Final: Furman 69 - 78 ETSU
Furman battled hard throughout the first half, but poor three point shooting sunk the offense while ETSU shot a blistering 12-24 from the same distance. Furman won many aspects of the game last night, out rebounding the Bucs by 1, winning the turnover battle, and staying out of foul trouble. But when it comes down to it, shots have to go in for all of that to pay off. ETSU’s hot shooting, including 6 threes from Milton Matthews (5.0 PPG) was the difference in the game. Furman led 45-43 before Matthews made 4 threes in the span of three minutes. ETSU’s lead stretched to 9 and they held the Dins at arms length for the rest of the game.
Shooting struggles: Furman ended 6-33 (18%) from deep and 35% from the field. ETSU got away with easy stops on defense simply from the Paladins settling for threes on offense. This issue has plagued this year’s Furman quad during their offensive droughts in previous games and though they didn’t have an extended scoreless period, it was clear their defense was effected by the offensive struggles.
You can never give a big man too many shots, especially when the Dins have two offensively skilled 6’11 guys on their front line. Furman is a 31.5% 3PT shooting team on the year, yet they took more than half of their shots from beyond the arc. Johnston and Bowser took 11 shots combined, on which they shot 50% and 80% respectively.
Alex Wilkins had a really good game tonight, using ETSU’s defense against itself. He was 8-8 from the line and seemed to understand that the shots weren’t falling so he’d have to create ways to score. Defenses are extremely physical and hold him off the ball, and he used this to draw fouls on their guards, especially Strothers who fouled out last time the two teams met.
The Dins need more from their bench. Tom House is essentially a sixth starter, and we know what to expect from him at this point. After a run of solid games, Eddrin Bronson has struggled in his last five and was 0-3 tonight with 2 turnovers. Cole Bowser struggled to effect the game, which is uncharacteristic of him so far this season. Depth is important to make a run. I’d love to see what Abijah Franklin could do given some consistent minutes during the normal flow of the game.
Asa Thomas is getting a good amount of shots, they’re just really tough ones. The offense is struggling to create space for Asa from the dribble handoffs, which makes a lot of his shots turn into contested jumpers. Asa has been getting to the paint while taking care of the ball, which is a good sign for him as an on-ball creator.
Another double-double for Chuck. Charles just plugs along getting a ton of tough rebounds, and he forced fouls inside last night as well. He went 7-9 from the line which is another reason to get it to him in the paint. He went 3-3 inside the arc vs. ETSU.
Feed Coop! He shoots 79%!
I’ll keep saying it until it doesn’t happen. Anyone can make a run in March and Furman has the pieces, we’ll just see if they figure out how the pieces fit.
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100% agree with your take that they fell in love with the 3 too much. In the first half, Cam Morris was out with 2 fouls for almost the entire half, yet, Bowser and Johnston barely had any touches inside. Also agree that Wilkins had a great game!
Despite getting swept by ETSU, I feel there is no team in this league that Furman can't beat. Go Dins!