By MONTE DUTTON

Under Pierre Curtis’s direction, Furman women’s basketball is flexing its Southern Conference muscles.

Lauren Bailey scored 15 points to lead a balanced Furman attack, and the Paladins rode a strong second-half defensive effort to beat Samford, 70-62, in women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Pete Hanna Center in Homewood, Ala.

The victory was the fourth straight and seventh in the last eight games for Furman (13-8, 5-1 SoCon), which achieved its best six-game start in league play since 2004-05. It also halted a four-game series losing skid to Samford (8-14, 1-4).

Bailey’s 15 points came on 5/9 accuracy from three-point range, with 12 of her points coming in the first half, when the Paladins survived a 25-point second quarter by Samford that sent the Bulldogs into the break with a 40-32 lead.

It was a different story in the second half as the Paladins ramped up the defensive pressure, limiting the Bulldogs to just 9/30 shooting (.300) and 22 points over the final 20 minutes of play.

After Samford pushed out to a 58-50 advantage two and half minutes into the fourth quarter, Furman responded with a 10-0 run as four players — Raina McGowens, Brooklyn King, Chantelle Stuart and Clare Coyle — combined to defy the team’s .610 season free-throw percentage by converting 8/10 opportunities from the stripe to give the Paladins a 60-58 lead with five minutes to go.

The Bulldogs’ Sierra Godbolt tied it at 60-60 with a layup a minute later, but Furman responded with consecutive layups by King, Alyssa Ervin and Coyle to stretch its advantage to 66-60 and help the Paladins finish the contest with a 20-4 run.

Coyle and Stuart followed Bailey in the scoring column with 13 points apiece. Ervin finished with 12 and McGowens 10.

Coyle complemented her seventh double-double of the season with a game-high 15 rebounds that earned the Paladins a decisive 42-28 advantage on the glass. The Jacksonville, Fla., sophomore forward also passed out a career-high six assists.

King delivered seven points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Furman shot .411 from the field, connecting on 23/56 attempts, and dialed in 7/18 shots from three-point range (.389).

Samford converted 6/12 treys in the first half, but the Paladins limited the Bulldogs to just 2/16 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Godbolt, Kaylee Yarbrough and Briana Rivera paced Samford with 13 points apiece.

The Paladins play next on Friday at Wofford in Spartanburg.

Take a look at the stats here.

Change is the most reliable aspect of history, and it’s been exponentially accelerating for my entire life.

It’s everything. Technology. Politics. Sports. Law. Order. Music. Comedy. Transportation. Fashion. What is acceptable. What isn’t. Getting older means you’ve seen more change and are thus a bit resistant. You still have to cope with it and try to figure it out.

The only productive choice amidst perpetual change is to try to change with it. Clocks don’t actually turn back.

The two NFL conference championship games could not have been more different.

I’m sure it was cold in Denver, but in the first half, on TV, it looked as if the game could have been in Tuscaloosa. In the second half, it looked as if the game could have been in Nuuk, which, as we all recently learned, is the territorial capital of Greenland.

New England won, 10-7. Three points in that blizzard were like two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Then the Rams played in Seattle, and Matt Stafford versus Sam Darnold looked like Unitas versus Starr, Bradshaw versus Staubach, or Brady versus Manning. Darnold and the Seahawks won, 31-27, so it was more like Brady versus Eli Manning.

I dozed off a couple times in the AFC game, all whited out at the end. The NFC game was Sleepless in Seattle.

The Seahawks are the Super Bowl favorites in my semiliterate estimation, which means I’ll probably find myself rooting for the Patriots on account of my love of underdogs.

I’ve been a good boy during this freeze-out, doing as my staff meteorologists have advised by staying inside and learning to function in my humble new abode. In addition to considerable watching of sports, drinking of coffee, and surviving otherwise on toasted Pop Tarts and microwave popcorn, I watched some old movies that were humdingers and sang myself hoarse while plunking away at my guitar.

I’m liable to do a heap of reading on one of these Winter Olympics-style days still ahead.

There’s no good time to move, but the worst weather weekend of the winter is not one of them.

For now, I’m losing a game of catch-up. I’ll soon have more time to devote to my modest craft. Three times last week I had to pass up games I’d intended to cover because of unexpected circumstances. It’ll normalize, but I’ve been telling myself that for a long time.

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