By MONTE DUTTON

My life is seldom mediocre. One night my old high school wins the Upstate championship game. The next morning my truck won’t start.
No obvious reason except the cold. I drove straight home from Clinton High School’s Wilder Stadium on Friday night and worked till 3 a.m. on the story and the photos. I rose at about 9 a.m. and moved as rapidly as possible toward leaving for the Well and the Princeton-Furman game. I packed for the trip and walked out with backpack and camera.
Click-click-click-click-click.
I tried to reach several friends to jump my truck off. On Friday night, close to 6,000 fans watched the Red Devils triumph, 32-21, about two miles from my house. I didn’t have much time. A vast array of Clinton businesses aren’t open. An array of friends didn’t rise as early as I did.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Fortunately, I have wi-fi, ESPN+ and ample provisions of coffee, tea, Pop Tarts, peanut butter, milk and raisin bran. A pizza delivery may be in order. A pizza delivery may be in demand because Clemson is playing SMU.

PJay Smith Jr. scored 23 points, but Furman finished off Princeton, 69-63, without him in a game that ended in a gunfight.
Not an accurate gunfight, but a gunfight.
In the post-game radio interview with Dan Scott, head coach Bob Richey labeled his team “Find a Way Furman,” and the term just might stick.
“It was two high-level programs going at it, blow for blow,” Richey said.

Princeton defeated Furman, 70-69, on their home court 371 days earlier.
Smith was all over the place, complementing his points with eight rebounds, four steals, four turnovers and three assists. What complicated matters was Smith being unavailable in the final 1:50 because he fouled out.

Trailing 52-45 with under 11:30 to play, Furman went on a 17-4 run to grab the lead and allowed just three Princeton baskets the rest of the way.
After Furman led by as many as 13 points in the first half, Princeton put together a 14-2 spurt early in the second to wrest away the lead and build a 52-45 advantage with 11:27 to go when C.J. Happy connected on a three-pointer and Peyton Seals drained a pair of free throws.
A Tom House three and two free throws from Smith ignited the Paladins’ decisive rally. Following a Xavian Lee basket, Tyrese Hughey and Smith scored in the paint and House converted on two trips to the foul line to give the Paladins a 56-54 lead with 7:43 to play.

Furman’s defense held Princeton without a basket from Lee’s two-pointer at the 9:51 mark until Caden Pierce’s basket cut into the Paladins’ 62-56 cushion with 4:24 left on the clock. Lee followed the Pierce basket with a pair of free throws to trim the margin to 62-60 and Smith picked up his fifth personal foul, but Ben Vander Wal answered with a reverse layup with 1:12 to go to put Furman ahead 64-60.
The Paladins were splendid at start and finish.
Furman (9-1) rolled to a 14-2 lead on the doggedness of Garrett Hien, who wound up with 10 points and seven rebounds, the long-range shooting of Nick Anderson, and Ben Vander Wal’s aggressiveness on the boards.

Halfway through the first half, the margin was 19-9 after Cooper Bowser ’s slam off Smith’s assist.
Princeton (7-4), as the TV announcers reminded us, wasn’t going away, and shortly before the three-minute mark, the Tigers whittled a 13-point lead, at its peak, to three. Smith popped his fourth 3-pointer of the half with 2:11 left and restored the edge to 35-29. It was 37-29 at the half.
A MalikAbdullahi lay-in gave Princeton its first lead, 43-42, with 15:05 remaining. The Tigers went on a 7-0 run as the Paladins went cold for over 3-1/2 minutes.
Anderson finally ended the drought with a 3-pointer, but it stemmed the tide momentarily and the Tigers led, 52-45, with 10:51 left.

Of course, the Paladins rallied, led by Smith, who had scored 11 relatively quick points, and Furman retook the lead on two free throws by Tom House, 56-54.
Furman’s first-half artistry returned, though it was a flawed masterpiece. The similar styles of the teams turned it into a triumph of resolve, not elegance.
Smith was charged with his fourth foul with 2:12 remaining. He remained on the floor … and fouled out with 1:50 to play.
Chuck Smith popped two free throws to boost the lead to 56-51 with 52 seconds left, but Lee answered with a layup.
Lee made the second free throw of a one-and-one opportunity on Princeton’s next possession to trim the Furman lead to 64-61 before Charles Johnston, Vander Wal and House combined to hit 5/6 free throws over the final 52 seconds. Vander Wal and Eddrin Bronson both blocked shots in the final 10 seconds to help Furman hold the Tigers without a field goal over the final three possessions.

The Paladins managed a 38-35 rebounding edge and grabbed 14 offensive boards that led to 13 second-chance points. Furman shot .431 from the floor and limited Princeton to .389 shooting.
Lee scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds for Princeton. Dalen Davis added 13 points and Pierce 11.
“It’s a great day to be a Din,” said Richey. “That’s a heck of a win and a great series with them. That’s two classic games versus Princeton, I don’t care what level of basketball you’re playing.”
Furman returns to action next Saturday when it hosts South Carolina State in another noon game at The Well.
Take a look at the stats here.

Has anyone else noticed that it’s Vander Wal, not VanderWal? It’s on the back of his jersey, which I noticed last season and asked him about it. It’s obviously not a point of contention for Ben, which is why, to the best of my knowledge, not many others have noticed.
It’s a subtle difference.

Coming off a 61-57 comeback road victory over Elon on Wednesday, women’s basketball aims for its fourth consecutive victory on Sunday when Charleston Southern visits Hayes Gymnasium on the campus of North Greenville University at 2 p.m.
Hayes Gymnasium serves as the primary home court for the Paladins this season while Timmons Arena, the university’s home venue, undergoes a $40 million renovation.
The Paladins are scheduled to play 10 of their 12 home games in 2024-45 at Hayes Gymnasium, as well as two contests — UNC Greensboro (Jan.18) and Wofford (Feb. 8) — at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in downtown Greenville.
Sunday’s contest will be streamed via ESPN+.

Furman (7-3) has gotten off to a quality start under second-year head coach Pierre Curtis. A pair of wins over Georgia State (85-74) and Purdue Fort Wayne (88-84, OT) last week in Atlanta and the win over Elon constitute the Paladins’ three-game winning streak
Fueling the Paladins’ early-season success has been a well-balanced squad led by graduate guard Tate Walters (13.1 ppg) and senior forward Kate Johnson (13.6, 7.7 rpg). Walters overcame foul trouble to deliver a pair of late-game 3-pointers — part of a 9-0 run — that delivered the win over Elon. The Buford, Ga., product’s final trey against the Phoenix gave her 1,000 points in her Paladin career to become the 27th player in program history to reach the four-digit plateau.
Johnson, meanwhile, tallied a game-high 17 points against Elon and boasts a team leading .617 field-goal percentage.
Rebounding has been a major Furman strength through 10 games, reflected in a +10.5 margin. The board work has helped overcome the Paladins’ struggle with turnovers (18.5/game).
Additional help could soon be realized with the return of senior All-SoCon forward Jada Session, the Paladins’ top scorer (13.1 ppg) and rebounder (8.1 rpg) a year ago.

Charleston Southern (3-7) has played an ambitious-early season schedule, including games against North Carolina and LSU. The Buccaneers have won two of their last three games but fell 86-45 to College of Charleston in their last outing on Tuesday.
Furman, which trimmed Charleston Southern 71-68 a year ago in North Charleston, has won 16 of the last 17 meetings with the Buccaneers and leads the all-time series, 25-6.

Sophomore Brayden Seymour won the men’s 3,000 meters and freshman Delaney Vickers took gold in the women’s 1,000 to lead the Paladin indoor track and field team at the Clemson Opener on Friday.
Seymour, a native of Oviedo, Fla., paced the Paladins with a time of 8:09.47 in the 3,000. Furman runners grabbed the top eight spots, including senior Foster Wilfong, who placed second with a time of 8:14.60, and fifth-year student Ethan Domitrovich, who took third at 8:16.56.

Vickers, from Hoover, Ala., won the 1,000 with a time of 2:51.66, and freshman Claire Cook took fifth in the 600 at 1:34.28.

Furman’s Dylan Schubert crushed the previous Paladin indoor 5,000-meter record Saturday at the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston, Mass.

A senior from Loveland, Colo,. Schubert finished fifth with a time of 13:17.89, breaking the former Furman record of 13:29.95, which he set last season.  Schubert’s time ranks fifth nationally on the NCAA indoor championships qualifying list.  

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Wellpilgrim.com is winding down the fall making a transition to the winter chill. The bounces of the balls are getting truer.
Times are changing. I am aware of how irrelevant what I do for a living has become and thus how unimportant my efforts are. The readers appreciate them, but there aren’t enough of them. I doubt there ever will be again.
It’s what I do. It’s what I know.

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I read the entire Bible, and one result was Crazy of Natural Causes (2015), which is not an inspirational novel. It’s something of a response to the hypocrisy I perceived in reading Christ’s words and comparing them to the way they are sometimes taught.
Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.
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