By MONTE DUTTON

It’s early in the annual basketball wars, but both Furman teams are storming the proverbial beaches so far.
The men’s Dins of Bob Richey and the women of Pierre Curtis are a combined 15-4, and both won on the road Wednesday.
Furman won a women’s game at Elon in the morning and a men’s game at Florida Gulf Coast in the night. Both came from behind. Elon led by nine at halftime, and FGCU led by 11.
The potential for disaster was in the Gulf Coast air, but Furman’s balance was as great as the scales of justice in a 76-73 victory over Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday night in Fort Myers.

The Paladins, after spotting the Eagles a 13-point lead twice in the second half, thwarted an ambush.
Eleven played. Nine scored, three in double figures. Eight snagged rebounds. Eight handed out assists.
“We needed energy,” Ben Vander Wal said to radio voice Dan Scott afterwards. “We went in the tunnel (halftime) down 11, and it was the first time we’ve been down double figures with the exception of Kansas. It was kind of a gut check for us. We kind of realized, the Kansas game is over.
“Our leadership was lacking in the first half from some of our veterans, including myself. Leadership and energy go hand in hand, and as leaders, we’ve got to bring the energy every game.”

FGCU (3-6) has taken some tough losses. The Eagles came into the game riding close victories over Florida International (60-59) and Florida Atlantic (80-78). Thus far, they have lost to UNC Greensboro and Saint Bonaventure by nine points, Drake by two and Northeastern by four.
Oh, yeah. Furman by three. With their fourth road victory so far, the Paladins matched their total of last season’s full slate. They were 4-10.
Furman (8-1) completed a four-game road trip that saw them play four games in three time zones over two weeks. The only loss was to the top-ranked team in the country, Kansas (that is, until Creighton upended the Jayhawks Wednesday night).
The Paladins began it by defeating Charleston Southern by 21 points. The Buccaneers have since upset Miami.

Furman outrebounded FGCU, 20-6, in the second half, during which the Eagles never pulled down a single offensive board. Not surprisingly, given the numbers, the Paladins outscored FGCU, 19-5, in the final 6:45.
The game’s biggest play wasn’t a basket. It was a steal by Nick Anderson, followed by both ends of a one-and-one at the foul line that gave Furman a 74-71 lead with 19 seconds to play. Anderson is 12/12 for the season to date.
FGCU cut the Furman lead back to a single point twice in the final minute, but Smith and Anderson each went 2/2 at the line.
The Paladins wrapped it up, but only when FGCU’s Jevin Muniz missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer. It failed to draw iron from about 30 feet.

PJay Smith Jr. led Furman with 18 points. He hit 4/6 three-pointers, 6/12 shots altogether, and Anderson and Vander Wal shared the wealth with 10. Vander Wal had three blocks, one of which marked something of a point of departure in the Paladins’ latter-half rally.
The teams went back and forth until the waning minutes of the first half, at which point FGCU pulled out to an 11-point lead, 44-33.
The Eagles closed on a 13-1 run and hit 18/32 first-half shots.
Furman, meanwhile, shot 13/32 overall, 5/15 on threes and 2/6 free throws. FGCU outrebounded the Paladins, 20-14, and outscored them, 22-12, in the paint. Furman did not hit a field goal after 3:17, when Tyrese Hughey’s bucket put it up, 32-31.
The Paladins made some inroads early in the second, but none of it stuck until, predictably, Richey called for a press, and, effectively, it disrupted the Eagles’ attack.
“I just felt like we were kind of in the mud, so, 10 minutes to go, I called the timeout to start pressing,” said Bob Richey to Scott. “We didn’t have any answers in terms of getting our guys to fly around and play our kind of basketball.

“[FGCU] had a really good plan. They threw some stuff at us we really hadn’t seen. Fortunately, our guys kind of woke up, and we did what we had to do.”
Furman executed a 9-0 run in a 1:17 span, narrowing the Eagles’ edge to 67-66. Two Chuck Johnston free throws put the Paladins up by one with 4:13 remaining.
Furman shot .443 from the field, including 10/30 from 3-point range, and connected on 12/16 free throws. FGCU shot .527 but allowed the Paladins to score 18 points off the Eagles’ 10 turnovers.
Zavian McLean led FGCU (3-6) with 19 points and was its rebounding leader with five. Muniz finished with 16. Dallion Johnson added 11 and Rahmir Barno 10.
Furman is back home at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday to host the Princeton Tigers at noon.
Take a look at the stats here.

Tate Walters splashed a pair of late three-pointers, reaching 1,000 career points in the process, as Furman rallied to edge Elon, 61-57, on the road Tuesday morning.
The win was the third straight and fifth in the last six games for Furman (7-3), which has played seven of its first 10 contests on the road.
Forced to the bench after picking up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter and with Furman facing a 38-28 deficit, Walters, a graduate guard, returned with 4:55 remaining in the game and tied it at 52-52 with a step-back 3-pointer from the top of the circle.

After freshman guard Chantelle Stuart’s trey put the Paladins ahead 55-52 with 2:31 to go, Walters ripped the cord with her second three-pointer of the period, from the right wing at the 1:48 mark, to complete a 9-0 Furman run that extended the Paladins’ advantage to 58-52.
Raven Preston converted a layup to pull Elon within 58-54, but Kate Johnson put the game out of reach with a short jumper for a 60-54 lead with 21 seconds to go.

Walters, who logged just 18 minutes of court time, finished the game with 13 points, her final basket — and third 3-pointer of the contest — giving her 1,000 points in her career to become the 27th player in Furman history to reach the plateau.
Johnson led all scorers with 17 points on the strength of 7/9 shooting.
Sydney Ryan contributed nine points and a game-high eight rebounds, and Stuart, who played most of her 19 minutes in relief of Walters, finished with eight points while delivering a pair of triples.
The Paladins trailed 29-20 at intermission and faced a pair of double-digit deficits in the third quarter before cutting Elon’s advantage to 42-38 following a layup by Raina McGowens, who then fed Johnson for a layup with seconds to go in the frame.
Furman’s surge continued in the fourth quarter when freshman Clare Coyle battled for an offensive rebound and hit Ryan for a three-pointer to pull the Paladins to within 42-41.

Stuart’s layup with 7:38 on the clock gave Furman a 45-44 lead — its first since the first quarter — and marked the first of six lead changes until Walters tied it at 52-52 with a three-pointer to ignite the Paladins’ decisive 9-0 run.
The Paladins overcame lackluster .316 percent shooting and 14 turnovers in the first half by finding the mark on 17/32 shots (.531) and halving their miscues over the final 20 minutes. Furman also erased a 19-14 first-half rebounding deficit to earn a 34-34 draw on the boards, led by Coyle’s seven.
Preston and Hannah Dereje Hannah led Elon (4-3) with 12 points apiece.
Take a look at the stats here.

Head coach Clay Hendrix announced the addition of 10 high-school recruits to the Paladins’ football program on Wednesday.
Furman’s additions include three offensive linemen, two linebackers, two defensive backs, a running back, a wide receiver and a defensive lineman.
Two of the three offensive lineman are products of the Upstate and are Shrine Bowl selections, Greenville High School’s Hunter Taylor and Hillcrest’s Bryce Rainwater. Brady Smith, from Franklin, Tenn., and product of Christ Presbyterian Academy (coached by Furman quarterback great Ingle Martin), rounds out the group of offensive linemen.
The Paladins’ two linebacker additions are Caleb Ellison of Murfreesboro, Tenn., (Oakland H.S.) and Nick Simmons from Waycross, Ga. (Ware County H.S.).

Connor Adams from Glen Burnie, Md. (Old Mill H.S.) and Caleb Easterling of Richmond Hill, Ga., represent Furman’s defensive-back signees. Adams will enroll in January and take part in spring practice.
Pensacola, Fla., native C.J. Nettles (Pensacola Catholic H.S.) is the lone addition to Furman’s backfield. He rushed for 3,886 yards and 62 touchdowns in his prep career.
Furman’s wide receiver signee, Evan James from Tavares, Fla. (Leesburg H.S.), caught 46 passes for 962 yards and eight touchdowns this fall.
Maddox Dykeman of Peachtree City, Ga. (McIntosh H.S.) is the latest addition to the Paladin defensive front.

The cross country/track program signed seven runners, four men and three women.
Signed were women Tessa Walter of Colorado Springs, Colo., Annie Miller of Matthews, N.C., and Elly Velasquez of Glen Allen, Va.
Joining the men were Ty Jones of Greenville, Jack Wallace of Nashville, Tenn., Ben Winn of Cumming, Ga., and Zach Youngblood of Houston, Texas.

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