Alex Wilkins (27 pts) and Tom House (25 pts) score 52 of Furman's 89 points in huge SoCon Road Win
GREENSBORO, N.C.--When a fire alarm inadvertently went off early in the second half at Boford Arena, someone might should have heat-checked Furman's Tom House, as his 7-of-10 performance from three-point range highlighted a day when Furman's three-point shooting and offense looked as crisp as it has all season. The fire alarm wasn't cause for evacuation, but it was both harbinger of a continued theme for Furman's shooting for the remainder of the contest, as well as being a bad omen for UNCG.
"When you look at the game in totality...it's the most efficient game we've played all year. The five turnovers when you look at the 23 assists and when you look at what we shot from three and what we shot from two and what we shot from the free throw line...it was really our best offense of the year against a team that is usually a very good defensive team," head coach Bob Richey said after his team's 23-point road win over UNCG.
Playing with just seven scholarship players and without the services of Eddrin Bronson and Baba Franklin due illness, Furman once again found a way in a big way. It was a game that a player like Tom House had to step up in and produce, and he didn't disappoint. As far as describing what worked well, it would almost be better to just put down what didn't, as almost every aspect of the Furman's offensive showcase was like a well-oiled machine. That's something remarkable when a team has just seven players within its rotation as Furman did on Friday.
The game against UNCG represented the two winningest programs in the SoCon over the past 11 seasons, which includes both total overall wins (Furman-237/UNCG-226) and Southern Conference wins (UNCG-132/Furman-129) since the start of the 2015-16 campaign. The game was moved up by a day due to a severe ice storm slated to hit the area late Saturday evening.
UNCG had won each of the past four and six of the last eight meetings between the two programs. However, Furman recorded its first win over UNCG since posting a 69-57 win at the Greensboro Coliseum back on Jan. 30 of 2023.
"It was a combination of things really...We knew we only had seven players and we also were pretty clearly watching how people are playing Alex [Wilkins] right now on ball screens and handoffs and really loading up to him and so we thought we needed to start getting more hits off the ball and we've doing a little bit more screening off the ball and you know we pulled out some of our old classics from last year when we ran Nick [Anderson] and PJay [Smith Jr.] off all those screens and some of the same play packages and it was really a more cognisant effort to try to get to."
"Some of our older teams that have been more mature and we can just let them go play organic basketball and they can make reads and they know all the decisions and this team's just not there yet and so what we're having is these empty possession lulls to where we aren't getting good cutting and good ball movement and we're settling for ball screens and being too stagnant and so the whole issue tonight and the gameplan offensively was to try and eliminate empty possessions and we just really wanted to be in something and so we were gonna get them some head starts and leverage some stuff so we could kind of get it going downhill for them," Richey added.
Thirteen days ago, House was knocked out cold in a collision with VMI's Kaden Stuckey chasing down a loose ball near midcourt, and that forced House into concussion protocol, as he would miss Furman's next two games against Samford and Wofford before returning this past Wednesday against The Citadel.
House and true freshman teammate Alex Wilkins connected on 11-of-17 threes
and scored 52 of the team’s 89 points, as the Paladins delivered their most
efficient offensive performance of the season in an 89-66 Southern Conference
win over UNC Greensboro Friday afternoon at Bodford Arena. Wilkins and House
represented two of the four Paladins in double figures in the win.
The win sees Furman improve to 14-7 overall and 5-3 in conference play. The Spartans fell to 8-13 overall and 4-4 in league play. The Paladins also improved to 5-2 in true road games this season, while notching their 79th true road over the past 11 seasons, which ranks as fifth-most in NCAA Division I. The 23-point win over UNCG also snapped a four-game skid against the Spartans by the Paladins.
Wilkins scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the second
half, while House posted 17 of his 25 in the opening half of play, connecting
on five of the team’s seven three-pointers in the opening frame.
Wilkins, a freshman from Mattapan, MA., connected on 9-of-18
shots from the field, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. He was also
5-for-6 from the free throw line and dished out six assists, recorded two
steals and had no turnovers. Wilkins’ 27-point effort was the ninth performance
of 20 or more points this season.
House finished 8-for-12 from the field, including a 7-of-10
effort from three-point range and was 2-for-2 from the charity stripe. The 25-point
effort by House was his second-best career performance, which is bested only by
his 26-point effort in a 96-72 win over Mercer last season. That contest
included a 6-of-9 effort from three-point range.
Cole Bowser turned in his best all-around performance as a
Paladin player, adding career-highs for points (13) and rebounds (13) to finish
the game with his first double-double. Ben Vander Wal finished of another strong
performance, with 10 points and a career-high eight assists in 34 minutes of
action.
UNCG would get another impressive performance out of Justin Neely, who narrowly missed another double-double, as he posted 20 points and nine rebounds, connecting on 6-of-8 from the field and was 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Neely also finished the evening with a pair of assists.
Neely was supplemented in double figures in the contest by freshman wing KJ Younger, who finished the night with 17 points, five rebounds and two steals. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Spartans was Valentino Pinedo, who chipped in with 10.
The Paladins ended the night connecting on a season-high 14
three-pointers and did so at a 51.2% (14-of-27) and used a 30-11 run over the
final 7:55 of the game to close out the win. It was a complete reversal of a trend
that had seen the Paladins blow double-digit in each of the previous outings
and get outscored 59-23 combined in the final 10 minutes of each of those
losses to The Citadel and Wofford.
In Friday afternoon’s win at Bodford Arena over UNCG, the Paladins
posted 54 second-half points, which included shooting a blistering 66.7% (18-of-27)
from the floor and 7-of-12 from three-point land in the second half.
Add to that the Paladins were 11-of-12 (91.7%) from the
charity stripe in the second half, and you have a performance that equaled the
most efficient offensive performance of the season.
UNCG finished the afternoon shooting 43.4% (23-of-53) from the field, which included a 26.9% (7-for-26) effort from three-point range. The Spartans ended the day connecting on 72.2% (13-of-18) from the charity stripe.
Furman finished the contest owning advantages in the following categories: points in the paint (32-30), points from turnovers (11-7), total rebounds (30-27) and total assists (23-12). The Spartans owned an advantage in second-chance points (8-7). The two teams finished deadlocked in fast-break points (2-2) and bench scoring (5-5).
How It Happened:
Early in the game, it was both Alex Wilkins and Tom House
that helped the Paladins keep their proverbial heads above water against a UNCG
team they had lost four-straight against and six of the last eight.
By the end of the first half, it was clear the theme had been established and the battle lines had been drawn, as the duo had scored 25 of Furman's 35 first-half points, with House leading the way with 17 points, which included making five of Furman's seven threes in the opening half of play. Wilkins was on the verge of double figures by the time the opening 20 minute had expired, posting eight points in the opening 20 minutes of basketball.
After Furman scored the first five points on a House three and a Wilkins layup, the Spartans stormed back with seven-straight points, taking a brief 7-5 lead following a KJ Younger layup. Wilkins matched Younger's layup with another layup on the other end, as the Paladins would retake the lead, 9-7, heading to the first media timeout of the afternoon.
Another House jumper and three-pointer put the Paladins up a touchdown, at 14-7, before the Spartans hit a 9-2 spurt, which started with a Valentino Pinedo tip-in and ended with a Justin Neely layup, cutting Furman's lead to 16-14, with 11:56 remaining in the half.
Whenever the Spartans seemed to have momentum and looked ready to overtake Furman on the scoreboard, the Paladins always seemingly had an answer and that would be the case on the next trip down the floor, as Wilkins connected on a corner three to put the Paladins back on top by five, at 19-14.
Wilkins then found Ben Vander Wal on an alley-oop dunk connection to keep the Paladin lead at give, at 21-16, with 8:41 remaining, and it would signal one of the longest offensive droughts of the afternoon for the visitors, as the Paladins would go almost three minutes without scoring.
UNCG would take full advantage of that mini drought by the Paladins, scoring six-straight, with Noah Norgaard accounting for four of those points on a pair of free throws and a jumper to give the Spartans a brief 22-21 lead with 6:33 remaining in the half.
Owen Ritger answered with a layup followed by consecutive threes from House, which were sandwiched by consecutive defensive stops by the Paladins, as Furman pulled back ahead by seven, at 29-22 with 4:58 remaining in the half.
A Pinedo layup would finally get the Spartans back to within one possession with 1:33 left in the half, but House's fifth three of the first half quickly smoked any momentum the Spartans might have garnered, giving the Paladins the 35-29 lead with 67 seconds remaining in the half. A Pinedo free throw with 67 seconds left the margin at five at the half, as the Paladins led 35-30 at the break.
In the second half, Neely's helped the Spartans retake the lead, 45-44, following a layup in the paint with 14:03 remaining. It would turn out to be the final lead of the game for the Spartans, however, the Paladins had trouble pulling away for the opening 10 minutes of the half.
Over the next four-and-a-half minutes, the Spartans would cut Furman's lead to a single point on three occasions, however, the Paladins always had an answer. With the score 53-52 Furman following a three-pointer by Younger with 9:32 left. However, Furman answered with threes from Wilkins and Charles Johnston to help the Paladins build a healthy, seven-point lead, at 59-52, with 8:19 remaining.
Younger connected on a corner three and was fouled by Collin O'Neal in the process, giving the freshman guard the potential to complete a four-point play. However, Younger missed the free throw, leaving the Paladins ahead by four, at 59-55, with 7:57 remaining.
From this point forward, it was all Furman, as the Paladins finished the game connecting on nine of their final 11 shots from the field and went 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, as the Paladins would outscore the Spartans 30-11 over the final 7:57 of the game, highlighted by some highlight-reel plays, including a dunk off an alley-oop from Cole Bowser, and then Bowser also had a dunk in transition off a feed from Wilkins and an important corner three as a part of Furman's late-game flurry, helping the Paladins snap a two-game losing skid and avoid just its third three-game losing skid in SoCon play over the past 11 seasons.
UNCG returns to action next Wednesday when the Spartans travel to Mercer (13-7, 5-2 SoCon) for a 7 p.m. EST contest at Hawkins Arena. The Spartans dropped a 102-92 contest to the Bears at the Greensboro Coliseum just last week. Furman will host Samford on Thursday night in a 5 p.m. EST contest at Timmons Arena. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
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