Montreat put a scare in Furman for most of a half, but Furman’s depth and versatility enabled the Paladins to pull away to a 100-75 victory over Montreat in a Wednesday-night home game at Davis Field House on the Bob Jones University campus.
Guard Nick Anderson scored a season-high 21 points to lead five Paladins in double figures as Furman in the non-conference home finale.
Furman (11-1) ended the first half on a 24-6 run to erase a 30-21 deficit and carry a 44-36 lead into the break before draining 11 three-pointers over the final 20 minutes to pull away away from the game NAIA school. It’s just the fifth start of 11-1 or better for a Paladin team in the program’s history.

Anderson connected on 5/12 three-point attempts and added a game-high five assists. Junior Tom House went 5/11 behind the arc to finish with 19 points, while Ben Vander Wal made 6/9 field goal attempts to post a career-high 16 points and team-high eight rebounds. Redshirt-freshman Eddrin Bronson added a career-best 15 points and Cooper Bowser contributed 10.
Jarden Maze scored 20 of his game-high 22 points in the opening 12 minutes to push the Cavaliers to a 30-21 lead, but Anderson and VanderWal keyed an 18-2 spurt that turned the nine-point deficit into a 39-32 Paladin lead on House’s triple with 2:05 left in the first half.

“I haven’t seen many games where a guy (Maze) goes for 20 points against us in the first [12] minutes,” said Furman head coach Bob Richey. “Some of that was him, but some of it was on us. … I thought, at about the 10-minute mark of the half, we got a little better.
“We had a constructive halftime and, for sure, came out right at the beginning of the second half. … Was it our best night? No, but we’re not going to have our best night every single game.”

The Paladins played without leading scorer PJay Smith Jr., who suffered a dislocated shoulder against South Carolina State. Richey said he has recovered faster than expected but doesn’t know yet if he will play on Saturday at Harvard.
Two other mainstays, Charles Johnston and Davis Molnar, also were unable to play.
Furman shot 50 percent and connected on 16/44 three-point attempts. The Paladins fashioned a 46-37 edge on the glass, including 13 offensive boards, to finished with 20 second-chance points.

Richey’s team totaled 18 points off 12 Montreat turnovers while committing just seven miscues.
Jack Keller and A.J. Baskerville scored 13 points apiece to join Maze in double figures for Montreat (9-5).
“Making shots is contagious,” Richey said. “Missing shots is contagious. You miss shots, and it just builds pressure on the next one. You make a shot, and it just pulls pressure off the next one.
The Paladins close out 2024 and their non-conference schedule with a 3 p.m. tip-off versus Harvard (3-7) at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday.
Take a look at the stats here.

Furman battled back from a pair of 17-point first-half deficits to take an early fourth-quarter lead before falling to Boise State, 74-65, in Wednesday afternoon’s opening round of the Husky Classic, played at the Alaska Airlines Arena on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle.
The loss snaps a five-game winning streak for Furman (9-4), which will face host Washington on Thursday in a 5 p.m. EST matchup.
Natalie Pasco scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, including a trio of 3-pointers, to fuel a 12-0 run by Boise State (10-2) that helped the Broncos race to a 28-13 lead after one quarter.

Boise State (10-2) enjoyed a pair of 17-point advantages in the second period before Raina McGowens bottomed out a 3-pointer to open an 8-0 Furman spurt that trimmed the Broncos’ lead to 38-29.
The Paladins continued to put their own hoof to the Broncos in third quarter, using an 8-0 run, capped by a Tate Walters’ 3-pointer, to trim the lead to 46-44 less than three minutes into the frame.

Jada Session pulled Furman even at 50-50 with a jump shot with a little over a minute left, and Seattle native Niveya Henley tied it again at 53-53 with a wing jumper to open the fourth quarter.
A little over a minute later, Walters fed a cross-court skip pass to Sydney Ryan, who buried a 3-pointer to give the Paladins a 56-53 lead, their first since early in the first quarter.

A pair of Henley baskets helped Furman maintain its edge before Teryn Gardner stroked a 3-pointer with 7:05 to go to put Boise State up, 61-60, igniting a decisive 10-0 run over a near-four minute span that gave the Broncos a 68-60 lead and control.
Pasco’s performance came on 7/13 shooting, including 4/7 from beyond the arc. Bayes finished with 19 points for the Broncos, who converted 9/21 three-pointers in the contest as part of a .500 shooting effort (29/58).

BSU hit on 12/16 shots in the its big first quarter.
Furman placed five players in double figures, led by Henley’s 14 points. Ryan and Session followed with 12 points apiece, and Walters joined Kate Johnson with 10-point performances for the Paladins, who shot .397 (25/63) from the field and 8/20 (.400) from 3-point range.
The Broncos claimed a 34-28 edge in rebounding, led by Abby Muse’s seven. Take a look at the stats here.

Furman linebacker Evan DiMaggio is a 2024 Stats Perform All-American.
A red-shirt senior from Buford, Ga., who served as a team captain this year and earned first team All-Southern Conference honors in voting by league coaches, DiMaggio was named to the third team after pacing the SoCon with 120 tackles. His work included 10-1/2 tackles for loss, two sacks, a pair of forced fumbles and four pass breakups.

DiMaggio appeared in 54 games and was a two-year starter for the Paladins. He was credited with 285 tackles in his career.
He was central figure on Furman’s 2023 Southern Conference championship team that went 10-3 and advanced to the FCS playoff quarterfinals with a defense that topped the SoCon and ranked among FCS leaders in virtually every statistical category, including, among others, scoring defense (18.2 ppg), rushing defense (96.9 ypg), total defense (316.0 ypg), sacks (38), turnovers gained (27) and turnover margin (+1.31).
He earned SoCon Defensive Player of the Week honors after registering 10 tackles and a pair of sacks in a 29-17 road victory over eighth-ranked Western Carolina.

DiMaggio is four-time selection to the Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll and two-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-District pick.
He is the 76th football All-American in Furman history.
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