The Furman Paladins played their final match of the regular Southern Conference season against the Samford Bulldogs, the number-one seed in the SoCon prior to the game. The winner of the match would determine who held the number one spot within the conference, as the Samford Bulldogs held a position of 15 wins and 2 losses compared to Furman’s 14 wins and 3 losses before the match. Furman’s overall superior record, however, would place them ahead of the Samford Bulldogs if they were able to pull off a victory against the SoCon’s highest-ranked team at their home court.
Mike Bothwell sustained the game with an indescribable performance making numerous three-pointers to reach an 18-5 lead for Furman within ten minutes of the first half. Bothwell, who averages 18 points per game, had seen a slump in pace with recent games in Feb., averaging less than 10 points per game against the Citadel, Mercer, and ETSU. Against Samford, however, Bothwell scored 35 points, contributing to over a third of all points by Furman. Other notable scorers included Marcus Foster with 16 points and JP Pegues with 20 points. Furman’s dominating performance was demonstrated through statistics, as the Paladins achieved a 50% three-pointer shooting rate compared to Samford’s 28.6% and caught 33 rebounds compared to Samford’s 27.
Furman held a consistent lead throughout the vast majority of the game. Thanks to an impeccable performance by the Furman guards, the Paladins ended the first half with a lead of 50-34. Throughout the second half, the Samford Bulldogs would only manage to outscore the Paladins by two points, concluding the game with a 93-79 win by the Paladins against one of their biggest Southern Conference rivals. Furman and Samford, as number one and two seeds respectively, will enter the Southern Conference tournament as semi-finalists in Asheville, North Carolina at the beginning of March. The winner of this tournament will win the entire Southern Conference and go on the NCAA March Madness competition as the representative for SoCon.
