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| Furman senior guard Jordan Lyons/Photo courtesy of Furman Athletics |
Furman 87, Loyola 63
Furman got a combined 46 points from Jordan Lyons and Clay Mounce, and Bob Richey picked up his 50th win as head coach, as the Paladins downed Loyola-Chicago, 87-63, before 2,469 rowdy fans on hand Friday night at Timmons Arena.
With the win, Furman has now won 19 of its last 21 non-conference games, with the lone two losses being to LSU and Tennessee dating back to the 2017-18 season. The Paladins move ton 2-0 on the season, while Loyola fell to 1-1.
Lyons led the Paladins with 24 points, connecting on 8-of-13 shots from the field, including 2-of-7 from three-point range. Lyons was also 6-for-8 from the foul stripe. In addition to his performance as a scorer, Lyons added three rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
Mounce scored his 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, including going 5-for-6 from three-point range and went 3-for-5 from the line. Mounce also added four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 38 minutes of floor action.
Rounding out the Paladins in double figures were Jalen Slawson and Mike Bothwell, who chipped in with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Slawson’s 14 points were a career-high, as he connected on 5-of-8 shots from the field, including going 1-for-3 from three-point range, while knocking down 3-of-4 charity shots. Additionally, Slawson added five rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block.
Bothwell’s 10 points came off the bench, as he connected on 4-of-8 shots from the field and 2-for-3 from the free throw line to go with four rebounds, two steals and an assist.
Furman would take a 34-28 lead into the halftime locker room, despite seeing the Ramblers connect on 59.1% from the field. It was Furman’s defense that allowed it to taking the six-point lead into the halftime locker room, as the Paladins had 13 ball deflections and caused 13 first-half Loyola turnovers to off-set their high shooting performance. That helped the Paladins out-score the Ramblers 9-0 in fast-break points at the break.
The Paladins would end up forcing a total of 22 Loyola turnovers on the night, and out-scored the Ramblers 21-6 in points off of turnovers for the game.
Furman was very good last season on the defensive end of the floor, and that seems to have even been elevated through at least through the first two games this season, as head coach Bob Richey alluded to in his postgame press conference on how this Furman team was a little different defensively than last year’s club.
“I think this team is a little faster...you know I think this team has a little more speed but we haven’t been as tight in some our rotations as last year’s team was at this point and that’s okay and what I’ve tried to convince them is that we have been working really hard at it in practice and what I’ve tried to convince them is we’ve got to learn to use our speed and our strength,” head coach Bob Richey said.
The Paladins led by as many as 10 points in the opening half of play, at 34-24, following a Clay Mounce three-pointer from the corner with 1:37 to play in the half. However, the Ramblers would close the half in strong fashion, getting layups from Tate Hall and Jalon Pipkins to close out the half, cutting the Paladin lead to six at the break and taking some of the momentum into the halftime locker room.
Furman would slowly start to cushion its lead in the second half. The Paladins led 50-43 with a little over 13 minutes to play, however, used a 9-0 run which was punctuated by one of Jalen Slawson’s three dunks, giving the Paladins a 59-43 lead with 7:52 remaining. Slawson was issued a questionable technical foul for hanging on the rim, but despite having four personal fouls, was not disqualified from the contest because the technical was resulted in a team foul and not a personal foul.
During that run, Lyons was key in a variety of ways, and it was his transition three with 10:35 remaining that allowed the Paladins to take a 55-43 lead, and Furman never led by less than double digits the rest of the way.
“Jordan Lyons I mean what a night...please please understand the plays that he made on two feet tonight and the five assists that he got and I understand that you’re going to want to write about his 24 points but he hit me up after Gardner-Webb and said coach I want to watch film with you and we watched the one-foot plays and I told him just look go out there just drive it and keep two feet on the ground so that you can pivot and pass and you’ll be amazed how things are going to open up for you because they are going to flow to you and they’re going to think you’re just going to go in there and try and score and you’ll be amazed how it’s going to open up for you,” Richey said.
All told, Furman would hold Loyola scoreless over a six-minute stretch in the second half from the 13:22-to-7:22 mark of the second half. It allowed Furman to stretch its lead out to as much 16 points following the Slawson jam.
Furman would eventually extend its lead to 20 points with 1:37 left on a free throw by Slawson. Freshman guard Colin Kenney and freshman forward Ben Beeker would close out the strong home opening performance with their first buckets of their collegiate careers--Kenney on a jumper from the corner and Beeker on a layup in which he was also fouled in the process--as the Paladins fashioned its most convincing non-conference home performance in quite some time, capping off the 24-point win.
In the win, Lyons noted the program had been elevated by each of the senior classes, which came before it. The fact that the program had been left in better shape by each senior class, which came before it, and his words summed up the dominant win over a good, well-respected Loyola Chicago program.
“Speaking on past seniors it’s amazing to see how the people who have graduated have left this program better than when they came in and I think that’s something that’s really special about the guys that we’ve had here starting with Kris Acox, Stephen Croone and Larry Wideman and then going to John Davis, Devin Sibley, Daniel Fowler and Geoff Beans to Matt [Rafferty] and Andrew [Brown] and those guys when you talk about winning, it’s all about just elevating this program to be the best that we can be and that’s the mentality we have as a team this year and we have a lot of really good players and really versatile players...We have a really special group and none of us are worried about the stats or who’s scoring what...We just want to win and we just want to be connected,” Senior guard Jordan Lyons said.
The Paladins shot 55.4% (31-of-56) for the game, while the Ramblers connected on 52.7% (29-of-55) from the field. Furman shot 40.0% (8-of-20) from three-point range, while limiting the Ramblers to just 28.6% (4-of-14)
Furman held advantages in points off turnovers (21-6), assists (18-13), fast-break points (18-2), second-chance points (9-6), and bench points (19-17). Loyola out-rebounded Furman 32-24, but the Paladins forced 22 turnovers and committed only nine.
Loyola was led in scoring by Lucas Williamson’s 18 points. He was the only Ramblers player in double figures. Furman held preseason Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Cameron Krutwig to just eight points and one rebound. Krutwig had 15 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in the season opener vs. UC Davis.
Furman heads to Charleston Southern Tuesday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
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