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| Furman and The Citadel just before tipping off the SoCon's oldest basketball rivalry Saturday at Timmons Arena |
GREENVILLE, S.C.--Senior forward Matt Rafferty posted his eighth double-double of the season, and scored a career-high 28 points, while grabbing 12 rebounds, as Furman claimed a 101-85 win over The Citadel in Southern Conference action in front of a season-high 2,462 fans Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena.
With the win, Furman improved to 14-2 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Conference, while The Citadel dropped to 9-5 overall and 1-2 in league play. It was Furman's 12th-consecutive home win and ninth-straight home win against SoCon competition. Furman improved to 47-8 overall and 27-3 against league foes on the home hardwood since the start of the 2015-16 season.
Rafferty finished the contest by going 11-of-15 from the field and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the win. In addition to the points and rebounded he posted three steals, blocked one shot and had one assist. Rafferty jhas now scored in double figures in 15 out of 16 games to start the season for the Paladins, and his eighth double-double is tied for the most in the SoCon this season along with ETSU's Jeromy Rodriguez.
Rafferty was joined in double figures by four other Paladins. Junior guard Jordan Lyons added 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 3-for-10 from three-point range, while Clay Mounce joined Rafferty with a double-double performance of 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, while Noah Gurley and Alex Hunter chipped in 15 and 13 points, respectively, in the win. Hunter dished out three assists and had three boards, while Gurley posted eight boards and two assists in addition to his scoring performance.
Furman's starting frontcourt trio of Mounce, Gurley and Rafferty combined for 58 points and 33 rebounds in Saturday's win. Redshirt sophomore guard Tre Clark turned in a solid performance, posting six points, nine boards, five offensive rebounds, four steals and two assists in the win.
The Citadel's Zane Najdawi knocked down a right elbow three-pointer to cut Furman's lead to just two points, at 72-70, with 9:04 remaining. The Paladins responded with a Rafferty layup on the other end, which was the beginning of what turned out to be a 25-5 run over a 6:48 span to take a 97-75 lead, with a pair of Jordan Lyons free throws giving Furman its largest lead of the night, at 22 points, with 2:18 remaining.
The Citadel came out and brought the game to Furman in the opening 20 minutes of action, as the Bulldogs shot 50% (18-for-36) from the field in the opening half to take a 46-43 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Bulldogs were buoyed by the play of forward Kaiden Rice, who was making his second-career start, as he scored 12 of his 18 points in the opening half, including the first six, with two quick three-pointers to give the Bulldogs a quick 6-0 lead right out of the gate.There were 10 lead changes alone in the opening half of play.
Furman held huge advantages in rebounding (53-28), points in the paint (48-34) and second chance points (25-8). In fact, the Paladins had more second-half offensive rebounds (11) than the Bulldogs had second-half total rebounds (10). A lot of that had to do with Furman's unsung hero in the game, Clark who, as mentioned above, led the Paladins with offensive boards. The Paladins out-rebounded the Bulldogs 30-10 in the second-half.
Furman's ability defensively was of note, especially in the second half, making the necessary defensive adjustments to slow The Citadel's talented point guard Lew Stallworth, and take talented sharp-shooting guard Matt Frierson completely out of the game. It was Lyons that would draw the assignment of locking down Frierson, while Clark was put in the game to slow Stallworth midway through the second half.
Frierson came into the week leading the nation in three-pointers made-per-game, and had a league-leading 62 triples on the season. Lyons and Furman's collective defensive effort against the senior guard limited him to just 1-for-5 shooting from long-range and a season-low three points. Frierson had been The Citadel's second-leading scorer coming into the contest, averaging 16.5 PPG.
Stallworth was The Citadel's leading scorer coming into the contest with the Paladins, averaging 17.6 PPG. He would finish the game with a team-leading 23 points, but was significantly slowed down the stretch in the contest by Clark. Stallworth, who ranks 10th nationally in assists-per-game, added six helpers and also finished with four boards.
"It's one of those things where I thought Jordan Lyons played one of his best defensive games of the year and I thought he took the challenge," head coach Bob Richey said. "I thought he did a great job Thursday on [Marcus] Cohen and he was dealing more with a ball-handler and attacker and Alex [Hunter] was the one that got the [Ross] Cummings matchup and we didn't didn't know with the quick turnaround in the games like can Alex [Hunter] chase around a guy again so we asked Jordan [Lyons] to do it and we asked him to do it in full confidence and we knew he could and I thought he took a lot of ownership to it and I really thought he took a lot of pride in it," he added.
Clark was noticeably a factor all night for the Paladins, particularly in the areas of offensive rebounds and being a defensive menace, leading the Paladins in both categories.
"Tre Clark...Not sure I have seen...I was trying to add up my years of doing this and I have done this for 13 years now feels like three and I am not sure I have seen someone grow in six months the way he has and I just want to make sure everyone is clear on that and I brought him in Monday and asked him to play backup point [guard] and he goes out there and hits two threes right and everybody in the off-season was like can Tre Clark shoot and he's shooting in the 40s still and goes 2-for-4 today. He defends Stallworth. He handles the ball against the press. His growth. His demeanor. His confidence...what he means to this program right now...unbelievable," Richey said.
Joining Stallworth in double figures for the Bulldogs was sophomore forward Alex Reed, who posted 20 points, while Rice added 18 on 6-for-15 from the field and 5-for-13 from three-point range. All-SoCon forward Zane Najdawi added a double-double, with 11 points and 10 boards.
Furman held advantages in shooting percentage (46.8%-46.4%), fast break points (17-11) and bench points (13-10). The Citadel held slight advantages in points off turnovers (19-18) and assists (16-13). The two teams combined to attempt 81 three-pointers in the contest, with the Paladins connecting on 13-of-38 (34.2%) from long range, while the Bulldogs were 14-of-43 (32.6%) from three-point range to finish the contest.
Furman returns to action Thursday for the first of three-straight road games, taking on VMI next Thursday night at Cameron Hall, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. in Lexington, VA. The Bulldogs return home Thursday night to host red-hot East Tennessee State at McAlister Field House, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. in Charleston.
Saturday's SoCon Results:
Wofford 78, Mercer 74
UNCG 71, VMI 68
ETSU 96, Chattnooga 70
Western Carolina 76, Samford 69
Furman 101, The Citadel 85
Power Rankings:
1. UNCG 14-2, 3-0 SoCon
2. Wofford 12-4, 4-0 SoCon
3. ETSU 13-4, 3-1 SoCon
4. Furman 14-2, 3-1 SoCon
5. Samford 11-6, 1-3 SoCon
6. The Citadel 9-5, 1-2 SoCon
7. Mercer 5-10, 0-3 SoCon
8. Chattanooga 7-10, 2-2 SoCon
9. Western Carolina 4-13, 1-3 SoCon
10. VMI 5-10, 0-3 SoCon
Next Week's slate (Jan. 10 and Jan. 12)
Thursday, Jan. 10
Furman at VMI 7 p.m.
ETSU at The Citadel 7 p.m.
Western Carolina at Mercer 7 p.m.
Wofford at UNCG 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 12
Western Carolina at The Citadel, 1 p.m.
Wofford at VMI, 1 p.m.
ETSU at Mercer, 4:30 p.m.
Furman at UNCG, 5 p.m.
Samford at Chattanooga, 4:30 p.m.
*--Check Mid-major madness Thursday for a full preview of Wofford at UNCG.
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