What happened on Wednesday night at Pete Hanna Center and (technically) Homewood, Ala., gave Furman an injection of optimism as the Southern Conference tournament nears.
Senior PJay Smith Jr. matched a career-high with 32 points, and Furman completed a regular-season sweep over the reigning SoCon champ, winning, 80-72, in front 2,165.
Furman (20-8, 8-7 SoCon) secured its 14th 20-win season in school history, seventh in the last nine years, and sixth under head coach Bob Richey. The win coupled with last month’s 72-70 victory over Samford (20-8, 10-5) in Greenville.

Like the first game, the Paladins held on for dear life after Samford overcame considerable deficits. Furman led by 18 points in the former half and 21 early in the latter. Dear life was considerably more achievable because Furman popped 20/22 free throws in C second half.
The Paladins opened the second half on an 8-0 spurt to push their lead to 51-30 on Ben Vander Wal’s basket with 17:36 to play. Samford turned up the pressure and fashioned a 10-0 run before Cooper Bowser’s tip-in with 12:06 left put Furman ahead 53-41. The Bulldogs trimmed the Paladin lead down to seven, and Nick Anderson responded with a three-pointer to restore the margin to 59-49 with 9:16 to go.

The basket by Anderson proved to be the last for Furman until the final two minutes of the game as Samford chipped away at the lead and knotted the game at 64-64 on Rylan Jones’ layup with 3:44 remaining. Bowser drained a pair of free throws to restore Furman’s lead. After three consecutive turnovers, two by Samford, Smith converted on a pair of free throws to push the margin to 68-64 with 2:30 to go.
“[Samford] has a way of going about their business,” Richey said afterwards to radio voice Dan Scott. “They make a game chaotic. They made a great run. This place got to rocking. They picked up the pressure. We got a little sped up.

“The whole message tonight was this game honors toughness, and that’s what we built this on. We have to make a decision every single day that’s we’re going to play with the toughness necessary, the passion and the perseverance and the grit it takes to win games.”
Richey switched to a 1-3-1 zone that seemed to hinder the Bulldogs’ aggressiveness on the offensive end. Following a defensive rebound and Paladin timeout, Smith hit a step-back jumper in the lane to complete a 6-0 run and hand Furman a 70-64 advantage with 1:07 left.

The teams traded a pair of free throws before Samford’s Jaden Brownell scored off an offensive rebound and Trey Fort converted following a Paladin turnover to cut the Furman lead to 74-72 with 29 seconds on the clock. Furman, however, held Samford off the board in the final 30 seconds while Eddrin Bronson, Anderson and Smith each buried a pair of free throws to seal the Paladins’ eighth true road win of the campaign.
Smith was 6/9 beyond the arc and 12/13 at the foul line to post his top scoring night in a Furman jersey – he once scored 32 versus Auburn Montgomery while at Lee (Tenn.) University — while Bowser netted 16 points on 6/8 shooting from the field and a 4/6 effort at the foul line. Anderson rounded out the Paladins’ double-figure scorers with 13 points.

Furman shot .432, hit 11/26 three-point attempts and posted a season-best .852 (23/27) performance at the charity stripe.
Samford scored 26 second-chance points off 14 offensive rebounds and held a 30-20 advantage in points in the paint, but the Bulldogs were limited to .388 shooting. Brownell totaled 25 points, while Fort and Josh Holloway scored 14 apiece.
Furman returns home to host Virginia Military for Senior Day at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday at noon. The Keydets (13-15, 7-8) enter the contest trailing the Paladins by a game in the SoCon standings. Keeping sixth place means a first-round bye in the tournament.
At present, Chattanooga is 12-3, UNC Greensboro 11-4, Samford 10-5, ETSU 9-6, Wofford 9-6, Furman 8-7, VMI 7-8, Mercer 5-10, Western Carolina 4-11 and The Citadel 0-15.
VMI won its first meeting with Furman, 91-82, on Jan. 22 in Lexington, Va.

Take a look at the stats here.
Words can ill express my appreciation for the assistance I’ve been getting from lifelong friends and acquaintances in regard to my recent health struggles. I’m not particularly emotional. It’s not unusual for six months to pass before I cry even at the most heartwrenching of tragedies.
I am deeply touched, though, at the concern of people I’ve known for most of my life.
The coming months will bring more change, and I don’t know yet what shape it will take.

From time to time, I have thought it a shame that people don’t often know what others think of them while they are alive. I’ve had a rough go of it recently, but I know that others respect, appreciate and support me.
Thanks for reading my stories, overlooking my flaws and indulging our differences.
My books, most of them fiction, are available at Amazon and on other bookseller sites. If you’d like to sample my fiction, try Longer Songs, a collection of short stories, all derived from songs I’ve written.
Thanks for putting up with me.