Final: Furman 79 - Harvard 69
Furman has hit its stride, winning five of the last six games and winning pretty handily over the Harvard Crimson. Going on a run before halftime, the Dins stretched a three point lead into 7, and it probably should have been 10 if Alex Wilkins hadn’t taken an unfortunate slip giving Harvard a wide open last second three. Regardless, Furman held out, building an 18 point lead in the second half and holding Harvard at arms length. Let’s look at what we can take away from another game where Furman looks to be improving.
Bowser really is a presence. His length is going to bother everyone, and help the Dins against SoCon teams like Mercer that do have size. Harvard only had one true big man which led to a lot of lobs over the top to Bowser. Bowser paid off his opportunities as he always seems to do, going 5-5 from the floor and improving his nation-leading field goal percentage (79.4%)
Random double-teams on Alex? In the first half, Harvard would throw random double-team traps at Wilkins to try and disrupt the offense. They didn't end up affecting much, but it is something we could see in the future if teams want to take the ball out of Alex’s hands. Wilkins finished with 16 points, but did turn the ball over 7 times.
Harvard really played through one guy. He did get his, scoring 26 points, but one guy can’t win a game by himself. Furman did a good job rebounding the misses and not letting the other guys beat them.
Holding Harvard to one possession was huge. Part of what kept the other guys from beating Furman was grabbing the rebounds. Everybody on this team likes to get in and rebound, helping out the bigs. Furman out rebounded Harvard 33-25, and Ben VanderWal had 3 big offensive rebounds.
Tom House looks more aggressive on the court. His shot was not falling again, but he helped this by driving and putting pressure on the rim. He’s feeling confident in his free throws and hit 4 of 5 on Saturday.
The defense is awesome. The Paladins can really shut down opponents for stretches. A bench lineup with Collin O’Neal and Eddrin Bronson together created a lot of havoc and translated to fastbreak points.
Ed, Collin, and the bench in general are consistently contributing. Ed finished 5-8 from the field with 11 points. O’Neal had a great first half, but unfortunately left the game with a knee injury. Collin has become more and more important to the team as the season continues and hopefully he will not be out for long. Scans will be back soon and there should be some news on him next week.
Asa another huge shooting night. Thomas has improved to nearly 40% from three after he, and everyone, had a slow shooting start to the season. He has proven an expert at navigating the flying contests and side-stepping into an open shot. Asa went 5-9 from deep yesterday.
When in doubt, get it to Bowser. Self-explanatory… I mean he shoots 80% from the floor!
Final Stats below via ESPN:
