Final: Furman 97 - Elon 88
Furman has won 4 of their last 5 and will be looking to keep the wins going into conference play. The win against Elon was a resilient one, where Furman trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half. For what it’s worth, ESPN’s win probability was at 94.5% for Elon. Furman really defied the odds, tying the game before halftime and never trailing again for the rest of the game! The Dins held Elon at arms length, building a 15 point lead during the second half. That’s a 37 point turnaround in about 20 minutes of gametime. Truly impressive. Let’s see what we can take away from this victory.
Who steps up when Alex can’t shoulder the whole load. Alex Wilkins has done a majority of the scoring and shot-taking thus far in the season, which brings an obvious question. Can Furman survive having one guy carry so much of the weight? That question was answered for the first time last night after Alex Wilkins was called for his third foul with 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The Paladins were already down 26-15 and shots were not going in, while Elon was knocking down three after three. From that point, we saw Ben VanderWal establish his veteran presence, knocking down a three and scoring twice more, while Asa Thomas caught fire and hit four threes before halftime. We saw Eddrin Bronson and Collin O’Neal contribute defensively and Tom House knock in only his fifth three of the season. It really was a team effort to step up while Alex was forced to sit and will be a confidence builder for a team that has struggled to produce bench points.
Defense is awesome. Furman held Elon to one point on a free throw during the final 5:16 of the first half. A true dominance that let Furman get back into the game. Furman is holding opponents to 71.7 PPG, good for third in the conference.
Fastbreak points: A lot of the points on Furman’s big run were on the fast break, and this continues into the second half. O’Neal and Bronson joined Wilkins in pushing it hard on the break, something that was emphasized by Bob Richey ahead of the game.
Points in the paint were a drastic differentiator, with Furman feeding it time after time into Bowser and driving hard at the rim. Bowser was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field. Bowser is currently first in the nation in field goal percentage at 77.6%. With inconsistent three point shooting, the Paladins have really leaned on their big man and should continue to do so.
Tom House confidence builder? I mentioned after last game that Tom was. 40% shooter last season and had it in him somewhere. House hit a three during the game, but really saw the ball go in at the free throw line. Sometimes that’s all a player needs to start shooting with more confidence the next time out.
Collin O’Neal: Another game where the freshman looked good off the bench. Collin played most of the Alex Wilkins minutes in the first half, stuffing the stat sheet while on the floor. He finished with 2 blocks and 2 steals on top of his offensive contributions. He helped lead multiple fast breaks and finished strong at the rim.
Another game, another sharpshooting performance from Asa Thomas. Asa finished with 21 points on 5-11 from beyond the arc. He powered the huge comeback in the first half, hitting 4 threes in ten minutes. He then finished out the game with 4 free throws in the final two minutes, solidifying the Paladin’s lead.
FT’s might have improved? It’s hard to tell for sure, because Furman started out around 8-15 from the line. But down the stretch, Furman made 18 of their last 19 free throws, including 9-of-10 from Tom House. The Dins actually finished at a higher percentage than their opponent for the second time all season.
FloSports? Is there anything to say other than why? The CAA has every one of their games on a site with $30 a month fees and no free trial. There’s no way their exposure and viewership has benefited from this no matter the money FloSports may have paid them. We can only hope the SoCon never makes a horrendous decision like this.
Furman will have three or four games at home leading into the conference season post-Christmas. The Paladins will be looking to continue their good performances and have a chance to run the table before the SoCon schedule.