Fans filled Bon Secours Wellness Arena for the last time this season on Wednesday night to watch Furman face off against The Citadel. In their last meeting on Jan. 8, the game went to overtime, and Furman was able to escape with a 67-63 win on the road. The Dins entered the rematch riding a two game win streak, while The Citadel was in the midst of a 19-game losing streak and sat at 0-17 in SoCon play.
From the jump, there was pure Paladin dominance. Furman started the game up 13-0, and it took over eight minutes for The Citadel to make their first field goal. Three pointers were coming in waves throughout the first half as junior guard Tom House and senior guard PJay Smith Jr. had a combined total of seven threes in the first half.
Head coach Bob Richey kept his foot on the gas throughout the first half, playing his normal rotation despite the very large lead. The Paladin defense looked the best it had all year long, holding the Bulldogs to just 11 points.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first. The Dins continued to stay hot from the floor, and it appeared that Richey opened up the playbook a bit, trying some different offensive plays for his starting players to practice in-game.
It wasn’t until the under-four-minute media timeout that Furman went deep into the bench. With near a fifty point lead, it was clear the Dins hadn’t needed to play their starters for a while, but it seemed that Richey wanted them in the game for conditioning and repetitions in preparation for the postseason.
The Paladins scored just three points in the final four minutes of the game, courtesy of a three-pointer by freshman forward Mason Smith, and went on to win 85-42. This was the least amount of points Furman has allowed all season.
House and Smith Jr. led the way for Furman with 19 points a piece — House going 6-6 from three. Furman also shot 46% from beyond the arc, making 15 three-pointers over the course of the game. Additionally, senior forward Garrett Hien made Dins history by totaling his 1,000th point in a Furman uniform.
With the victory, Furman improves to 10-7 in Southern Conference play and 22-8 overall. The Dins are currently sitting at 5th in the conference standings with one game remaining in the regular season. Depending on the outcome of that game, plus other games around the conference, Furman can reach as high as 3rd or as low as 6th for seeding in the SoCon Tournament.
For the season finale, Furman will make the short trip to Spartanburg, SC to take on arch-rival Wofford on Sat. Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. The game will air on ESPN +. Afterwards, Furman will play in the Southern Conference Tournament, which will take place in Asheville, NC from Fri. Mar. 7 to Mon. Mar. 10.
