By MONTE DUTTON

In Las Vegas, Nev., late, late on Tuesday night, led by 6-11 Cooper Bowser, Furman won its seventh consecutive men’s basketball game, 61-56, over Seattle University in the Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown at T-Mobile Arena.
A sophomore from Woodbridge, Va., Bowser scored a career-high 17 points and 12 rebounds to notch his first double double.
“[Getting] more time on the court, I feel like just learning the offense, being where I need to be on drives, things like that, having trust in what I worked on all summer, I attribute that,” Bowser said afterward to Furman radio voice Dan Scott. “Oh, man, last year, I was just out there running around and trying to screen somebody.
“This year I’ve been watching a lot of film of the offense and trying to get guys shots, working on running the offense.”
The unbeaten streak is endangered. The Paladins’ next game is Saturday against another unbeaten, top-ranked Kansas, at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.

Perhaps not many know the Redhawks’ history. One of the NBA’s all-time greats played there. Among fans who think basketball began with Michael Jordan, little is known of Elgin Baylor, other than he was the general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers for many years.
Seattle was known as the Chieftains when Baylor played there, but they reached the NCAA finals in 1958, losing to Kentucky.
For the Lakers, Baylor averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds over 14 seasons. He made the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, about seven months after his death at age 86.
The Paladins opened cold. Seattle (2-4) was aggressive and hit the offensive boards hard but couldn’t buy a three-pointer. The result was an idiosyncratic draw for most of the first half, but Furman built a cushion with a series of snazzy passes and Bowser slams. The halftime score was 30-26.

In the first half, Bowser had 13 points and Nick Anderson 10. PJay Smith Jr., the leading Furman scorer for the season, scored 2. Seattle, led by Brayden Maldonado with 7, had 10 offensive rebounds to Furman’s 2, leading 17-12 overall.
After the Redhawks trimmed an 11-point Paladin lead down to two with 4:30 to play, Furman’s defense did not allow a goal the rest of the way. The Paladins held Seattle to just .262 (16/61) shooting, including a 2/19 performance to close the game. It was the first meeting ever versus the Western Athletic Conference member.
Leading 53-51, Eddrin Bronson drained a three from the top of the key with 3:23 to go and Tyrese Hughey followed an offensive rebound by Bowser with a reverse lay-in with 2:17 remaining to push the margin to seven points. Following another defensive stop, Bowser took a pass from Smith and hit a baseline jumper from the left side with 1:31 left.

The Paladins shot .525 from the field and connected on 8/22 three-point attempts to overcome a 42-29 rebounding deficit that included 22 offensive boards and 25 second-chance points for the Redhawks. Furman (7-0) also used a 24-18 edge in points in the paint to offset its struggles on the glass.
On the one hand, Seattle dominated the offensive boards. On the other, Furman dominated the paint. Go figure.
“Great teams have to win games like this,” head coach Bob Richey said to Scott. “They made a very good effort to try to take PJay (Smith) and Nick (Anderson) out of the game, and it really opened up the paint. It put us in a little bit easier position to score at the rim once we were able to deal with the pressure.”
Furman had 18 assists on 21 baskets.
Brayden Maldonado paced Seattle with 15 points while Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe added 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Saturday’s Furman-Kansas game at Allen Fieldhouse begins at 6 p.m. EST.
Take a look at the stats here.

Thirteen Paladins were honored by the Southern Conference on its all-conference football team, as selected by league head coaches.
Furman placed five players on the all-conference squad, and eight earned SoCon All-Freshman Team recognition.
Furman’s first-team honorees were linebacker Evan DiMaggio, bandit Luke Clark, placekicker Ian Williams and return specialist Colton Hinton. Offensive guard Luke Petit was the lone second team pick.
The Paladins’ eight All-Freshman selections topped all schools and featured quarterback Trey Hedden, running back Gavin Hall, tight end Jackson Pryor, defensive tackle Caldwell Bussey, linebacker Ryan Earl, cornerback Jaylan Moson, safety Billy Lewis and long snapper Riley Smith.
DiMaggio, a red-shirt senior and two-year starter, paced the SoCon in tackles this season with 120 stops, including 10-1/2 for-loss, two sacks, a pair of forced fumbles and an interception. The Buford, Ga., product finished his 54-game Paladin tenure with 285 tackles.

Clark, a Louisville, Ky., native and red-shirt senior, made 45 tackles, including 8-1/2 for-loss and three sacks this fall. Sidelined for a pair of games due to injury, the two-time All-SoCon selection posted starts in 35 games and totaled 15 sacks in his Paladin career to rank seventh in program history.
Williams was the SoCon’s most dominant three-position specialist in 2024, handling placekicking, punting and kickoff duties. In placements, he converted 24-of-25 PATs and 14/20 field goal attempts, including a pair of school record 57-yard efforts against Stetson and Mercer, which helped him post a team-leading 66 points. The senior and native of Charlotte, N.C., was named Stats Perform National Special Teams Player of the Week for his work against Stetson and easily ranked as the league’s top kickoff specialist, recording touchbacks on 43/49 kickoffs.

Hinton, a sophomore from Ashburn, Va., averaged 24.0 yards on 32 kickoff returns and 10.7 yards on 11 attempts. He had a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown versus Western Carolina and was also Furman’s top receiver in 2024 with 59 receptions for 649 yards and five touchdowns.
Headlining Furman’s SoCon All-Freshman picks was quarterback Hedden, who made eight starts and passed for 1,767 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first season as a Paladin. The Tampa, Fla., native collected Stats Perform National Freshman Player of the Week laurels after passing for 267 yards and three touchdowns versus Stetson.

A product of Gainesville, Ga., Hall ran for 321 yards and a touchdown in his first season as a Paladin, including 13 carries for a season-high 121 yards against VMI. He also threw a 30-yard touchdown pass in Furman’s regular season finale versus Mercer.
Pryor caught 16 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns in his inaugural campaign as a Paladin. The Boone, N.C., native hauled in a game winning six-yard touchdown pass with a minute to go to help Furman trim The Citadel, 17-16, in Charleston.
Bussey, a red-shirt freshman from Hoover, Ala., moved into the starting lineup at mid-season and finished with campaign with 15 tackles, including 2-1/2 for-loss and a pair of sacks.
A red-shirt freshman from Peachtree City, Ga., Earl saw his playing time increase dramatically as the season progressed, earning action in all 11 games and making three starts en route to finishing the season with 49 tackles, including 5-1/2 for loss.

Another redshirt freshman and a product of Acworth., Ga, Moson earned a starting job in preseason camp until suffering a fractured collarbone following an interception on the final play of Furman’s 17-16 road win over The Citadel. He finished the season with 20 tackles.
Lewis fashioned an impressive red-shirt freshman campaign after getting the fast track into the starting lineup following injuries in the Paladin secondary. The Athens, Ga., native was credited with five starts, 37 tackles and a team-leading three interceptions. He picked off a pair of passes in Furman’s win over Stetson and was named Stats Perform National Freshman of the Week after registering nine tackles, an interception and a forced fumble in Furman’s 24-21 road win over 21st-ranked East Tennessee State.
Smith contributed to the strong performance turned in by Ian Williams, who averaged 40.6 yards on 60 punts.

Olivia Tucker scored 17 points, and Campbell used hot shooting to race past Furman, 82-72, in a Tuesday women’s basketball game at Georgia State’s Thanksgiving tournament played at GSU Convocation Center.
Furman (4-3) takes on host Georgia State (4-2) in a Wednesday ESPN+ noon matchup.
Tucker was joined in double figures by teammates Courtney Dalhquist (13 points), Ciara Alexander (12), and Gianni Boone (11), as the Camels blistered Furman’s defense, shooting .579 from the field (33/57), including 7/20 (.350) from 3-point range.
Campbell entered the contest shooting .378 from the field and .260 percent from 3-point range through its first five games.

Furman’s attack featured five-double figure scorers, led by Tate Walters with 14 points, but the story of the game proved to be Campbell’s ability to break down the Paladins’ defense for high-percentage shots, evidenced by a 48-32 scoring differential in the paint, and converting turnovers into points, as the Camels cashed in 20 Furman turnovers for a 23-9 scoring edge.
Campbell led almost wire-to-wire, using an 8-0 first quarter burst, stoked by a pair of Dalhquist 3-pointers, to grab a 19-10 lead.
The Camels closed out a strong first half when Dahlquist grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw with nine seconds to go and fed Halleigh Dill for a 3-pointer with six seconds on the clock to send Campbell into the locker room with a 41-26 lead.

Furman opened the second half with an 8-2 run to cut the advantage to 43-34, but the Camels put down the rally and took total control with a 10-0 spurt to go up 53-34 on a Tucker 3-point play with four minutes remaining in the period.
The Paladins shot .464 from the field (26/56) but misfired on their first 13 shots from beyond the arc.
Joining Walters in double figures for Furman were Kate Johnson with 13 points, Sydney Ryan with 12, Raina McGowens with 11 and Niveya Henley with 10 points.
Ryan’s 12 rebounds, one shy of her career high, gave her a double-double.
Take a look at the stats here.

Furman’s Dylan Schubert is NCAA Southeast Region Male Athlete of the Year
A fifth-year student from Loveland, Colo., Schubert placed third with a 10-kilometer time of 28:39.6 at Saturday’s NCAA Championship in Madison, Wis., marking the highest national finish in the history of the Furman cross country program. He became the first three-time All-American in Paladin cross country history after placing 24th at last year’s championship and 11th in 2022.
Eighth-ranked Marshall defeated Furman, 4-0, Sunday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Hoops Family Field in Huntington, W.Va.
The Thundering Herd (12-1-7) advanced to face N.C. State in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, while the Paladins conclude the season at 9-4-6.
Following a handball against the Paladins in the 22nd minute, Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos sailed a penalty kick to the left side to give Marshall a 1-0 lead. With six minutes left in the first half, the Thundering Herd scored three goals in just under two minutes to take a 4-0 advantage.
The Paladins managed a shot on goal in the 40th minute, when sophomore Caleb Johnson’s strike to the center of the net was saved by Aleksa Janjic. In the second half, senior Reece Fragle threatened with a shot that was blocked in the 77th minute. Sophomore Ben Boxall’s shot in the 89th minute sailed high to the left.

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