a deal where we had this huge deficit to overcome. I hope we can get to a point in those moments where you just feel that energy and you know we’ll get there with the video boards and I thought the students showed up better than what we usually see around here in November for a weekday and I thought the student section was pretty good. We will keep trying to make it as good as we can make it,” Richey added.
It was not only Furman’s 40th home win since the start of the 2015-16 season, but it marked the first overtime win by the Paladins since Jan. 24, 2011, when the Paladins knocked off eventual regular-season and tournament champion Wofford, 73-68, at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Furman will be back on the Timmons Arena hardwood on Thursday night to face Richey’s alma mater, North Greenville. Tip-off for that contest is set for 7 p.m.
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