Mounce leads Furman past Samford; Wednesday's takeaways from around the SoCon

Clay Mounce leads Furman past Samford

Furman 86,  Samford 71

The Particulars:

Clay Mounce posted a season-high 25 points and Furman claimed its sixth-straight win, with a 86-71 win over Samford in Southern Conference basketball action Wednesday night at the Pete Hanna Center.

With the win, Furman improved to 21-5 overall and 11-2 in the Southern Conference, keeping pace with East Tennessee State atop the Southern Conference standings, who blasted The Citadel, 91-67, to also move to 11-2 in league play. Samford dropped its 11th-straight contest to fall to 8-19 overall and 2-11 in league play.

Mounce finished the night  by going 9-of-12 from the field, which included a 5-for-7 performance from beyond the three-point arc and was 2-for-3 from the charity stripe. Additionally, Mounce, a redshirt junior from Elkin, N.C., added five rebounds, two assists and a steal to his points total to finish off his strong performance. 

As a team, the Paladins shot it at a 51.7% (31-of-60) clip from the field, including shooting 53.8% (14-of-26) from three-point land. The Paladins also finished the contest shooting 80% (8-for-10) from the charity stripe. 

Samford finished the contest by connecting on 42.6% (23-of-54) from the field, while also connecting on 36.4% (4-of-11) from three-point land. The Bulldogs were an impressive 80.8% (21-of-26) from the charity stripe in the contest. 

Furman finished the night holding advantages in points off turnovers (35-7), assists (23-11), fast-break points (12-4) and bench scoring (17-10). Both teams ended the night tied in points in the paint (32-32) and second-chance points (13-13). The Paladins forced 20 Samford turnovers, while committing only 13 turnovers. 

Mounce was joined in double figures by four other Paladins, with Mike Bothwell (15 pts), Jordan Lyons (14 pts), Noah Gurley (12 pts), and Alex Hunter (12 pts). Bothwell scored his 15 points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, including a 2-for-4 effort from beyond the arc. Bothwell was also a perfect 3-for-3 from the line. Tre Clark led the Paladins on the backboards with six caroms, while Hunter dished out a team-high six assists.

Samford got a team-high 21 points from senior guard Brandon Austin. Austin connected on 5-of-10 shots from the field and went 2-for-3 from three-point range and 9-for-9 from the line to equal his 21 points. He was joined in double figures by Jalen Dupree (16 pts), Robert Allen (12 pts), and Josh Sharkey (12 pts). Allen, a sophomore, added 11 rebounds to complete an impressive double-double performance. Sharkey, an all-conference senior guard, led all players with eight assists. 

Turning Point:

Samford started the game strong getting out to a 5-0 lead following a Robert Allen three-pointer, however, Furman responded with a 13-0 run, which was capped by three free throws by Bothwell with 14:04 to play in the opening half, as the Paladins never relinquished the lead the rest of the way and went to the halftime locker room leading by seven, 42-35.

In the second half, the Paladins would continue their strong play, taking a 19-point lead following, at 62-43, following a Clay Mounce three-pointer with 12:25 left. The Paladins would take their largest lead of the game, at 25 points, as another Mounce triple, gave the Paladins an 84-59 lead with just under four minutes left. A 12-2 run over final 3:59 made the score a little more respectable for the Bulldogs.

Up Next:

Furman returns to Timmons Arena to host Chattanooga Saturday afternoon, with tip-off set for approximately 4:30 p.m. inside the friendly confines. Samford returns to the hardwood to face The Citadel in Charleston, with tip-off set for 1 p.m. EST. 

Takeaways from Wednesday night’s Southern Conference action:

• With UNC Greensboro’s 82-62 win over Western Carolina Wednesday night, the Spartans became the third Southern Conference team to reach 20 wins this season, improving to 20-6 overall and 10-3 in league action. UNCG joined Furman (21-5) and East Tennessee State (22-4) to reach 20 wins this season. As of Thursday, Feb. 13, only the Atlantic Coast Conference could make the same claim, with Louisville (21-4), Duke (21-3) and Florida State (20-4) could make the same claim. That means the SoCon is one of two conferences out of 34 NCAA Division I basketball that can make such a claim. ETSU, Furman and UNCG are now a combined 63-15 overall this season and 32-7 in league play. The top three in the ACC are a combined 62-11 overall and a combined 33-7 in the ACC. 

• With its 86-71 win at Samford, Furman now has nine true road wins this season, which ranks second in the nation in true road wins. The Paladins have won 11 of their last 13 SoCon road contests. ETSU will go for its ninth true win on Saturday afternoon at VMI. 

• With The Citadel’s 91-67 loss at East Tennessee State coupled with Samford’s 15-point home loss to Furman, the battle for the Bulldogs at McAlister Field House on Saturday afternoon will offer two obvious outcomes; the Bulldogs will win and it will bring an end to a combined 24-game losing streak between Samford (11-straight losses) and The Citadel (13-straight losses). In fact, Samford’s last win came on Jan. 1, 2020, defeating The Citadel 69-68 at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham.  The Citadel has yet to notch a win in 2020, with its last win coming back on Dec. 19, in a 102-99 triple-overtime road win over Longwood.

• Though it came in a loss, Western Carolina’s big man Carlos Dotson had quite the night against UNCG, posting a career-high 32 points and added 12 rebounds, which accounted for his league-leading 14th double-double of the season. Dotson, who scored over half his team’s points in the loss, finished the night by connecting on 11-of-20 shots from the field and 10-of-15 from the charity stripe. While Dotson connected on a 55% shooting clip Wednesday, the rest of the team shot just 25% (10-of-40). Dotson also corralled one-third of the team’s 36 rebounds in the contest. 

• With its 70-68 loss to Mercer on Wednesday night, Wofford has now dropped consecutive Southern Conference games for the first time since Feb. 1 and Feb. 3 of 2018, when lost at The Citadel (L, 78-80) and at Mercer (L, 65-73). It also marks the first in the history of Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium that the Terriers have lost back-to-back home Southern Conference games. The last time the Terriers dropped back-to-back home games in league play came in the 2008-09 season. The Terriers suffered an 82-77 early conference loss to Appalachian State at the BenJo, which was followed up in mid January with a 65-63 home loss to College of Charleston (Jan. 15).

• Wofford has been a true measure of how much the league has improved this season. The Terriers are 2-1 this season against the top three in the SoCon (ETSU, Furman and UNCG) with the only loss of the three coming in a 49-48 setback at East Tennessee State. However, the Terriers are 0-4 against Western Carolina (L, 72-81), Chattanooga (L2, 59-72; 77-84) and Mercer (L, 68-70) against teams fighting in the middle of the SoCon for those 4-6 seeds in Asheville. 

• Maceij Bender good litmus test of how things go on a given night for Greg Gary’s Mercer Bears. In Wednesday night’s win, he posted 18 points and nine boards in a road win over Wofford. In a win at East Tennessee State a couple of weeks ago, Bender had 14 points and three boards. In back-to-back losses to Furman and East Tennessee State last week, he combined to have 15 points and 15 rebounds. He was held to just five points and seven boards in the loss to ETSU, and in the loss to Furman last week, he scored 10 points and had eight boards. In those two losses, Bender was 6-of-18 from the field. In wins over ETSU and Wofford, Bender went 14-of-20 from the field. The one outlier for Bender and the Bears is the first meeting against Furman, which saw the Bears lose 64-62, however, he went for 19 points and 10 boards on 9-of-16 shooting from the field. Go figure.