Final: Furman 64 - 69 Mercer
Another close game! Furman has lost six game in the conference, and none of them by more than five points. Last night, the battle with Mercer was nip and tuck, with neither team able to really stretch out to any sort of lead. In the second half, Furman got to the 51 point mark but was unable to stretch the lead despite four straight stops on defense. The cold offensive stretch lasted four and a half minutes, but when the Paladins finally scored, Mercer had taken a four point lead. Furman retook the lead at 56-55, but Mercer came out motivated after a quick timeout and regained a four point advantage, which eventually stretched to six. Down three, Asa Thomas had a three go 75% of the way in the basket before rolling out to be tipped in by Charles Johnston. Mercer made their free throws down the stretch and held off the Paladins for another close loss.
Takeaways
Furman had a poor shooting performance, going 38% from the field and 30% from beyond the arc.
Furman’s defense kept them in the game even during their offensive drought, and held Mercer to 36% (25% from three). The difference came from the free throw line, where Mercer’s Baraka Okojie shot more free throws than Furman did as a team. Okojie gets nearly half of his points from the free throw line during this season
Cole Bowser had a solid game off the bench. Despite a few turnovers in Mercer’s occasional press, He was 3-4 including 2 threes and had six rebounds among Mercer’s size inside.
This is the first game all season where Ben Vander Wal has failed to score. He played 15 minutes, getting two only shots up during that time including a three. Typically one that gets to the line, Ben did not shoot any free throws last night. Ben has been good for one or two backdoor layups or dunks during the season and Furman was hurting for those easier shots when nothing else was going in.
Alex Wilkins struggled, but it wasn’t the turnovers that got to him this time. Mercer was ultra-physical with him and only got called for one hold off the ball (which happens nearly every play). He went 1-7 from the field and got 5 of his points from there free throw line. Alex will continue to see physical pressure, which calls for another on-ball creator to step up.
I like seeing Asa Thomas get up a lot of shots (16 last night), but many of them were tough moving threes or floaters at odd angles. It’s hard for him to score with most of his shots coming from dribble handoffs around the paint.
The good news is that it’s the beginning of February, not the end. Furman has 5 more conference games to figure things out and make a run for Asheville. Avoiding Friday is essential, but anyone can make a run to the Championship and play one game to go to March Madness. Furman and Wofford were the 5 and 6 seed last season. ETSU (‘24) and Chattanooga (‘23) were both 7 seed who made it to the final. Anything goes when it comes to Asheville.
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