A vintage weekend in Furman athletics began on Friday night with big payback against Tulane on Friday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in men’s basketball and continued with a long-awaited football resurgence in Johnson City, Tenn.
Both were as sweet as pecan pie.
Seniors PJay Smith Jr. and Nick Anderson combined for 48 points as Furman led wire-to-wire on its way to a 75-67 victory over the American Athletic Conference’s Green Wave on Friday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in front of 2,967.
Furman forged its first 4-0 start since the 2020-21 season. The Green Wave dropped to 3-1 on the campaign after being limited to a season-low 67 points.

The duo of Smith and Anderson combined to connected on 11/21 three-point tries and 11/12 free throws while forward Davis Molnar pulled down a career-best 10 rebounds. Smith, who surpassed 1,000 career points with his first basket of the night, finished with 29 points and Anderson scored 19.
Furman hit four triples in the opening 6:30 to race to a 17-7 edge en route to a 32-28 advantage at halftime. Tulane cut the margin to just two points early in the second half, but Smith scored eight points as part of another 17-7 Paladin run that extended the cushion to 49-37 with 12:29 to play.

The Green Wave was able to pull within five points on five occasions over the final 12 minutes, but Furman played turnover-free in the second half and connected on 15/18 trips to the foul line over the final 20 minutes to keep Tulane at bay.
The Paladins shot just .379 but made good on 13/36 three-point attempts and 18/22 tries at the charity stripe. Furman managed 13 points off 12 Green Wave turnovers while committing only seven.
Guard Asher Wood scored 17 points for Tulane, and Gregg Glenn III and Mari Jordan added 14 apiece. Glenn pulled down 10 rebounds.
Tulane shot .426 despite being held to 6/18 shooting from three-point range.
Furman concludes its three-game homestand on Wednesday when it hosts Oglethorpe at Legacy Early College’s Parker Gymnasium.
Take a look at the stats here.

“When I woke up this morning, things were looking bad. It seems like total silence was the only friend I had.” – John Prine
No more. Not in Johnson City, Tenn. Furman (3-7, 2-4 SoCon) rose up and smote East Tennessee State on Saturday, 24-21. It was a true Paladin joust.
Freshman Trey Hedden returned to the quarterback role, and the Buccaneers couldn’t find one while trying three.

Furman intercepted three ETSU passes, including two in the second half, and Hedden tossed a pair of touchdown passes as the Paladins upset the FCS 21st-ranked Bucs at Greene Stadium.
After ETSU (6-5, 4-3) scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to grab a 21-14 lead, Hedden connected with Colton Hinton on a 31-yard catch and run on a third-and-six play with 1:36 to go in the quarter to even the game at 21-21.

Billy Lewis and Maurice Perkins intercepted Bucs quarterback Gino English on back-to-back possessions to open the fourth quarter, the latter of which led to a 21-yard, go-ahead field goal by senior Ian Williams with 9:08 remaining.
Furman’s defense forced a three-and-out on ETSU’s next possession, allowing the Paladins to take over the ball at their own 24-yard line with 7:18 to go. Hedden led the Paladins on a 14-play drive that resulted on Furman taking a knee to run out the clock and secure its third consecutive win over ETSU.

The key play of the game-ending drive came with 2:30 play and Furman facing a fourth down and three yards to go situation at the ETSU 31-yardline. Hinton went in motion, caught a pass from Hedden and made the first defender miss to pick up four yards and a first down to allow the Paladins to run out the clock.

ETSU outgained the Paladins in total offense 425-282 but committed three turnovers, which led to 10 points for Furman. Hedden completed 23/28 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns while Hinton hauled in six passes for 62 yards. Ethan Harris totaled three catches for 61 yards and Ben Ferguson recorded two catches for 23 yards and a score.

In addition to Lewis and Perkins’ second-half interceptions, Caleb Williams picked of a second-quarter pass by English and returned it 35 yards to setup Myion Hicks’ two-yard touchdown plunge that gave the Paladins a 14-7 lead at halftime.
Devontae Houston led the ETSU offense with 12 carries for 103 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 64-yard sprint to the end zone in the first half.
Furman concludes its season next Saturday when it travels to Macon, Ga., to take on the Mercer Bears.
Take a look at the stats here.

Dylan Schubert finished third Friday at the NCAA Southeast Region Championship at Winthrop Farm in Rock Hil to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which will be held next Saturday in Madison, Wis.
A two-time cross country All-American, Schubert, a fifth-year student from Loveland, Colo., recorded a time of 29:49.8 in the 10-kilometer race, thus claiming his fifth-consecutive ticket to the cross country finals.

The 22nd-ranked Furman men finished sixth with 141 points. Virginia won the regional with 79 points, and North Carolina took second with 85 points to earn the region’s two automatic team bids.
Senior Carson Williams finished 12th with a time of 30:04.0
In the opening race of the day, the 22nd-ranked Furman women scored 208 points to finish eighth. N.C. State won the meet with 60 points, while Virginia finished second with 85 to claim the two automatic bids.

Junior Carly Wilkes paced Furman with a time of 20:54.0 on the 6K course to finish 14th. Junior Jenna Mulhern finished right behind Wilkes in 15th place after crossing the line in 20:56.0. Senior Kaylie Armitage turned in a time of 21:02.6 to finish 18th.
Tennyson Gorman had a team high 15 kills, while four different players had double-doubles, as the Furman volleyball team picked up its fifth victory in six matches with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 27-25) triumph over The Citadel on Friday evening at Alley Gymnasium.

Furman snaps a seven-match losing streak to The Citadel while improving to 13-12 overall and 7-7 in the SoCon. With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 14-12 and 8-7 in conference play.
Gorman recorded seven of her 15 kills in the fourth set and concluded the match hitting .737 overall. Ava Auguston (12 kills, 16 digs), Emily Navarro (21 assists, 16 digs), Quinn Morrissey (24 assists, 15 digs), and Kennedy Seekford (12 assists, 23 digs) all had double-doubles.
Ali Ruffin led four players in double-figure kills with 15 for The Citadel and recorded a double-double of 13 digs. Belle Hogan dished out 53 assists to go with 13 digs. Mackenzie Martin added a double-double of 12 kills and 30 digs.
The Paladins concluded the match hitting .222 overall and led 58-57 in assists and 95-93 in digs.

Furman closed out the regular season Saturday afternoon when it hosted Wofford on Senior Day.
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