The Dins rolled into Spartanburg riding the high of two straight home wins over top SoCon teams and five wins overall, but the Wofford Terriers gave the Dins all they could handle. Entering the contest, Furman had won their last four games against the team, but Wofford swiftly captured the momentum from the jump and never let it go. Their lead grew to as many as 13 before the Dins settled in and found their rhythm.
Wofford forced the Dins to attempt to shoot a high volume of threes to catch up to their opponent’s early lead. Furman took 35 threes but only made 11, contributing to the mere 31% shooting from the field. The Dins cut the deficit to two with 1 minute and 36 seconds left in the first half before Wofford ended the half on an 8-0 run.
An 11-0 run followed at the start of the second half, when Furman entered a panic mode on offense. The Dins settled for numerous drive and kick (only one pass) threes as opposed to chipping away inside on a Wofford team that lacked height for the most part. Head coach Bob Richey went to the bench for answers by subbing in freshman forward Davis Molnar and junior guard PJay Smith in an effort to provide a spark, but it was too late, as Wofford continued to feed off of their sellout crowd and maintain a lead.
Senior guard Marcus Foster led the team in scoring with 22, and tacked on 10 rebounds for a double-double. It seemed every time the Dins made plays to close the gap on the scoreboard, Wofford responded.
The Terriers successfully hit their free throws down the stretch to keep the Dins at bay. The 67-point total for Furman marked the third lowest of the season, for a team that is used to playing fast and aggressive and scoring a lot of points. For Wofford, 77 came as the second highest point total of their conference games thus far.
Furman fans know that the SoCon is competitive and road losses are to be expected. Now sitting in sixth place in the SoCon standings (11-10, 5-3 SoCon), there is no doubt the Dins still have work to do. The Paladins are in a position to redeem themselves against The Citadel (9-12, 1-7 SoCon) this Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in Charleston, where they suffered a loss last year.
