Tulane 117, Furman 110 (2OT)
Tulane out-scored Furman, 18-11, in the second overtime, and Kevin Cross notched a triple-double, with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, as the Green Wave were able to outlast a valiant effort by the Paladins, who overcame a 12-point halftime to take a late lead before the hometown team forced overtime from the charity stripe and eventually downed its SoCon visitor, 117-110, in double overtime at Devlin Fieldhouse.
The win sees the Green Wave improve to 7-2 overall, while the Paladins fall below .500, at 5-6.
Jaylen Forbes led the Green Wave with 26 points, while Sion James chipped in with 21 to account for the three Green Wave players with 20 or more points in the contest. Rounding out the Tulane players in double figures in the win were Collin Holloway (18 pts), Tre Williams (14 pts) and Kolby King (13 pts), as the Green Wave saw all five of its starters finish in double figures in the win. Holloway had 10 rebounds to go along with his 18 points to notch a double-double.
Forbes, who led the way for Tulane, did most of his damage from long range, as seven of his eight made field goals came from long range, as he went 7-for-14 from beyond the arc in the contest. He finished the night by going 8-of-19 from the field and 3-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Cross did a majority of his scoring damage from the charity stripe, going 12-for-16 from the line. Additionally, he went 6-for-9 from the field and was 1-for-1 from long-range.
The Paladins got a game and career-high 29 points from JP Pegues, while Alex Williams and PJ Smith Jr. added 23 points apiece in the road loss. Garrett Hien rounded out the Paladin players in double figures with 10 points before fouling out with 10 points. Davis Molnar just missed scoring in double figures, as he finished with nine points.
In addition to Pegues’ 29 points, he also grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists. He finished the night 8-for-20 from the field, including going 7-for-15 from long range and was 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. His seven triples in the loss also represented a career-high for the junior guard.
Williams finished his night connecting on 6-of-12 shots from the field and went 4-for-10 from deep and went 7-for-7 from the charity stripe.
The Green Wave were powered by a scorching shooting touch for most of the night, as the Green Wave finished the contest by shooting a season-best 54.5% from long range (12-of-23), while also finishing the game by connecting on a blistering 55.9% () from the field. It was the seventh time in nine games that the Green Wave have finished a game shooting 50% or better from the field, while it also marked the fourth time the Paladins have yielded 50% or better shooting from the field, including the second time in three games. The Paladins are 0-4 in those games.
The Paladins, meanwhile, finished the contest by shooting a solid 48.1% (37-of-77) from the field and connected on a season-high 18 three-pointers (18-of-42) to finish the contest shooting a blistering 42.9% from long-range.
The Paladins, however, couldn’t overcome a season-high 22 turnovers, which led directly to 22 Green Wave points. The Paladins have 164 turnovers through their first 11 games this season, which is almost halfway to the 397 miscues the Paladins committed in a total of 36 games last season.
For the game, Tulane held overall advantages in points in the paint (46-34), points from turnovers (22-13), and total assists (22-19).
Furman finished the game with advantages in total rebounds (47-36), fast-break points (19-16), second-chance points (12-8) and bench scoring (20-13).
The Green Wave finished the night by attempting 19 more free throws than the Paladins, connecting on 29-of-44 from the charity stripe for a 65.9% shooting clip from the line. It allowed the Green Wave to out-score Furman, 29-18, from the free throw line over the duration of 50 minutes of basketball.
Meanwhile, the Paladins went 18-of-25 from the charity stripe, finishing with a 72.0% shooting clip from the line.
How It happened:
Defending Southern Conference champion Furman broke through to make the NCAA Tournament to win its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 43 years and win its first NCAA Tournament game in 49 years, while adding its first NBA Draft pick for the first time in 34 years, and now it seems as if the basketball gods are asking for a return on that success this season–at least through non-conference play.
So far the Paladins have played with a completely healthy roster to start a game in just one of their first 11 games this season, while having lost their leading scorer to a knee injury until sometime in mid-January.
If Marcus Foster’s injury wasn’t enough, you could look no further than a 70-69 loss to Princeton for the basketball gods looking for their payment, as that game saw the Paladins yield a 16-4 run down the stretch to the Tigers, while turning it over on six of its final seven possessions to drop a heartbreaking 70-69 contest in a matchup between two Cinderella teams from the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Then came last night. A game that Furman looked as if it was going to get blown out of Devlin Fieldhouse early in the second half. The Paladins trailed 60-44 with just under 13 minutes remaining, and the Paladins kept themselves in the game by seemingly responding each time the Green Wave seemingly wanted to push the lead further into double-digits, yet the Paladins were able to keep the margin between 10-14 points and never led it grow larger after that initial storm surge from the Green Wave in the second half.
Furman still trailed by 13 points (76-63) with just under eight minutes remaining, however, the Paladins did some of the best work of the season from beyond the arc from that point forward, knocking down five of their 18 total triples down the stretch to force overtime, with the final one by Pegues a bit controversial, as it appeared to have given the Paladins a walk-off 92-89 win before eight-tenths were somehow added back to the clock after a long review and no official explanation to the fans in attendance or ESPN+ broadcasters as to how that allotment of time was deemed to have been left following Pegues long three-point effort, which left his hands with a little over two seconds left.
Even at that, the ball was inbounded, caught, a foul committed and a double-clutch three for the tie from about 35 feet in just .5 seconds, as Cross went to the line for three free throws with still three-tenths of a second left. It was an exceptional pass by the Green Wave, and the execution was nearly flawless except missing the shot, however, the timing of it controversially only took half-a-second.
That being said, Cross didn’t miss, and the Paladins couldn’t even get a touch on the ball before the .3 had expired, sending the game to the first of two overtimes, tied 92-92.
Even with all that contrvoversy taking place at the end, however, Furman should have learned from its past in such situations, looking no further than a 95-89 loss to Belmont in the 2021-22 season, which saw Furman leading by three and a foul was whistled on Mike Bothwell with a full seven seconds remaining and the Paladins up 78-75 on the Bruins. Luke Smith went to the line on that occasion, connecting on all three foul shots to eventually force overtime.
In the first overtime session, the Paladins and Green Wave continued trading blows, and after Cross evened the score with 1:21 remaining, the Paladins missed a pair of threes by Carter Whitt and from JP Pegues, and the game would go to a second five minutes of extra basketball, tied 99-99.
In the second session of free basketball, Furman had answer to Tulane’s haymakers on three-straight possessions, with Pegues and Forbes seemingly trading three-point answers, but Forbes’ final triple would give the Green Wave the lead for good, at 110-108, with 2:24 left. The Green Wave didn’t stop there, finishing the game on a 10-2 spurt to claim the win.
Furman struggled in the opening half of play, turning the basketball over 12 times, which led to a 10-1 advantage in points off turnovers, and that would help lead to a 47-35 halftime lead for Tulane.
It was Furman’s first double-overtime game since Dec. of 2018, when the Paladins were able to knock off Western Carolina (90-88) as part of a school-record 12-0 start since the 1952-53 season.
The Paladins will hope the basketball gods will be more kind when they take the floor Tuesday night in their penultimate non-conference game against Presbyterian. Tip-off for that contest is set for 7 p.m. at Timmons Arena.
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