Furman's Jordan Lyons sets a career standard for three-pointers made
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| Furman senior guard Jordan Lyons now has a school-record 274 made three-pointers in his career |
The Particulars:
Furman 79, Mercer 57
Furman ended the SoCon’s longest winning streak, ending Mercer’s six-game winning streak, as the Paladins moved to 10-0 at Timmons Arena with a 79-57 mid-week over the Bears.
With the win, Furman improved to 19-5 overall and 9-2 in Southern Conference play, while Mercer fell to 12-12 overall and 6-5 in league play. The Paladins have now won 10-straight in the series over the Bears and also gained the series sweep with the lopsided win. The win also improved Furman to 61-11 at Timmons Arena since the start of the 2015-16 season.
The Paladins connected on a blistering 57.1% (28-of-49) from the field for the game,
including 39.3% (11-of-28) from three-point range. Meanwhile, the Paladins turned in one of its most impressive defensive performances of the season, holding the Bears to just 33.3% (20-of-60) shooting and just 25.9% (7-of-27) from three-point range. The Bears came into the game leading the SoCon in three-point field goal percentage, shooting at a 37.1% clip.
Furman finished the game holding advantages in points in the paint (34-24), points off turnovers (19-7), fast-break points (13-4), assists (19-11), and bench scoring (17-13). Mercer won the battle of the boards 41-29, including 20 offensive rebounds, however, converted those into just 11 second-chance points. The Bears ended the night with an 11-4 edge in second-chance scoring.
Furman finished with an impressive 19 assists on 28 made field goals, turning the ball over just 12 times, while forcing 18 Mercer turnovers and held the Bears to 11 assists on 20 made field goals.
The Paladins struggled from the charity stripe, connecting on just 12-of-24 from the charity stripe (50%), while Mercer on 10 of its 14 attempts (71.4%).
Furman placed five players in double figures, with Furman’s three starting big men—Jalen Slawson, Noah Gurley and Clay Mounce combining for 40 points on 16-of-24 shooting from the field, including combining to score Furman’s first 11 points of the contest.
Leading the way in scoring for the Paladins was Noah Gurley’s 15 points, as he connected on 6-of-8 shots from the field, including 2-for-2 from three-point land and was 1-of-1 at the charity stripe. Gurley also contributed two rebounds, one block, one steal and one assist to finish out add to his game-high tying total.
Jalen Slawson (13 pts), Jordan Lyons (13 pts), Clay Mounce (12 pts), and Mike Bothwell (10 pts) rounded out the Paladins in double figures. Mounce also added a team-leading six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block to round out a solid night. Slawson connected on 4-of-7 shots from the field, while four boards, a steal and an assist. Lyons finished connecting on 3-of-6 shots from the field, which included 3-for-5 from long range and was 4-of-5 from the free throw stripe. Alex Hunter had a team-high five assists and only one turnover, while adding nine points.
Evidence of Furman’s superior defensive performance would show up in cooling off what had been Mercer’s red-hot scoring threat Djordje Dimitrijevic, who had been averaging 25.0 PPG in his previous six outings coming into Wednesday night’s clash. The Paladins limited Dimitrijevic to just 2-for-13 shooting from the field, and 1-for-9 from three-point land in the win.
Mercer placed two in double figures, led by freshman guard Kamar Robertson’s 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and a 5-for-8 performance from three. Center Maciej Bender was the only other Bear in double figures, finishing with 10 points.
The Turning Point:
Trailing 16-11 following an Ethan Stair layup with 11:51 remaining in the opening half, answered with an Alex Hunter three-pointer, which commenced a 23-3 run over a 6:44 on the game clock to take control of the game, as a pair of Mike Bothwell free throws extended Furman’s lead to 15, at 34-19. That would remain the margin as the two teams entered the halftime locker room leading 39-24. Furman held Mercer to just one field goal over the final 11:30 of the opening half.
All told, the Paladins finished the half on a 28-8 run, using highlight dunks from Clay Mounce and Jalen Slawson, and a trio of triples from senior guard Jordan Lyons. With his three triples in the contes Lyons, a senior from Peachtree City, GA, set the school’s all-time career record for three-pointers made, with 274. Lyons surpassed Eric Webb’s 273 three-pointers over a four-year span, which established between 2003-07 as a standout guard for the Paladins.
After shooting 57.1% (15-of-29) from the field in the opening half, the Paladins shot it even better in the second half, connecting on 65.0% (13-of-20) from the field, as the lead ballooned to as much as 29 in the second half before Furman ended up getting the 22-point win. All 12 Paladins that dressed out for the contest played.
Quotable:
Jordan Lyons on setting a new program record for career three-pointers
“Oh man…it’s really special. First and foremost I’d like to thank Jesus and the Lord because they have blessed me with abilities that I have been able to utilize my entire life and I have been able to play in the Lord’s name and that’s really helped me succeed throughout my life and I will never take those blessings for granted and most importantly my father always asked me whenever something good happened if I had gotten on my knees to thank the Lord so that’s first and foremost and I will continue to play in His name and try and continue to use his blessings and gifts in this life. This record is never just going to be about me. There's no way possible I could've done it without the people in my life like the Peachtree City (Ga.) community back home and everybody who's involved with this program - all the coaches I've had and current coaches, all the former teammates and current teammates.”
Bob Richey on maintaining a high standard of winning over the past couple of years:
“That just goes into our culture and our drive to create a program that can sustain and that’s something we talk about whether it be in recruiting…whether it be in developing…whether it be in schematics…whether it be in game plans…we want to have a culture that sustains and whatever that is…a great player leaving…a coach getting another great job…seniors graduating. Our program’s got to last and it’s got to be here to stay and we don’t put so much emphasis on being some great team so to speak. Our whole job and what we’re trying to do is create a program that can sustain adversity, graduation, transfers and coaches leaving, and in order to that the program has to be bigger than every single individual and it’s got to have an identity and I think we’ve been able to create identity here. I think for us we go a little bit against the norm. Right now in college basketball is infatuated with transfers and every year there’s going to be 700, 800 or 900 transfers in the spring and they’re already starting to make calls on and who have you got transferring in…who’s transferring out? What we try is opposite and I am a little stubborn on it, but we don’t have a single transfer on our roster and we have very few kids transfer out and we’re a true developmental program and I think that’s been the key to it. There’s always somebody that’s ready to go next and has been acclimated to our culture and we don’t have to re-train guys where it’s like ‘hey you did it another way at another place’ alright…come see how we do it. Well instead, Johnny Lawrence and Marcus Foster are getting an everyday view of Jordan Lyons’ leadership and they’re getting a chance to see Clay Mounce and how he goes about his business and no one knows what those two kids are doing. Last week after the VMI game, this whole building cleared out, but Marcus Foster is one the gun shooting 500 threes because he understands what this program’s about so now all of the sudden in a couple of years they’re going to be saying ‘where did Marcus Foster come from’ right? We have invested in development and developing people and I think what we’ve seen is that it’s carrying over on the court. And look at Jalan Slawson…Look at his improvement from last year…How about Mike Bothwell?…Take for instance Colin Kenney tonight and the improvement he’s made in just this one year…So what that is this how they do it…This is the expectation every day and it doesn’t matter who’s graduating and it doesn’t matter who’s leaving…We’re going to do this in April, May and June and July and when you have consistency of system and you have a culture that can sustain any type of adversity or type of moving parts then you give yourself a chance to continue to win.”
Press Conference Link:
Up Next:
Furman will be on the road to face Western Carolina (15-7, 7-4 SoCon) at the Ramsey Center on Saturday afternoon, with tip-off set for 2 p.m. Furman won a close, well-played game on both ends, 83-79, last month. The Catamounts have won two-straight, including a 78-70 win at Samford Wednesday night. The Catamounts have already more than doubled their win total from a year ago under second-year head coach Mark Prosser.
Mercer returns to the floor Saturday, as East Tennessee State (20-4, 9-2 SoCon) visits Hawkins Arena, with tip-off time set for 4:30 p.m. The Bears handed the Bucs their only loss inside the friendly confines just last week, posting a 71-55 win at Freedom Hall.
Check back for a full recap of Wednesday’s action and takeaways from around the SoCon later today.
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