NCAA Basketball
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Senior PJay Smith Jr. matched a career-high with 32 points and Furman connected on 23-of-27 trips to the foul line to down Samford, 80-72, Wednesday night at the Pete Hanna Center.
With the victory, Furman (20-8, 8-7 SoCon) secured its 14th 20-win season in school history, seventh in the last nine years, and sixth under head coach Bob Richey. The win, coupled with last month’s 72-70 victory over the Bulldogs in Greenville, S.C., also completed the Paladins’ regular season sweep of Samford (20-8, 10-5 SoCon).
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After trailing 20-13 in the early going, Furman went on a 30-5 first half run to take control of the game and lead 43-25 at intermission. The Paladins opened the second half on an 8-0 spurt to push their lead to 51-30 on Ben VanderWal’s basket with 17:36 to play. Samford turned up the pressure and fashioned a 10-0 run before Cooper Bowser’s tip-in with 12:06 left put Furman ahead 53-41. The Bulldogs trimmed the Paladin lead down to seven and Nick Anderson responded with a three-point to increase the margin to 59-49 with 9:16 to go.
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The basket by Anderson proved to be the last for Furman until the final two minutes of the game as Samford chipped away at the lead and knotted the game at 64-64 on Rylan Jones’ layup with 3:44 remaining. Bowser drained a pair of free throws to restore Furman’s lead. After three consecutive turnovers, two by Samford, Smith converted on a pair of free throws to push the margin to 68-64 with 2:30 to go. Once again, Furman forced a stop on the defensive end with a one-three-one zone. Following a defensive rebound and Paladin timeout, Smith hit a step-back jumper in the lane to complete a 6-0 run and hand Furman a 70-64 advantage with 1:07 to go.
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The teams traded a pair of free throws before Samford’s Jaden Brownell scored off an offensive rebound and Trey Fort converted following a Paladin turnover to cut the Furman lead to 74-72 with 29 seconds on the clock. Furman, however, held Samford off the board in the final 30 seconds while Eddrin Bronson, Anderson, and Smith each buried a pair of free throws to seal the Paladins’ eighth true road win of the campaign. Smith 6-of-9 beyond the arc and 12-of-13 at the foul line to post his top scoring night in a Furman jersey while Bowser netted 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and a 4-for-6 effort at the foul line. Anderson rounded out the Paladins’ double-figure scorers with 13 points. Furman shot 43.2% and hit 11-of-26 three-point attempts and posted a season-best 85.2% (23-27) performance at the charity stripe. The Paladins also finished with a 37-35 rebounding edge.
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Samford scored 26 second chance points off 14 offensive rebounds and held a 30-20 advantage in points in the paint, but the Bulldogs were held to 38.8% shooting on the night. Brownell totaled 25 points while Fort and Josh Holloway scored 14 apiece.
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Furman returns home to host VMI for Senior Day at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday at noon. Tickets are available for purchase at FurmanPaladins.com.
