Sunday, February 11, 2024

Paladins use late rally to down East Tennessee State



Paladins dedicate win at ETSU to late football player Bryce Stanfield

It’s been a tough few days for Furman University for reasons you most likely know by now, having to overcome the death of a student-athlete. At a school as small as Furman, a death by someone so young seems to hit home all the more harder.

On Friday afternoon, defensive tackle Bryce Stanfield from the Furman football team passed away from a medical emergency he suffered at practice a couple of days earlier. He was just 21 years old. Furman's 65-53 road win over East Tennessee State was dedicated to No. 97 a little over 24 hours after the young man passed away at Memorial hospital in downtown Greenville.

Furman is a tight-knit community, with relationships that run deep between student-athletes, classmates, coaches, fans and even the media that cover the teams on a weekly basis, making it a unique place like so many are at the mid-major level.

Earlier this season, Furman head coach Bob Richey commented on how special it was for him to watch the Paladin football team's fight and how the team played for one another in what was an eventual 35-28 loss in the FCS Quarterfinal overtime loss to Montana. 

Richey  went on to comment on the similarities between the football team's run in the FCS Playoffs and Furman's NCAA Tournament experience and its win over Virginia last season. 

Two months later, that love and support for one another became a necessity for the entire athletics department as Furman sports teams took to trying to resume life as usual under the heaviness and heartbreak of a very unusual situation--a tragedy.

Furman's men's basketball team was just one of those many Paladin teams that played for something a little more than the result in a margin over the past few days. The road game wasn't easy to begin with. ETSU was hot and riding a three-game winning streak.

Most probably underestimate the impact of just one death of a student-athlete can have on one sports program at a large school, much less than the entire department. Take that same impact it has at say a big school like Clemson or South Carolina and magnify by much more at a school, like Furman

The Bucs were classy hosts, holding a moment of silence for Stanfield prior to the national anthem. Though the fans can be a hostile bunch to visiting foes, which is what makes ETSU's environment one of the best in mid-major basketball, there are simply things in life we all come together in agreement on, which is life is precious and the games we play are trivial by comparison to the competitions we attend.

Furman's 65-63 win over a trending ETSU team felt like more than just one win. It felt like a relief and something positive within a negative, dark week. Those two elements were emotions rolled into one for the Furman family all rolled into one. While the win won’t change the overall sadness felt by the Furman community during this difficult time, it was nice to see the school finally have something good to celebrate…A small victory…That’s how the healing process begins.

For Furman, it did nothing great in the game in particular over the course of 40 minutes of basketball. Some of that it executed well, however, when it came to crunch time, the Paladins were nearly flawless, as the Paladins went 12-of-13 from the field down the stretch to come up big when it counted the most in a gutsy two-point road win.

The victory sees the Paladins improve to 13-12 overall and 7-5 in Southern Conference play, while the loss sees the Bucs fall to 13-12 overall and 5-7 in league action, snapping what had been a three-game winning streak for the Bucs. The win snaps a two-game losing skid for the Paladins.

The Paladins now have 194 total wins, which includes 110 Southern Conference wins since the start of the 2015-16 season, and with UNC Greensboro's 89-61 home loss to Chattanooga, the Paladins now rank tops in the league in both categories during that span.

Furman has now won four-straight games in the series vs. ETSU and takes a 35-34 lead in the series following another memorable game in the series.

It's Furman's longest winning streak in the series with ETSU since winning five-straight against the Bucs in a span that stretched from the 1995-96 season until the 1999-2000 season. 

Along with its 70-56 win against the Bucs in Freedom Hall last season, Furman has now won in the facility for the first time ever in back-to-back seasons and it also marked the Paladins' third win at Freedom Hall since the Bucs re-joined the SoCon in the 2014-15 season. The Paladins also improved to 14-19 games played in Johnson City.

JP Pegues was key down the stretch for the Paladins, scoring seven of the final nine points of the game to close with a game-high 15 points, and came alive down the stretch, scoring nine points in the final 7:49 of the game to help spark the Paladins offensively.

Pegues finished the night connecting on 5-of-11 shots from the field, which included a 1-for-4 effort from three-point range, and hit 4-of-6 free throws down the stretch to help the Paladins secure the win. In addition to his team-leading scoring performance, Pegues also added five rebounds, four assists and two steals to round out an all-around solid performance befitting of the player he is, which is one of the top players in the Southern Conference.

If it was Pegues that helped take over the game on the offensive end of the floor late in the contest, then it was Cooper Bowser, who was inserted into the lineup with 7:49 remaining and that would give the Paladins the rim protection it needed to comeback late and steal the road win.

With Furman trailing by eight points (57-49) with 5:50 remaining, it was Bowser that made the biggest play on the defensive end of the night when he blocked Ebby Asamoah's layup to give the Paladins momentum, and that was something the Paladins wouldn't relinquish the remainder of the evening. That set the stage for Pegues to get going on the other end.

Offensively, Bowser also played a role, as he took a lob from Pegues and slammed it home to tie the game, 61-61, with 2:12 remaining. For the game, Bowser posted four points, one rebound and one block in 9:22 of game action, and his presence absolutely made an impact on the result.

Prior to him coming into the game, ETSU had Furman's big men virtually gassed at that point in the game, and the Bucs were getting whatever they wanted around the basket, whether it was scoring from close range, or on the offensive glass.

On what was a challenging night for Furman to get its "big three" (JP Pegues, Marcus Foster, and Alex Williams) points, the only other Paladin to finish the night in double figures was Foster, who finished with 11 points to record his 15th double-figure scoring performance in 16 outings for the Paladins this season.

He was heavily guarded for much of the game, and had to work as he has had to all season to get shots up in the win. Foster finished the night 4-of-10 from the field and connected on 1-of-4 from three-point range. He also connected on both of his foul shots. Foster connected on a three with 4:17 remaining--his only one of the night--to get the Paladins within five (59-54) late. All told, Pegues and Foster scored 12 of Furman's final 16 points in the game, with dynamic scoring duo having combined for just 15 points (Pegues 8, Foster 7).

Also helping key the Furman road win over the Bucs was a solid supporting cast, which saw Tyrese Hughey and Ben VanderWal add eight points, while Carter Whitt and Garrett Hien both chipped in with six. 

ETSU placed five in double figures, with Quimari Peterson leading the way with 14 points after posting 16 for the Bucs in the first meeting with the Paladins earlier this season. Jadyn Parker just missed posting another double-double performance, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds, while also being a menace in the paint by swatting away five Paladin shots.

Jaden Seymour, who scored 23 points in the first meeting with the Paladins this season, added 12 points, six rebounds, two steals and an assist to notch his 21st double-figure scoring performance of the season.

Delaware transfer guard Ebby Asamoah and Allen Strothers ended up rounding out the double figure scorers for the Bucs, finishing with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Though points were hard to come by for both teams, Furman shot the ball at a much higher clip than its hosts, operating as efficiently offensively as it has in a couple of weeks, despite being defended as hard as it has been in league play all season.

The Paladins shot the ball 50% (24-of-48) from the field in the game, including a 59.3% (19-of-32) clip from inside the arc. The Bucs did defend the three-point line tenaciously, as Furman connected on just 21.1% from beyond the arc in the contest, as the Paladins made just five of 16 shots from long range. The Paladins shot the ball at a 59.3% (13-of-22) from the field in the second half, which is one of its top shooting performances of the season.

ETSU finished the contest connecting on 39.7% (23-of-58) from the field and made just 4-of-19 shots (21.1%) from beyond the arc in the game. ETSU hit all four of its threes in the second half to run its streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer made to 1,149 games,

That streak was seemingly in jeopardy for at least a half, as the Bucs went 0-for-7 in the opening half of play. ETSU's streak of consecutive games with at least one three-pointer made in a game ranks as the third-longest streak in all of NCAA Division I men's college basketball, with only UNLV and Duke sporting longer streaks.

In terms of the categorical advantages, the Bucs held the edge in several, including total rebounds (34-33), second-chance points (14-4), points from turnovers (19-2), fast- break points (12-2), free throw attempts (22-19), points from the free throw line (13-12), and points in the paint (32-28). The Paladins had advantages in bench scoring (21-13), and total assists (13-6).

Though it struggled shooting the ball, the Bucs generated a great deal of their offensive output from Furman offensive miscues from live-ball turnovers, and Furman's 13 turnovers led directly to 19 ETSU points. By contrast, the Bucs took extreme care of the basketball, turning the ball over just eight times the entire night, with four of those coming before the first media timeout of the game.

How It Happened:

The pace started fast, and that was more to Furman's liking, however, both teams had trouble scoring on both ends in the opening minutes of play, with some of that being attributed to really good defense played on both ends of the floor, while some of it also being attributed to some very sloppy play on both ends of the floor.

Furman would take a 4-0 lead into the media timeout of the contest, as got a pair of buckets in Garrett Hien's first start for the Paladins since Jan. 6 at Chattanooga.

ETSU's first points of the game came on a three-point play the old fashioned way from Jaden Seymour with 15:26 left in the first half to get the Bucs within a point, at 4-3. The Paladins then reeled off six-straight to grab what would be its biggest lead of the night JP Pegues starting the run with a jumper in the paint, and that was followed by buckets by Ben VanderWal and Garrett Hien, as the Paladins were able to grab a sizable 10-3 lead with 13:23 remaining in the opening half.

It wouldn't last, however, as the Bucs reeled off 11-straight points to grab a 14-10 lead following a Jadyn Partker layup with 9:22 remaining in the half. The Paladins would eventually grab the lead back for the remainder of the half, at 19-17, following a Marcus Foster jumper. The lead would grow to as much as five late in the opening frame following a Pegues jumper, which gave the Paladins a 28-23 lead with two minutes left in the opening 20 minutes.

From there, the Bucs would cut Furman's lead to one on a pair of layups from Quimari Peterson, with the first of those coming on a second-chance opportunity. A VanderWal lead put the Paladin lead back at three (30-27) before Allen Strothers' jumper with two seconds remaining in the half cut Furman's l.ead to one, at 30-29, and that's what the score would remain as the two teams entered the halftime locker room.

In the second half, the Bucs seemingly looked as if they would take control of the game for good, using an 11-3 run out of the locker room to take a 40-33 lead following a Quimari Peterson with 13:28 left. The Bucs would continue to build on that over the next six minutes, using a Peterson one-handed runner in the lane to take their largest lead of the night of 11 points (56-45), bringing the crowd of nearly 5,000 to its highest decibel level of the night.

Following a Carter Whitt layup in the paint, which brought the Paladins to within three with just under 12 minutes left, the Bucs started to heat up to build that 11-point lead by making seven-straight shots, with one of its best offensive stretches in recent outings, and it started from Allen Strothers, who put together one of his best performances of the season for ETSU. The jumper by Strothers in the paint would ignite what was a 16-8 run to build the 56-45 advantage.

However, that's where Furman would find its offensive rhythm and rim protection it needed over the final 7:49 of the game to make the comeback. Cooper Bowser made a big impact during that span, which would see his block of a Parker layup attempt with 5:50 left ignite a Paladin comeback, as Furman used a 20-7 run over the final portion of the game, which included connecting on 12 of its final 13 shots to shock the Bucs.

Furman would embark on its comeback trail with back-to-back jumpers from Pegues and PJay Smith Jr., which started with the Nashville product's bucket with just over six minutes remaining. After the Bucs pushed the margin back to eight point on a Seymour layup, Furman's Foster came up with five-straight points, including a pivotal three with 4:17 remaining and after Karon Boyd missed a three, Foster converted a layup at the 3:40 mark to get Furman to within three, at 59-56.

Ebby Asamoah knocked down an elbow jumper to get ETSU's lead back to five with 3:08 left, however, by now Furman had gained all the confidence it needed to get all the way back into the contest. For the second time in three possessions, Furman connected on one of its five threes for the game, as Mr. Clutch Pegues dialed long distance with 2:55 left. The pass came from Bowser.

After Seymour missed a three for the Bucs, Pegues returned the favor to Bowser from the previous possession, tossing a high lob for the freshman center and he threw it down to emphatically tie the game, 61-61, with 2:12 left.

ETSU capitalized on an errant inbounds pass from Tyrese Hughey, as Jaden Seymour collected the loose ball and went in for the dunk on the other end to give the Bucs a 63-61 lead with 1:03 remaining.

On the next possession, Pegues drew a foul with 43.6 seconds left shooting a three from the top of the key and he converted the latter two of the three foul shots to tie the game, 63-63. After Seymour's right baseline shot was no good, the Paladins got the ball to Pegues once again, as he tried for his fourth game-winner of the season, and while he wouldn't make the short jumper from the right side, he would do enough to draw the two-shot foul with 1.8 seconds left. He connected on both shots to give the Paladins a 65-63 lead.

The Bucs threw the ensuing inbounds pass out of bounds without anyone touching the ball, and when Furman tossed the inbounds pass, Pegues was immediately fouled. He missed the front end of the 1-and-1, however, the Bucs called a timeout with 1.1 seconds left. Following its second inbounds pass attempt, Bowser intercepted the pass and the game was over, and the Paladins went home with their fourth true road win of the season.

Both teams return to action on Wednesday night, with Furman hosting VMI (4-21, 1-11 SoCon) at Timmons Arena for a 7 p.m. EST tip-off, while ETSU goes on the road to face bitter rival Chattanooga (17-8, 9-3 SoCon), looking to avenge an 81-74 loss at Freedom Hall earlier this season, while posting its second win in the Scenic City. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. EST at McKenzie Arena.

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