GREENVILLE, S.C.--Furman got 29 points from junior guard Jordan Lyons, and 21 points and 15 boards from senior forward Matt Rafferty, as the Paladins held on for a 90-88 double-overtime win in Southern Conference basketball action in front of a rowdy crowd of 2,131 fans Saturday night at Timmons Arena.
Lyons and Rafferty were joined in double figures by Clay Mounce, who posted a double-double of his own, with 17 points and a career-high 13 boards, while sophomore guard Alex Hunter also added a double-double of 11 points and 10 assists in the Furman win.
With the win, Furman improved its best start in school history to 8-0 and 1-0 in the SoCon, while Western Carolina fell to 2-7 overall and 0-1 in league action. Furman improved to 25-3 in SoCon games at Timmons Arena since the start of the 2015-16 season, and improved to 3-0 in overtime games this season. The Paladins also have posted overtime victories over both Gardner-Webb (88-8) and No. 8 Villanova (76-68) so already this season. The win also marked the 15th win in its last 16 games for Furman.
The double overtime win was Furman's first since Feb. 16, 1991 when the Paladins downed The Citadel, 89-81, in Charleston.
The double overtime win was Furman's first since Feb. 16, 1991 when the Paladins downed The Citadel, 89-81, in Charleston.
Furman found themselves in a dogfight for the entire night, trailing 66-62 with 38 seconds remaining, Furman sophomore point guard Alex Hunter made a pair of foul shots with less than 30 seconds left. Onno Steger was fouled immediately by redshirt freshman for Noah Gurley, who committed his fifth, and the Paladins needed him to miss one.
With the score at 67-64, Steger missed the front end of a two-shot foul, but made the second, ensuring Furman would have a chance to tie. Lyons knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game 67-67, with 22.5 seconds to play. Western Carolina's Halvorsen miss a three-pointer at the buzzer, and the game went to overtime.
In the first extra session, the Paladins would run out to a lead by as many as five twice, with the last coming at 76-71 with 2:23 remaining in the first extra session following an Alex Hunter layup. But the Catamounts simply kept clawing, using a Carlos Dotson layup and a triple from Kameron Gibson, tying the game, 76-76, with 1:21 left. Furman and Western would both miss on their final attempts at a game-winning shot, and the game went to a second extra session.
In that second extra session, Furman would take control of the game for good.A Lyons three-pointer and another bucket by Dotson left the score, at 79-78, in favor of the Paladins with 4:23 remaining in the second overtime. The Paladins would eventually assume a five-point lead once again, at 87-82, following a layup by Rafferty with 59 seconds remaining. Following a missed three-pointer by Matt Halvorsen, which caromed out of bounds, the Paladins would extend their lead to seven following a pair of Clay Mounce free throws following a foul by Steger to make it a 89-82 Paladins with 33 seconds remaining.
The Catamounts would score the next four points on a Dotson layup and a steal by Kameron Gibson and subsequent layup by D.J. Myers to cut Furman's lead to three, at 89-86, with nine seconds left. After Hunter was fouled, he connected on 1-of-2 free throws to make it 90-86. A Marc Paul Gosselin layup with a just under a second left, sliced Furman's lead to two, at 90-88, however, with the inbounds pass Furman ended the game and the scare, holding on for the two-point home court win.
In the opening half of play, the Catamounts shot the ball better from three-point land better than from two-point range, connecting on 47.1% downtown, as the Catamounts connected on 8-of-17 shots from long range, and 39.3% (11-for-28) from the field to trail the Paladins by just one, 34-33, at the half. The Paladins held a 53-45 edge on the backboards.
Furman also held advantages in points in the paint (50-42), fast break points (18-4), and second chance points (19-13), and field goal percentage (46.6%-41.3%). Western Carolina claimed advantages in points off turnovers (20-5) and bench points (11-9), and three-point field goal percentage (27.0%-25.0%).
The game was tied on 16 occassions, while featuring 17 lead changes. Western Carolina was led in scoring by Dotson, who finished the contest 27 points and 14 rebounds in another strong effort from the JUCO transfer. Dotson has now posted double-doubles in four out of his first nine games for the Catamounts. He finished the night connecting on 12-of-20 shots from the field. Dotson scored all of his points in the second half in what was one of the more remarkable second half performances by an opponent at Timmons Arena in quite sometime.
Dotson was joined in double figures by Gosselin's 16 points and 13 boards, while Steger added 14 points, and Gibson chipped in 17.
Furman head coach Bob Richey acknowledged the strong play by Dotson, but also echoed the Paladins have much work and much improvement to work on defensively as the season progresses.
"You know what foul trouble or no foul trouble I don't think we guarded worth a darn all night to be honest with you," head coach Bob Richey said.
"I think that is a coverage that takes multiple people and we're going to ask Matt [Rafferty] to guard Carlos Dotson then that's not fair, and you know if we're going to ask Matt [Rafferty] to guard Krautwig at Loyola that's not right. We've never done that and we left him on an island too much tonight and we weren't as connected as we needed to be post defense, and they do have four shooters and that makes it a little harder because who have you got to come off of, but we just have to do better and the ball pressure on the post entry has to be bette and the fronts and the three quarters have to be better, and they did some nice exchanges on the back side and when they exchanged the back side, out back side help wasn't there."
Lyons continues to be a big-game player for the Paladins this season, and especially hitting the key big shot in big moments. He did that against Gardner-Webb and Loyola-Chicago in wins earlier this season, as well as Saturday night against Western Carolina in the SoCon opener.
"You've got to have a shooter's mentality. You can never worry about your last shot," Lyons said. "I shoot a lot of shots because I every one of them's going in. That's a testament to my teammates and coaches for putting that kind of confidence in me as well."
The Catamounts would score the next four points on a Dotson layup and a steal by Kameron Gibson and subsequent layup by D.J. Myers to cut Furman's lead to three, at 89-86, with nine seconds left. After Hunter was fouled, he connected on 1-of-2 free throws to make it 90-86. A Marc Paul Gosselin layup with a just under a second left, sliced Furman's lead to two, at 90-88, however, with the inbounds pass Furman ended the game and the scare, holding on for the two-point home court win.
In the opening half of play, the Catamounts shot the ball better from three-point land better than from two-point range, connecting on 47.1% downtown, as the Catamounts connected on 8-of-17 shots from long range, and 39.3% (11-for-28) from the field to trail the Paladins by just one, 34-33, at the half. The Paladins held a 53-45 edge on the backboards.
Furman also held advantages in points in the paint (50-42), fast break points (18-4), and second chance points (19-13), and field goal percentage (46.6%-41.3%). Western Carolina claimed advantages in points off turnovers (20-5) and bench points (11-9), and three-point field goal percentage (27.0%-25.0%).
The game was tied on 16 occassions, while featuring 17 lead changes. Western Carolina was led in scoring by Dotson, who finished the contest 27 points and 14 rebounds in another strong effort from the JUCO transfer. Dotson has now posted double-doubles in four out of his first nine games for the Catamounts. He finished the night connecting on 12-of-20 shots from the field. Dotson scored all of his points in the second half in what was one of the more remarkable second half performances by an opponent at Timmons Arena in quite sometime.
Dotson was joined in double figures by Gosselin's 16 points and 13 boards, while Steger added 14 points, and Gibson chipped in 17.
Furman head coach Bob Richey acknowledged the strong play by Dotson, but also echoed the Paladins have much work and much improvement to work on defensively as the season progresses.
"You know what foul trouble or no foul trouble I don't think we guarded worth a darn all night to be honest with you," head coach Bob Richey said.
"I think that is a coverage that takes multiple people and we're going to ask Matt [Rafferty] to guard Carlos Dotson then that's not fair, and you know if we're going to ask Matt [Rafferty] to guard Krautwig at Loyola that's not right. We've never done that and we left him on an island too much tonight and we weren't as connected as we needed to be post defense, and they do have four shooters and that makes it a little harder because who have you got to come off of, but we just have to do better and the ball pressure on the post entry has to be bette and the fronts and the three quarters have to be better, and they did some nice exchanges on the back side and when they exchanged the back side, out back side help wasn't there."
Lyons continues to be a big-game player for the Paladins this season, and especially hitting the key big shot in big moments. He did that against Gardner-Webb and Loyola-Chicago in wins earlier this season, as well as Saturday night against Western Carolina in the SoCon opener.
"You've got to have a shooter's mentality. You can never worry about your last shot," Lyons said. "I shoot a lot of shots because I every one of them's going in. That's a testament to my teammates and coaches for putting that kind of confidence in me as well."
Furman returns to action Tuesday night to face CAA member Elon at the Schar Center. Tip-off in the brand new facility is set for 7 p.m.
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