Furman gets big road win; ETSU clinches a share of SoCon Title

Noah Gurley and Jalen Slawson combined for 17 points in Furman's road win at UNCG

Furman 81, UNC Greensboro 67

The Particulars: 

Furman played the role of spoiler on senior night, and tied regular-season school records for both overall wins (24) and Southern Conference wins (14), defeating UNC Greensboro, 81-67, Wednesday night in front of 4,256 fans at the Greensboro Coliseum to witness the final home game for UNCG standouts James Dickey, Malik Massey and Kyrin Galloway.

With the win, Furman improved to 24-6 overall and 14-3 in league play, clinching the No.2 seed for the Southern Conference Tournament. The Paladins will play the winner between No. 7 Wofford and No. 10 The Citadel. The loss for UNCG locked up the No. 3 seed for the Spartans at next week’s Southern Conference Tournament and will play either Mercer, Chattanooga or Western Carolina in Saturday’s quarterfinal round in Asheville. The Spartans fall to 23-7 overall and 13-4 in SoCon play.

The Paladins placed five players in double figures, led by a career-high 17 points from sophomore forward Jalen Slawson. He was Furman’s co-leading scorer along with redshirt sophomore Noah Gurley, who also chipped in with 17. 

Perhaps the biggest story was Furman’s defensive performance against the SoCon’s leading scorer in league games—Isaiah Miller—who came into the contest averaging 20.2 PPG in 16 previous league games— but the Paladins collective defensive effort held the talented junior guard to just nine points on just 3-of-13 shooting from the field. UNCG was fittingly led in scoring by a senior on senior night, as James Dickey posted 15 points and five boards in his final performance in front of the Greensboro faithful. 

Furman had a breakout performance shooting the basketball after having not reached 43% shooting from the field in the previous four games. In its final road game of the season and facing a team it had lost seven out of eight games to, the Paladins picked the perfect night to shoot well, connecting on 50.9% (27-of-53) of their shots from the field. The Paladins connected on 47.6% (10-of-21) from three-point range. 

But Furman’s good shooting performance was only out-shined by its performance on the defensive end of the floor, as well as on the backboards. The Paladins held the Spartans to 46.2% (24-of-52) from the field and forged a 23-23 tie on the glass. More importantly, Furman forced 17 UNCG turnovers and turned that into a 28-17 advantage in the points off turnovers category.  Seven of Furman’s forced turnovers came off steals. The Spartans kept themselves in the game most of the night by virtue of a good shooting performance from long-range, connecting on 42.3% (11-of-26) from long range. 

In stark contrast, in UNCG’s 86-73 win at Bon Secours Wellness Arena last month, the Spartans posted a 24-13 advantage in points off turnovers, forcing 17 Paladin miscues, with 13 of those forced Furman turnovers coming on steals. Furman turned it over just seven times Wednesday night, with only seven of those coming on Spartan steals. 

The Paladins also held advantages in points in the paint (30-24), second-chance points (11-7), and fast-break points (12-8). The Spartans held advantages in bench scoring (17-9) and assists (16-15).  Furman also shot the ball extremely well from the charity stripe, connecting on 17-of-19 charity attempts (89.5%), while the Spartans finished the night going 8-for-11 (72.7%) from the stripe. 

Slawson connected on 6-of-8 shots from the field and went 4-for-5 from the line in 31 minutes of action en route to his career-best performance.  Additionally,  Slawson added a team-leading nine rebounds, dished out three assists and had one steal.

Gurley, a native of Fayetteville, GA, posted his 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and went 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Gurley added three rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block.

Senior guard Jordan Lyons put in another solid effort, posting 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and 1-for-3 from three-point land. The Peachtree City, GA, native also went 3-for-3 from the line. Lyons was also a key contributor defensively, leading Furman with four steals. 

Making his second-straight start, Mike Bothwell posted 13 points to go with two rebounds and a pair of assists. He connected on 3-of-9 from the field, including 2-for-3 from three-point land and was 5-for-6 from the free throw line. 

Junior point guard Alex Hunter rounded out the Paladins in double figures, posting 11 points and had a team-high six assists with just one turnover. He also had two steals on the defensive end. Hunter made arguably the biggest shot of the night for the Paladins, canning a triple with 2:27 left to extend Furman’s advantage to double digits, at 75-65. 

Dickey scored his team-leading 15 points for the Spartans on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and was 3-for-4 from the charity stripe. The senior also had a pair of steals, two assists and blocked a shot. 

Dickey was joined in double figures by sophomore guard Kaleb Hunter and Angelo Allegri, who posted 11 points apiece. Allegri’s perimeter shooting kept the Spartans in the game in the second half, and he finished the night connecting on 3-for-6 from long range. 

Spartan senior guard Malik Massey finished with nine points, while classmate and forward Kyrin Galloway finished with six points playing their final game in front of the home crowd. Massey, Dickey and Galloway have combined for a school record 104 wins during their four seasons at UNCG.  

The Turning Point:

Much like the first meeting between these two teams this season, it came down to big shots and big moments made by one team. It was UNCG that was that team with several dagger threes following substantial second half runs by Furman in the initial meeting between the two at Bon Secours Wellness Arena back on Jan. 11. Forty-five days later, that team was Furman.

The Spartans chipped away at Furman’s nine-point halftime lead, and back-to-back threes from Angelo Allegri got the Spartans as close as they had been since James Dickey put them ahead 2-0 on the first possession of the night, as Allegri’s high arching triples brought the Spartans to within 60-58 with 7:55 left.

Following a media timeout 11 seconds later, Furman’s response was an aggressive one, putting together a 5-0 run courtesy of a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Noah Gurley and a Jordan Lyons jumper in the paint with 6:57 remaining to stretch Furman’s lead back to seven, at 65-58.

UNCG wouldn’t go away quite so easily, however, cutting it to four on a couple of occasions down the stretch, with the final time coming after a pair of made foul shots from Dickey with 4:34 left to trim Furman’s lead to 67-63. 

The Paladins made an emphatic response, however, using a 10-2 run to take complete control of a crucial late-season road conference game, with the biggest shot in the run coming from Raleigh, N.C., native Alex Hunter, as his three-pointer with 2:27 left stretched Furman’s lead to double digits, at 75-65. A pair of Lyons foul shots with 1:59 left capped the run to give the Paladins a 77-65 lead.  A pair of Slawson foul shots stretched Furman’s lead to as much as 17, at 81-65, with 1:27 left before Furman eventually settled for the 14 point win. 

It appeared UNCG would have all the momentum coming out in the second half, as Isaiah Miller’s 75-footer was good at the buzzer, cutting Furman’s deficit under double digits, at 40-31, at the half. 

That shot, as outstanding as it was, couldn’t overshadow an outstanding opening 20 minutes by Furman, which saw the Paladins shoot 53.6% from the field, including 58.3% from three-point land, connecting on 7-of-12 threes in the opening half of play. The Paladins also as stingy defensively, holding the Spartans to just 44.0% (11-of-25) from the field and forced eight UNCG turnovers, which led to 10 Paladin points.  Up until his final heave at the halftime buzzer, the Paladins had held Miller—the SoCon’s scoring leader in conference games (20.1 PPG)—to just two points on 1-of-6 from the field. 

Quotable:

Wes Miller on Furman’s Defensive Performance and point guard Isaiah Miller

“Isaiah [Miller] was effective, even though the ball didn’t go in the hole for him. (Furman’s) defense has gotten significantly more aggressive here in the second half of league play. That’s a different defense than we faced when we played them in Greenville. They’re going to make you make plays, and they’re not going to let the guy with the ball make a play. Isaiah had seven assists and got us a lot of quality looks. When we made our runs, he was creating offense for us. But it was difficult for anybody to drive it and get something clean around the rim.” 

Bob Richey on the significance of the road win for Furman

"I couldn't be more proud of this group. It's hard to win in here. Their senior group has won over 100 games. ... We knew it was going to be a battle. When you're a coach and you're in those battles, the proud moments are when your team responds. Twice in the second half, we responded. They cut it to three, we pushed it back to 10. They cut it two, we pushed it back to 10. That's a sign of a championship-level ball club."

Up Next:

Furman will celebrate senior day when it honors Jordan Lyons—the program’s all-time three-point king (285) and all-time winningest player (95-36). Lyons has scored 1,505-career points, ranking 16th on the school’s all-time scoring ledger. The Paladins will tip-off against The Citadel at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena. A win would give Furman its most Southern Conference wins in school history and most wins in the regular-season in school history, while also tying the the school record most wins in a single season and postseason set by the 2018-19 Paladins. 

UNCG will close out the season on the road at Chattanooga, with tip-off for that contest slated for 4:30 p.m.

News and Notes from around the SoCon:

• ETSU claimed at least a share of the regular-season Southern Conference title, knocking off Wofford 60-54 at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. The Bucs improved to 26-4 overall and 15-2 in SoCon play and will head to Asheville as the No. 1 overall seed for the SoCon Tournament in a little over a week. The Bucs would open Saturday’s conference slate with the noon quarterfinal matchup facing the winner of the No. 8 vs. No.9 game to play played Friday night in a matchup yet to be determined.  The 26 wins are tied for the fifth-most in school history. 

• After getting out-scored 29-19 in the opening half of play on the road and trailed by 14 points with 14 minutes to play, however, ETSU closed the contest in championship fashion, out-scoring the Terriers 34-14 over that final stretch to claim the win.  Tray Boyd III led ETSU with 16 points, while Lucas N’Guessan just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine boards. 

• ETSU took its first lead since 2-0 with 5:16 remaining when N’Guessan stepped in front of Nathan Hoover pass and finished off the break with a momentum-swaying dunk, giving the Bucs a 48-47 lead. All-SoCon forward Jeromy Rodriguez returned to the lineup and he played six minutes and scored one point. Rodriguez has missed most of Southern Conference play with a nagging foot injury.

• Wofford locked up the No. 7 seed for the Southern Conference Tournament, falling in defeat for the sixth-straight game. The Terriers are now 16-14 overall and 8-9 in league play. 

• In Western Carolina’s lopsided, 109-78, win over Samford, junior point guard Mason Faulkner recorded his second triple-double in his career, as well as in program history, scoring 16 points, dishing out 12 assists and corralling 10 rebounds. Both Onno Steger (31 pts) and Josh Sharkey (30 pts) went for 30 or more points in the same game, marking the first time that has happened this season in a Southern Conference game. 

• Ethan Stair pulled down a career-high 23 rebounds in Mercer’s 73-57 win at The Citadel. The Bears improved to 16-14 overall and 10-7 in SoCon play.