Timmons Arena was buzzing Wednesday night ahead of the highly anticipated SoCon matchup with Samford University. The Bulldogs boasted a record of 17-2 (6-0 SoCon) and were currently riding the country’s best win streak at 17 games. Even though the Dins were marked down as 2.5 point favorites, they still felt they had something to prove against the SoCon’s only remaining undefeated team.
The first half was tight most of the way. Furman came out swinging as the first three field goals were all three-pointers. Junior forward Alex Williams continued his precise shooting, scoring the first six points of the night.
Samford was relentless with the full court press from the opening tip. It appeared that Bucky McMillan was determined to have his squad frustrate the Dins by forcing turnovers and making them work for everything. Though at times the Bulldogs were able to wreak havoc, junior guards Carter Whitt and JP Pegues did a great job breaking the press and setting up the half court offense.
The Paladin defense stepped up in the first half, holding Samford to 0% three point shooting, something that the Bulldogs are not accustomed to. Samford’s leading scorer forward Achor Achor (19.8 ppg) kept his school above water with his 11 first half points. But the Dins spread the scoring out amongst themselves and, thus, carried a nine-point lead into the half-time.
Both teams stepped it up from a scoring standpoint in the second half, particularly Samford who began to see more three pointers go down. Senior guard Marcus Foster, who has been re-establishing himself as Furman’s number one scoring threat since returning from injury, had a flurry of made baskets en route to a 22-point night.
The closest Samford came to giving the Dins a scare in the second half was when they cut the lead to 10 with around six minutes to go and Alex Williams picked up his fourth foul.
Nevertheless, the lead never dwindled to single digits. It was promising to see the Dins remain aggressive in the final minutes to ensure that no miraculous comeback was possible. As the final buzzer secured Furman’s 78-68 victory, a full crowd got on their feet to applaud the Dins.
Furman (11-9, 4-2 SoCon) now has a winning streak of five games as they find themselves in fourth place in the SoCon standings. They are just one game back of first in a tight race at the top of the leaderboard. Next up on the schedule is a date with UNC Greensboro on Sunday, Feb. 4 at home at 2 p.m.
