By MONTE DUTTON

Cooper Bowser guards Corey Tripp (10) (Monte Dutton photos).

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – It’s not the first time I’ve invoked the memory of the late Jim Beauchamp on such occasions, and it probably won’t be the last. I think of “Beech” (his name was pronounced “BEE-chum”) often because he was larger than life.
After a Greenville Braves loss, Beech, the skipper, used to doff his cap and, a bit grandiosely, say, “Sometimes, fellas, you just got to tip your cap to the opposition.”
Such was the case in Wofford’s 92-85 victory over Furman in the finals of the Ingles Southern Conference Championship. The Paladins played hard and well. The Terriers played hard and better.
It happens. It hurts. But it happens.

In the second half, Wofford (19-15) shot .684 from the field, .615 from deep and .840 from the free-throw line. Furman’s corresponding numbers were .452, .294 and .929. For the game, the Terriers shot .542, .500 and .788. Furman (25-9) shot .492, .394 and .900.
Both were good enough to win. Wofford was good enough to win Space Jam.
I asked tournament MVP Kyle Filewich a question he’s probably been asked 100 times, namely, why he played basketball at Wofford instead of ice hockey somewhere near his Winnipeg, Manitoba, home. I might have asked him if he’d ever competed in the Calgary Stampede, but I knew that’s in Alberta.

Filewich said he turned to hoops because he wasn’t any good on the ice, which is rather hard to believe. He migrated to Wofford after two seasons at Southern Illinois, and he traded some impressive licks with Cooper Bowser and Charles Johnston throughout. They put him at the line, where hit hit 3/7, but it put both in foul trouble.
Filewich is a fierce 6-9, 250-pound center who can do almost everything except hit free throws. He tossed them up underhanded at a .318 clip this season, but he hit two in a row with 5:32 remaining that gave Wofford a four-point lead and me a sinking feeling.

Jackson Sivills led Wofford with 20 points on 4/7 shooting behind the arc, and Justin Bailey finished with 19. Dillon Bailey hit 4/7 triples to score 15 points and the tournament’s most outstanding player, Filewich, added 13.
“I was just doing my best to win,” Sivills said. “That was my main prerogative, my only prerogative. That’s all I’ve wanted since I got my offer: put another banner up in Jerry Richardson (the Terriers’ home venue).”

PJay Smith went 6/12 from the floor and 11/11 at the foul line to score a game-high 27 points. With his 11 free throws, the senior increased his run of consecutive made free throws to 43. The LaVergne, Tenn., native, who averaged 25.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists for the tournament, earned first team all-tournament honors.

Nick Anderson, who joined Smith on the first team, added 15 points, and Garrett Hien, who won 108 games as a Paladin, contributed 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Charles Johnston and Cooper Bowser rounded out the Paladins’ double-figure scorers with 12 and 11, respectively. Bowser was selected second-team all-tournament.
Anderson played only a season at Furman, Smith two. At the beginning of the season, the Paladins were missing four of their top five scorers from a 17-16 season.

“At the start of the season, we have no players, we have no scoring, and they refused to buy into that,” head coach Bob Richey said. “This will go down as one of the best teams in school history, just subjectively.”
Wofford scored the first eight points of the game and led by as many as 13 points in the first half before Furman rallied to take a 39-37 advantage into halftime. The lead changed hands five times in the second half, with Sivills’ three with 1:26 remaining giving the Terriers the lead for good.

Sivills, Dillon Bailey, Tripp and Filewich all played their final games for the Terriers, as did Smith, Anderson, Hien and Tyrese Hughey for the Paladins.
The crowd was electric, as close to capacity (6,332) as a final can be when only two of the 10 teams are still in town. On the drive home, I tried to think of a similar atmosphere, and all I could come up with was a 64-58 Clemson win at Memorial Auditorium in 1978-79.
“When we were down 10 to start the game, and we start going on a run, they got into it,” said Hien. “It was freaking purple in here. It was amazing.
“Even when we were down, they were still cheering. They always had our backs.”
Take a look at the stats here.

First Team All-Tournament
PJay Smith Jr., Furman
Nick Anderson, Furman
Honor Huff, Chattanooga
Kyler Filewich, Wofford
Corey Tripp, Wofford
Second Team All-Tournament
Rickey Bradley, VMI
Jackson Sivills, Wofford

Ahmad Robinson, Mercer
Augustinas Kiudulas, VMI
Cooper Bowser, Furman
MVP – Kyler Filewich, Wofford
Furman in the finals means all day exploring. I love Asheville because it is different. It has 15 tattoo parlors and live-music venues for every Dollar General. I listened to a tune by Brown Sabbath on a local radio station. I’m sure it’d get old if I lived here, but I find it endlessly amusing at the tournament every year.

Imagine Austin, Texas, smaller and in the mountains.
Words can ill express my appreciation for the assistance I’ve been getting from lifelong friends and acquaintances in regard to my health struggles. I am deeply touched 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. I’ve written two novels about stock-car racing, Lightning in a Bottle, and the sequel, Life Gets Complicated, both about fictional young driver Barrie Jarman.
Thanks for putting up with me.