HOMEWOOD, Ala. – J.P. Pegues almost stole a game for Furman at Samford on Wednesday night. In fact, he did steal it.

It’s just that the Bulldogs’ Jermaine Marshall stole it right back. After Pegues, who scored a career-best 33 points, gave the Paladins a five-point lead with 45 seconds remaining, Samford scored the game’s final seven points, four of them by Marshall, and Samford won 74-72.

“We made three critical errors late,” Furman head coach Bob Richey said on radio to Dan Scott. “You can’t have that happen with a five-point lead.”

Marshall, playing with four fouls, as were three Paladins, scored the winning points on a layup with under three seconds left.

The Paladins trailed 56-46 in the second half when Pegues, the junior guard from Nashville, Tenn., caught fire. In fact, the statistics revealed just how much of an offensive burden he bore.

Pegues connected on 9/15 field-goal attempts. The rest of the team was a combined 15/40. Pegues buried 6-11 three-pointers; the rest were 3/21. Pegues canned 9/9 free throws; the rest were 6/11.

He hit three straight triples to cap an 18-6 Paladin run that gave Furman a 64-62 lead with under four minutes remaining.

 The game was knotted at 67 with under a minute to go when Pegues beat the shot clock with a three from the top of the key to give Furman the lead again, and converted two foul shots following a defensive rebound to put the Paladins up 72-67 with 45 seconds left.

“Can’t give threes up,” said Richey. “We got five (points). That’s why we switched in Carter (Whitt) and had all guards out there, and we switched defenses, except, we didn’t switch it. We didn’t switch something with one of their best shooters, and he gets a three up and got the ball in there.”

Jaden Campbell buried the triple to pull Samford within three two points and Marshall stole PJay Smith’s inbounds pass and was fouled driving to the basket.

After Marshall hit two free throws to even the game, Furman ran down the clock and Pegues attempted an off-balance trey from the right wing.

Samford rebounded the miss with seven seconds to go and Marshall went the length of the floor to score the go-ahead layup. Pegues’ desperation three, near halfcourt, missed as time expired.

Rylan Jones buried four triples to pace Samford with 17 points, while Marshall finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Nathan Johnson tallied 13 points and Campbell added 12 for the Bulldogs.

Samford (24-4, 13-2 SoCon) shot .481 from the field, converted 15/19 free throws and finished with 23 points off 14 Furman turnovers.

Joining Pegues in double figures for the Paladins was only Garrett Hien, who posted 10 points, six rebounds, and five assists. The Paladins shot .436 and went 15/20 at the foul line.

Five minutes in, Samford led, 6-4. The next two minutes weren’t slow as the Bulldogs scored eight points in a row.

Samford’s first four buckets were for three points, and the Paladins were fortunate to go to halftime trailing by just four, 30-26. Samford’s Allenspach missed two free throws with ,six seconds left, and Pegues hit a contested three just before the buzzer to narrow the Bulldogs edge from seven to four.

Both teams shot poorly, but Furman was atrocious, hitting 10/29 field goal attempts, 2/15 triples and 4/7 free throws. Samford’s corresponding numbers were 10/27, 5/17 and 5/8, respectively.

Furman’s leading first-half scorer was Hien with six, followed by Smith with five. Foster didn’t score.

“We were a little bit keyed up in the first half,” said Richey on radio afterwards. “We let the environment get to us, but, you know, in the second half, and I thought we looked like us for a lot of it.”

Foster and Smith hit back-to-back threes – at last! – and Furman tied the score at 32. But Foster got his third foul shortly afterward.

Vander Wal paid dearly for Samford’s go-ahead basket because Marshall bloodied Vander Wal’s nose. Then Pegues and Marshall took exception to each other, and officials sent both teams to their benches so that they could examine the matter for the second time in a few seconds. No calls were made … again.

Four minutes into the latter half, Foster and Smith each had three fouls, and Samford led, 34-32.

With 12 minutes to play, no player on either team was in double figures. Pegues scored five points in the former half, three of them in the final four seconds, and 28 in the latter.

Marshall got his fourth foul at 12:02 for Samford, Hien made it a trio of Paladins with a trio of fouls. With 9:44 left, trailing by four, Foster got his fourth.

Samford stretched its lead to 10, 56-46, and poor shooting effectively blunted a stellar Furman defensive effort. When the Paladins are shooting, they can play with anyone. When they aren’t, everything’s a struggle.

But Furman kept on struggling hard.

A Pegues triple brought Furman to within one, 56-55, with 6:21 to play. It was the Paladins’ fifth in 25 tries. A minute later, after a Campbell dunk, the Bulldogs were back up five, and Richey called timeout with 5:22 remaining.

Pegues gave Furman its first lead, 64-62, with 3:48 remaining, and McMillan called timeout. Pegues popped a trio of triples in a span of 1:03.

“I thought our team battled,” Richey said, “but we’re not going to have time to mope about this one. There’s a reason these guys (Samford) are undefeated. We almost got out of here with a [W], but there are a couple more things we’ll learn from this, and we’ll get better from it. We’ll turn the page. Saturday’s game is going to come quick.”

The Paladins (15-13, 9-6) return to Timmons Arena on Saturday to host the Wofford Terriers (15-13, 8-7) at 2 p.m.

Take a look at the stats here.

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