Who knew Furman’s 10-game winning streak at Timmons Arena would be broken by Anderson?

The Division II Trojans, coached by ex-Paladins assistant Jimmie Williams, upended Furman, 79-74, on Saturday. The Furman offense looked rudderless in point guard J.P. Pegues’ absence.

From Anderson’s perspective, it was a win of historic magnitude. From Furman’s perspective, it was a disaster.

Garrett Denbow, a senior guard from Ashland, Ohio, and transfer from West Liberty, led Anderson (6-6) with 27 points. He was 10/19 overall, 5/10 from deep and didn’t have a single assist. Why? The rest of the team went 21/67.

Meanwhile, from inside the arc, the Paladins were 23/36.

Furman (6-7) tried 20 three-pointers and two connected. Led by Middleton with 14, Anderson outrebounded the Paladins by six (46-41), and the margin was greater before the action got frantic in the final minutes. Furman never led in the second half.

The Paladins played without their two best players. Pegues reportedly rolled an ankle in practice and should return, one would think, for Wednesday’s Southern Conference opener at UNC Greensboro. Marcus Foster has been out since early December recovering from a knee injury. He should be back sometime in January. Carter Whitt and Davis Molnar started.

Garrett Hien did his damndest, scoring 20 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Hien wasn’t immune to the long-range virus. He missed all four of his three-point tries, and mirroring many of his teammates, went 7/8 inside the line.

Whitt ably compensated for Pegues with seven of the team’s 13 assists, but he was guilty of four turnovers. He scored 10 points on 3/10 shooting (1/4 triples).

The Paladins once led 9-2 but trailed by five (39-34) at halftime after going scoreless in the final 2:49. The Trojans outscored Furman 15-3 in the final 5:12. The Paladins were 1/9 in three-pointers, and Anderson won the battle of the boards, 26-16.

After trailing 65-55 with under seven minutes remaining, Furman fashioned a 10-0 run to even the game on Tyrese Hughey’s putback with 4:24 left. Luke Denbow restored Anderson’s lead with a jumper from just inside the three-point arc, Garrett Denbow converted on a turnaround jumper in the paint, and Cole Middleton forced a turnover before connecting on one of his two trips to the foul line to increase the Trojans’ advantage to 70-65 with 3:09 to play.

Hien scored in the paint on the Paladins’ next three possessions, but Anderson answered each Furman basket. Middleton hit two free throws following Hien’s first basket and Garrett Denbow responded with a jumper following the second Hien score before answering the third with a triple from the left wing with 31 seconds remaining that gave the Trojans a 77-71 lead. Luke Denbow hit on 2/4 visits to the charity stripe in the final 23 seconds to seal the verdict.

The Trojans shot only .408 from the field and .500 at the foul line, but Anderson outscored the Paladins by 18 from behind the arc and grabbed 19 offensive rebounds to forge a 17-13 edge on second chance opportunities. Anderson finished with a 47-41 rebounding advantage and tallied 13 points off 16 Paladin turnovers.

Luke Denbow scored 12 points and Andre Wright Jr. added 10 to round out Anderson’s double-figure scorers.

Molnar scored a career-best 11 points on 4/5 shooting.

It was a mess.

Take a look at the stats here.

Meanwhile, Furman women’s basketball is going to launch a new year with a record better than the men.

Pierre Curtis’s Paladins are 8-6 going into Sunday’s game against North Carolina Central, their final appointment on the calendar, at Timmons, tapping at 1 p.m.

Under Curtis, the longtime assistant who succeeded Jackie Carson this season, Furman is rapidly approaching last year’s win total in advance of Southern Conference play, which gets underway on Jan. 11 at Western Carolina. The Paladins’ last outing was a 67-43 verdict registered against South Carolina State on Dec. 21.

North Carolina Central (5-7) owns wins over UNC Asheville (65-63) and UNC Wilmington (70-65) in its last two outings.  The Eagles also posted a November triumph over SoCon foe Western Carolina (69-58).  Furman and North Carolina Central have split two previous meetings, a 60-40 win by the Paladins in Greenville during the 2016-17 season representing the more recent.

Furman draws offensive strength from balance. The Paladins average of 71.3 points per game is the best in the SoCon. Junior forward Jada Session averages 14.2 points, followed by sophomore forward Sydney Ryan (11.6), redshirt sophomore guard Niveya Henley (11.1), junior forward Kate Johnson (10.8) and redshirt junior Tate Walters (10.5).

Furman leads the conference and ranks 21^st nationally in rebounding margin (+11.6), and Session is at the top in individual rebounds (9.1).

The return of Henley and Walters, both sidelined a year ago by injuries, has been profound.

Happy New Year. I’m cautiously optimistic. It couldn’t possibly be worse. Oh, wait. There’s an election.

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