Wofford remains perfect in SoCon with tight win over Furman

Recap: Wofford 59, Furman 54

Storm Murphy hit a three-pointer with 18 seconds remaining, giving Wofford a 57-54 lead, and the Terriers were able to hold off pesky Furman for a 59-54 Southern Conference win Saturday night before a sellout crowd at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.

With the win, Wofford remained perfect in the Southern Conference, improving to 7-0 and improved to 15-4 overall in SoCon play. Furman dropped its second-straight, falling to 15-4 overall and 4-3 in league play.

The game was one that was not for the faint of heart. Both teams had had a week off to prepare for each other, and it was obvious from the grinder of a Southern Conference war that ensued Saturday night in Spartanburg in the first of two installments between the I-85 rivals this season.

The game was equivalent to a Southern Conference war in a season that has seen so much success for the top half of the league. The battle between the Terriers and Paladins saw 15 lead changes and eight ties. The biggest advantage for either club the entire night was a whopping five points, which just happened to be the final margin of victory for Wofford. 

Someone must have told Southern Conference Player of the Year candidate Matt Rafferty Furman hadn't won in Spartanburg since 2011, as he put the Paladins on his back offensively down the stretch. Rafferty scored the final 11 points of the game for the Paladins, and gave Furman the lead on an easy layup after collecting a loose ball in the lane following a Cameron Jackson block on a Clay Mounce dunk attempt with 1:02 remaining, giving the Paladins a 54-52 lead. 

Rafferty posted a game-high 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field, including 2-for-3 from three-point land. Rafferty also went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe, added eight boards, two assists, two steals and a block. He was one of three Paladins in double figures, and was joined by senior guard Andrew Brown and junior guard Jordan Lyons, who added 10 points apiece. 

“Rafferty is so good,” Wofford head coach Mike Young said. “He sniffs out so many things. I catch myself considering what action we’re going to run and how we can get Rafferty out of the way.”

“That was a heck of a ballgame. Back and forth. Hard-fought. Nobody was going to give an inch,” Young added.

After a Wofford timeout, Terrier veteran head coach Mike Young drew up an action for Jackson, and he would show his veteran leadership. He faked a pass left, spun into an open lane and slammed it home emphatically, tying the contest, 54-54, and sending the home crowd into a frenzy. 

Following a Jordan Lyons missed three-pointer on the other end for the Paladins, Jackson coralled the rebound for the Terriers and timeout was taken. Young once again drew up the right play, and it wasn't Fletcher Magee, who led the Terriers with 22 points, but was sophomore point guard Storm Murphy. 

"I am telling you now, he [Storm Murphy] and Fletch [Fletcher Magee], Hoover [Nathan Hoover] and Trayvyon Hollowell lead our team in shots before and after practice and he's confident and you see it. Storm Murphy wins as many of them as [nods towards Fletcher Magee in the background] that guy," Young said of his trust in Murphy on the game-winning shot. "He can shoot the fire out of it and he's a confident little cuss," he added. 

Murphy finished with just six points. He scored Wofford's first three-pointer of the game and its last. The last came on a beautiful screen set on Lyons by Jackson, freeing up Murphy, a 46.3% shooter from three-point range coming into the game, for the game-winner. Jackson added a layup at the buzzer on the final play of the game when the result was already academic. 

The Paladins actually took a 30-28 lead into the halftime locker room, but it was the Terriers to seem some momentum to the break following a Hollowell banked in triple at the buzzer. That had dampened the mini 5-0 run by the Paladins, which came via a Brown triple and a Rafferty layup. 

The start of the second half saw the Paladins struggle to score, posting just four points in the first 8:17 of the second half, and the Paladins found themselves trailing the contest, and Magee helped give the Terriers a 37-34 lead following a fade-a-way jumper with 12:45 to play. 

The Paladins started to get things going from that point forward, although the Terriers would match their largest lead of the night moments later, following a Magee three-point play the old-fashioned play, as the senior's free throw gave the Terriers a 40-35 lead with 11:15 remaining. 

To their its, Furman never folded and never gave into a boisterous crowd of 3,400 inside the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, and when gut-check time came, the Paladins responded through its two seniors, as Rafferty and Brown put in layups to get the Paladins with a point, at 40-39, with 10:12 left. 

Then, with 7:22 remaining, Rafferty got the ball at the right elbow and was left open for three, he hesitated and the squared up the shot and knocked it down and giving the Paladins the 46-43 lead. 

But Magee had an answer of his own. He got the ball at the right elbow off a screen, shot a fade-a-way three, made it and was fouled in the process. After the made free throw, Magee had given the Terriers a 47-46 lead with the rare four-point play with 6:52 remaining. A minute later, a pair of Nathan Hoover free throws increased Wofford's lead back to three, at 49-46. 

Two Rafferty layups gave Furman the one-point lead, 50-49, with 3:43 remaining. Another Magee three--his fourth of the night--helped the Terriers regain a two-point lead with 3:25 remaining. Two more Rafferty foul shots and a Rafferty layup gave Furman a 54-52 lead with 1:02 to play, setting the stage for the thrilling final sixty seconds of action. 

"They [Wofford] made the play down the stretch and we [Furman] didn't, but man it was a heck of a college basketball game. Storm made a big shot. You've got to give him his credit," Furman head coach Bob Richey said. 

Wofford held slight advantages in shooting percentage (38.9%-35.1%), bench points (12-10) and total rebounds (35-31). The Paladins edged the Terriers in total assists (12-11), points in the paint (24-22), points off turnovers (14-4), second chance points (17-11) and fast break points (6-2).

Wofford and Furman both return to action Thursday night, with the Paladins hosting Chattanooga at Timmons Arena with tip-off set for 7 p.m. Wofford will play host to Samford in a 7 p.m., as the Terriers look to remain un-beaten in SoCon play.