By MONTE DUTTON

Thank God it’s over.
Furman head football coach Clay Hendrix knew the numbers. Few were the starters returning from consecutive 10-3 season. He thought a decent season was possible if the Paladins stayed relatively healthy.
They didn’t. The thinness will thicken next year, but this was a rough one.
Elsewhere among the purple clad, hope springs, at least until spring.
Men’s and women’s basketball won big. A runner ran with aplomb. Volleyball fell in the SoCon tournament, but it took five games.
What isn’t currently well figures to heal.

Three Paladins reached double figures, and Furman held Charleston Southern to just 46 points and .315 shooting from the field en route to a 67-46 men’s basketball victory Saturday afternoon at Buccaneer Fieldhouse in Charleston.
Furman improved to 6-0. The 46 points allowed marked the fewest by a Paladin opponent since a 64-45 Furman win at Western Carolina on Feb. 7, 2019.
The Paladins held Charleston Southern (1-6) to just 5/22 shooting over the opening 15 minutes to build an early 28-13 lead and never allowed the Bucs to get closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

Furman shot .491 from the floor, totaled 18 assists on 28 baskets and was guilty of just nine turnovers.
Graduate student Nick Anderson paced the Paladins with 14 points on 6/9 shooting while PJay Smith Jr. contributed 13 points and five assists. Garrett Hien and Cooper Bowser controlled the paint. Hien finished with 10 points, six boards, and four assists. Bowser added nine points, three assists and three blocks.
Daylen Berry scored a game-high 16 points to lead the Bucs, who connected on just 4/23 three-point attempts on the day.
Furman returns to action on Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. versus the Seattle Redhawks in the Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. The game will air on ESPNU and fans can listen to the action on The Fan Upstate.

Check out the stats here.

Whitt Newbauer passed for 257 yards and three touchdowns to lead Mercer to a 49-23 Southern Conference football victory over Furman in the regular-season finale for both teams at Five Star Stadium on Saturday.
The victory earned Mercer (10-2, 7-1 SoCon) the outright SoCon championship a year after Furman (3-8, 2-5) captured the title.
Newbauer completed 18/28 passes, including scoring strikes of 46, 7, and 31 yards for the Bears, who erased a 10-7 first quarter deficit with three touchdowns — two via Newbauer passes — to take a 28-10 second-quarter lead.

Furman’s Ian Williams broke the run with a 32-yard field goal with nine seconds left on the first-half clock to pull the Paladins to within 28-13.
Williams, who booted three field goals, tied his own school record with a 57-yard effort that opened the second-half scoring and cut Mercer’s lead to 28-16. The Bears answered with a 16-yard scoring run by Dwayne McGee and 31-yard Newbauer strike to Adjatay Dabbs, set up by a TJ. Moore interception at the Furman 37.
Furman quarterback Trey Hedden threw for 210 yards and a touchdown, completing 19/41 passes with one interception. His favorite target was Colton Hinton, who matched a career high with nine catches for 109 yards and scored on a 30-yard pass from running back Gavin Hall that staked Furman to a 7-0 first quarter lead.

Newbauer and Dabbs gave Mercer a 14-10 lead with a 31-yard scoring play with 42 seconds to go in the first quarter, and 20 seconds later the Bears struck again when safety Tommy Bliss collected a Hedden fumble out of the air and returned it 35 yards for a 21-10 edge following the PAT.
Mercer finished the contest with 503-322 edge in total offense, rushing for 213 and passing for 290.
Paladin linebacker Evan DiMaggio, playing in his final game, was credited with a game-high 18 tackles, including 2-1/2 for losses.

Check out the stats here.

Dylan Schubert finished third to earned his third straight All-America citation Saturday at the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships at Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis., while the 24th-ranked Paladin men’s team placed 17th.
A fifth-year student from Loveland, Colo., Schubert turned in a time of 28:39.6 on the 10-kilometer course and recorded the highest national finish in the history of the Furman cross country program, eclipsing Aaron Templeton’s fifth-place finish in 2018.
The SoCon Men’s Runner of the Year, Schubert claimed the Paladins’ fifth cross country All-America scroll on the men’s side and became the first three-time All-American in Furman cross country history after placing 24th at last year’s championship and 11th in 2022.

Top-ranked BYU edged No. 4 Iowa State by 13 points to win the team title with 124 points, while third-ranked Arkansas finished third with 202 points. Furman tallied 426 points for 17th, defeating 13 ranked teams, including eighth-ranked Alabama (18th), No. 11 Virginia (21st), and No. 18 Princeton (24th).
Senior Carson Williams turned in a time of 29:6.4 to finish 42nd.
Both Furman teams won their 12th straight Southern Conference titles. The Paladin men made their ninth trip to the national championship meet. The Paladins placed 12th at the national meet in 1965, posted a 13th-place finish in 2015, and finished 14th in 2019. Before Saturday, Furman most recently appeared at the national championships in 2021, when the Paladins finished 31st.

Seven players in double figures!
Kate Johnson and Clare Coyle had double doubles to lead the Furman women’s basketball team to a 101-47 victory over the Bob Jones Bruins in women’s basketball on Saturday afternoon at Hayes Gymnasium on the campus of North Greenville University.
Furman improves to 4-2 on the season and travels to Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 26-28, for the GSU Thanksgiving Tournament.
Johnson led seven Paladins in double figures with a game-high 19 points and added 11 rebounds. Coyle came off the bench to contribute 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Raina McGowens scored 11 points, while Tate Walters, Sydney Ryan, Niveya Henley and Jaelyn Acker all scored 10.
Jenna Brooks and Kayley Trump paced Bob Jones (0-1) with 10 points apiece.
Furman concluded the game shooting .461 from the field and forced the Bruins into 28 turnovers.

Check out the stats here.
Volleyball was eliminated from the SoCon Volleyball Championship on Friday evening as the sixth-seeded Paladins fell 3-2 (14-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 13-15) to No. 3 seed East Tennessee State in the quarterfinals at Wofford’s Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
Furman’s season ends with a 13-14 overall record. East Tennessee State improved to 19-10 entering the semifinals.

The Paladins had four players reach double-figure kills on Friday led by Tennyson Gorman’s 13 on .520 hitting. Ava Augustson, Chandler Parker, and Ashley Stein all recorded 12 kills. Augustson (12 digs) and Emily Navarro (25 assists, 12 digs) both tallied double doubles.
Quinn Morrissey dished out 25 assists. Kennedy Seekford led the team with 24 digs and Brooke Scheffer had a career-high 21.
Amanda Lowe’s 15 kills led all players for the Buccaneers, while Reese Rhodes had a double-double of 46 assists and 22 digs. Melanie Morris finished with a match-high 26 digs.

“And all the time she’s been waiting on him, she’s been waiting on you and me” – Tom T. Hall, “Ravishing Ruby”
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