UNC Greensboro’s 89-87 victory over Furman on Sunday was a sweet form of sorrow for most of the 2,438 present at Timmons Arena.

It hurt so good. The game was so fantastic, it was a privilege to lose.

“Leaving the arena today, they saw a show,” Furman head coach Bob Richey said to Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy on radio. “I hate we disappointed them and didn’t find a way to come out on top, but games like this is why people continue to come back.

“The brand’s been building. Greenville is getting more attached to this, and I think the people who are coming and checking it out are getting attached to this are seeing a pretty fun brand of basketball.

“Two teams played hard, just blow for blow, at a high level.”

Furman (12-11, 6-4 SoCon) shot well. UNC Greensboro (17-6, 8-2) shot better.

Marcus Foster pumped in 26 points. The Spartans’ Keyshaun Langley popped 30.

Furman missed four free throws. UNCG missed one.

It all came down to a missed free throw. After Foster missed the first with 0.6 seconds on the clock, conditions called for missing the second on purpose. A basket there would’ve been comparable not only to recovering an onside kick in football but scoring a touchdown on the play. UNCG’s Jalen Breath won the scramble for the rebound as time expired.

J.P. Pegues, who scored 25, and Foster more than earned their keep with clutch shots, but missed when it mattered most. Both hit big shots that made missing bigger ones possible.

Breath’s layup off a Donovan Atwell pass gave the Spartans the lead with 59 seconds left. Following a UNCG timeout, Pegues missed on a potential game-tying layup with 46 seconds remaining, off a nifty Garrett Hien pass, before the Paladins kept their hopes alive with a stop of the defensive end. Pegues missed on a three-point attempt on Furman’s next offensive possession, and Carter Whitt left a follow-up shot short in the paint, but guard Marcus Foster grabbed the offensive rebound and drew a two-shot foul.

“We got back into the game, tied it up, and you know, I just feel horrible for Marcus (Foster),” head coach Bob Richey said. “The growth he’s shown, how he handled the (knee) injury, and how he’s played post-injury compared to pre-injury.

“He continues to just play his guts out.”

A victory would have tied the Paladins with the Spartans for second in the SoCon. As it turned out, Furman is tied for fourth with Wofford. Samford sits first, UNCG second and Chattanooga third.

Three of the Paladins’ four SoCon losses were either against Spartans or in Spartanburg. The outlier was in Chattanooga.

Furman has home games left against two of the three teams, Chattanooga and Wofford, tied or ahead of it. The Paladins must visit Samford and do not play UNCG again in the regular season.

In six games since returning from the injury, Foster, a senior from Atlanta, Ga., has produced double-doubles in five of them.

Keyshaun Langley buried 6/9 three-points to pace the Spartans to a 13-for-22 performance from three-point range. Forward Mikeal Brown-Jones scored 19 points and Breath finished with 13.

Alex Williams scored 13 points to give the Paladins three players in double figures.

An opening turnover notwithstanding, the Paladins opened fast and aggressive.

Keyshaun Langley was a three-point machine early, and the Spartans used superior size to make any incursions in the lane hazardous, but the Paladins spread the scoring around, principally from Williams to Pegues to Foster, and kept pace. The fast pace was wildly exciting.

PJay Smith’s corralling of a loose ball, lying on his back, and feeding Carter Whitt for a bucket ought to make it onto highlights shows, if not for elegance then for effort. Bowser got his usual dunk of the night off a lovely pass from Foster that put the Paladins up, 25-23, at 10:22.

UNCG hit eight shots in a row and pulled ahead, 31-27. Keyshaun Langley hit his first four triples and had 18 points 12 minutes into the game. He reached 20 off a steal, then stole the in-bounds pass. Somehow, when Foster answered at the other end with a three, the Paladins were just a point down one, 33-32, with 7:03 on the clock.

Eventually, both teams started occasionally missing shots.

UNC Greensboro has a player named Breath. Jalen Breath. No one else could catch theirs.

Kobe, twin of Keyshawn, scored his first points at the free-throw line with 5:22 go, meaning that one K. Langley had 21 and the other had two at that point.

Kobe Langley then popped a triple with 4:34 left that put UNCG up, 40-35. Foster’s three-point play brought Furman back within two.

Hughey tied it off an assist by Smith after a steal. That was with 3:42 left, leading to the obvious question: Who gets to 50 first?

Furman. Pegues’s three-pointer made it 51-47 with 36 seconds left – a little early for him – and that was the halftime score.

What a half. Both teams shot .593 from the floor. From deep, UNCG shot .643 to Furman’s .462. Neither team missed a free throw, Furman 13/13 and UNCG 6/6. Greensboro had one more assist, and Furman had two more rebounds. Many shots were hard, and most of them were good.

UNCG quickly tied the game when the latter half commenced. It slowed a bit. Both teams fared poorer in field-goal, three-point and free-throw percentage. With free throws, in the Spartans’ case, it meant they missed one.

Foster reached 18 points with a fast-break layup off Whitt’s steal. Williams’ long triple at 15:38 put the Paladins up 61-55, the biggest lead by either team to that point.

Jalen Breath of UNCG missed the first free throw by either team with

Keyshaun Langley put the Spartans up, 64-63, at 12:37, but Foster answered 14 seconds later. Those baskets gave the former 25 points and the latter 20.

Hien and Hughey each got their fourth fouls within seconds of each other. Greensboro’s lead swelled to five. Cooper Bowser came in to try offset the Spartan’s growing domination on the boards.

The margin reached eight, 77-69, on Breath’s bucket with 7:05 left and 10 (80-70) on Joryam Saizonou’s trey with 6:30 left.

The Spartans shot .537 on the night to go with a .947 effort at the charity stripe. UNCG managed a 30-26 edge on the glass and held Furman to .370 shooting in the second half.

The Paladins, who went 23-of-27 at the foul line, shot .471 from the floor overall and scored 16 points off 11 Spartan turnovers while committing just eight miscues. The loss snapped Furman’s nine-game SoCon winning streak at Timmons Arena.

Furman takes on Mercer in Macon, Ga., on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and East Tennessee State in Johnson City on Saturday at 6.

Take a look at the stats here.

Some of you have noticed I was not at Sunday’s game. It was all a big mistake. I asked the Lord to help me stop working out of my home and said I wanted to put out a shingle. I’m sure it was my mistake because the Big One, He doesn’t make mistakes.

So … He gave me … shingles.

I look a sight, and I made it up. I actually like working out of my home. I wouldn’t misrepresent to the Almighty.

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