By MONTE DUTTON

The 2022-23 Furman basketball season was more predictable than this one. It was a season of historic greatness, seldom rivaled in the school’s annals.

Not that a 28-8 record, Southern Conference championship and NCAA Tournament victory were without perilous moments.

This season, Bob Richey’s seventh at the helm, has been at least as exciting, if doubly nerve-wracking. It’s what happens when the two best players on a great team graduate. Take away the two best players from any NBA team – well, maybe not the Charlotte Hornets – and see if some bumps do not appear in the road.

“It’s been a fight for us,” said Richey, “but our guys are continuing to do everything they can to figure this out.

“This team still has a pretty strong heartbeat. We’ve got to keep pushing through.”

Last season the average score was 81-71. This year, to date, it’s 80-76. Last season Furman shot .477 for the season. This year to date, it’s .448. The three-point comparison was .344-.326. On this date a year ago, the Paladins were 22-6 and 12-2 in SoCon play. This year it’s 13-12 and 7-5.

The conference seemed easier. It wasn’t. Furman’s perspective was from the top, not the middle. The SoCon was hard then. It’s hard now.

A shining opportunity for advancement awaits at Timmons Arena, where on Wednesday the Paladins face Virginia Military (4-21, 1-11) and on Sunday Chattanooga (17-8, 9-3, entering Wednesday.

Entering the final six regular-season games, Furman is likely still to earn a first-round bye in the tournament.

None of that is particularly important now. All that is important, as most any coach in any sport will insist staunchly, is winning the next game. Absolutely nothing is necessarily easy. Furman had to come through almost miraculously in Charleston on Jan. 31 to defeat The Citadel (9-16, 1-11) in overtime, 82-79.

Three schools – Furman, Western Carolina and Wofford – are in a tie for fourth place. They’re two games out of second (Chattanooga), a game out of third (UNC Greensboro), two ahead of seventh (East Tennessee State) and three up on eighth (Mercer).

“We have six left (before the tournament), and things can go a lot of different ways,” Richey said. “We have a lot to play for in terms of seeding. We need to make sure we’ve got a bye on that first day and get ourselves as high as we possibly can. We’ve got to take care of business one game at a time.”

Last time out, Furman rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final 7:15 to claim a 65-63 victory over East Tennessee State at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tenn., on Saturday night. The Paladins hit on 12 of their final 13 field-goal attempts, and junior J.P. Pegues drained four free throws (in six attempts) in the final 44 seconds, including a pair of go-ahead free throws with 1.8 seconds left, to help complete the regular-season sweep of the Bucs. Pegues finished with a team-high 15 points, while senior Marcus Foster added 11 points and eight rebounds.

Foster leads the Paladins averaging 19.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Pegues has contributed 16.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game this season.

Wednesday’s contest marks the 108^th meeting between Furman and VMI with the Paladins holding a 70-37 series lead. The Paladins captured their fourth straight triumph over the Keydets with a 100-60 victory at Cameron Hall in Lexington, Va., on Jan. 17 behind 23 points from Alex Williams and 21 from Carter Whitt. The 40-point win represented Furman’s largest margin of victory on the road versus a SoCon opponent since an 80-38 win at Georgia Southern during the 1995-96 campaign. Every other Furman SoCon game this season to date has been decided by 15 points or less.

“We’re still sorting things out, and we’re still fighting like heck, and I think we’ve made some progress,” Richey said. “We’ve got a group that knows how to win and has seen winning. We haven’t been as consistent as we’d like, but we have won and we’ve won some big games this year.

“We’ve got to keep fighting to find that [championship] DNA and pull it out at the right time of the season.

VMI has dropped six straight games and suffered a 102-63 loss at home versus league-leading Samford on Saturday.

Brennan Watkins leads the Keydets with a scoring average of 15.2 points. He shoots three-pointers (.370) almost as efficiently as he shoots overall (.414). Tyran Cook averages 13.3. The VMI big man is Taeshaud Jackson, who averages 9.5 points and 10.1 rebounds.

The Keydets have lost six straight games, dating back to a home victory over The Citadel, 70-63, on Jan. 20.

Wednesday’s SoCon tilt will be streamed on ESPN+. Fans can listen to the action on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, on 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg, or via the Audacy app.

Following Wednesday’s game, Furman will host Chattanooga on Sunday at 2 p.m. inside Timmons Arena. The game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.

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