Furman got a career-high 29 points from senior forward Clay Mounce, holding on for a 94-88 Southern Conference victory, handing The Citadel its first loss of the season Wednesday afternoon at the McAlister Field House.
The win, which marked the fifth-straight win for the Paladins over the Bulldogs and ninth in the past 10 meetings, saw Furman improve to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in Southern Conference play, while The Citadel fell to 8-1 overall and 1-1 in league action.
Mounce’s 29-point performance comes just a game after setting his previous career-high of 27 points against Mercer the last time out. In Wednesday afternoon’s win over the Bulldogs, Mounce connected on 10-of-12 shots from the field, including going 10-of-12 from the field, including knocking down 4-of-5 shots from long range. Additionally, the native of Elkin, N.C., also contributed two assists, four rebounds and a steal in the win.
The Bulldogs, who came into the season with a streak of 20-straight Southern Conference losses, had not only snapped that streak against Chattanooga with a 92-87 home win this past Saturday, but one of only eight teams in the nation to get the season off to an unbeaten start to this point, pushed the Paladins from tip-to-buzzer in a game fitting of the league’s oldest hoops rivalry.
The Paladins used a pair of runs of 11-2 and 12-2 in the opening half of play to open up a seven-point, 48-41, lead at the half. Noah Gurley and Mounce were important to the Paladins taking a bit of a cushion to the break.
Gurley provided some emotion plays in a first-half, which was highlighted by good play from both teams offensively, as two of his three alley-oop dunks were apart of those two important runs in the opening half. He finished with eight of his 18 points in the opening half of play.
Despite picking up two first-half fouls and playing 10 minutes, Mounce posted 14 of his career-high 19 in the opening frame. Furman senior point guard Alex Hunter scored all 10 of his points in the opening half of play.
Those totals helped off-set the rare half by leading scorer Mike Bothwell, who faced a tenacious Bulldog defense, and was held to just two points in the opening half of play after entering the contest ranking fifth in the SoCon in scoring coming into the contest, averaging 17.7 PPG .
While Mounce, Gurley and Hunter helped pick up the slack with Bothwell held to just two points, in the second half, Bothwell responded by reaching his average, equaling Mounce’s 15 second-half points. The two combined to go 12-of-18 from the field in the second half, including going 3-for-4 from three-point range, as the Paladins were able to hold off the tenacious Bulldogs. All told, the two veterans combined for 30 of Furman’s 46 second-half points.
It appeared Furman would pull away in the second half, as the Paladins led on multiple occassions by double digits, posting as much as a 17-point lead with 8:38 to play, and it was five-straight points from Bothwell, which gave the Paladins their largest cushion of the contest.
But The Citadel wouldn’t go away, and would scrap the entire second half each time the Paladins would make a charge at making a double-digit margin victory. The Bulldogs would make things interesting when they trimmed the Furman lead to just five points, 81-76, with just under five minutes.
With Furman clinging to an 85-80 lead with 3:21 to go, but Clay Mounce showed up when the Paladins needed him the most, as he scored three points over the next two possessions, while Bothwell added a steal and a driving layup to extend the Furman lead back to double digits, at 90-80, with 2:08 left.
The best shooting team in the conference lived up to that billing once again, as the Paladins knocked down 51.4% of their shots from the field and posted an impressive 21 assists on 37 made field goals. Furman out-scored the Bulldogs 58-32 in the paint, posting 30 points off 20 Bulldog turnovers.
The Citadel was led by guard Kaiden Rice, who posted 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting from long-range, while Hayden Brown continued his strong play in the paint for the Bulldogs, posting 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Bulldogs finished the afternoon shooting 46.3% from the field and made 12-of-34 three-point field goal attempts in their first setback of the season.
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