By MONTE DUTTON

Furman entered the weekend tied for third in the Southern Conference and exited it tied for second.

A win in Johnson City Wednesday night and the Paladins are tied for tops.

Currently in a three-way tie for second place, Furman (16-7, 7-3) visits league-leading East Tennessee State (16-7, 8-2) for a 7 p.m. clash at Freedom Hall.

Furman seeks its fourth straight win and 13^th in the last 16 games. Freshman Alex Wilkins led the way with a career-high 33 points and the Paladins shot .500 from the field to complete a regular-season sweep of Chattanooga. Wilkins scored the most points by a Paladin rookie since Jonathan Moore totaled a freshman-record 34 versus Georgia in December of 1976.

The battle for first place between the Paladins and Buccaneers will be streamed live on ESPN+. Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy call the action on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg, and via the Audacy app.

ETSU rolled to an 86-72 win at Wofford on Sunday. The first of two regular-season clashes between Furman and ETSU marks the 72^nd series meeting, with the Paladins holding a 36-35 edge. ETSU earned a season split and stopped a five-game Furman winning streak in the series with a 72-69 victory in the most recent meeting between the schools on Feb. 2, 2025, in Johnson City. Prior to the loss, Furman had won two straight over the Bucs at Freedom Hall.

 Following Wednesday’s key matchup, Furman returns home on Sunday, Feb. 8, to hosts UNC Greensboro at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Wilkins is SoCon Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. He averaged 26.5 points per game while shooting .680 (17/25) from the field, .750 (9/12) from three-point range and .909 (10/11) at the foul line to lead Furman to wins over Samford and Chattanooga.

Wilkins has averaged 18.7 points and 5.1 assists per game this season while starting all 23 contests for the Paladins. He and Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. are the only players in NCAA Division I basketball to rank among the top 10 freshmen in the nation in points and assists per game.

Clare Coyle is Women’s Player of the Week. A 6-1 sophomore forward, she the table for Furman’s 65-64 road victory over Wofford by scoring 17 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and posting two assists, two blocks and a steal in helping the Paladins win their fifth straight game and claim sole possession of second place in the league. 
The Paladins (14-8, 6-1) play host to league frontrunner Chattanooga this Thursday in a 7 p.m. contest at Timmons Arena.

Junior Audrey Ryu (-5) tied for eighth Monday to lead the Furman women’s golf team in the final day of Purdue’s Puerto Rico Classic, which was held at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

A native of Dublin, Ohio, Ryu teed off on No. 15 in the shotgun start and birdied her first hole. After the turn, she added additional birdies on No. 3 and No. 12 to finish the round with a 2-under 70.  She concluded the tournament five strokes back of the three co-medalists: Reagan Southerland (North Carolina), Jiarui Chen (Kansas State) and Abbey Shrutte (Arkansas), who shot -10 for the three rounds.

No. 4 Arkansas (-23) won the tournament by six strokes over 15th-ranked Ole Miss (-17) and No. 10 Vanderbilt (-17), who tied for second.  Furman (+25) finished 17th place in the loaded field, which included 14 Power 5 teams, eight of them ranked among the nation’s top 33.

The Paladins compete at the Momentum Transportation UNF Collegiate Feb. 23-24 in Jacksonville, Fla. 

What I learned on Tuesday: A bowl of chili can no longer be bought at Chili’s. … The level of promotion of the Pro Bowl and the movie Melania suggests that few are going to watch either one.

I’ll be out and about again soon. I’m living in a small camper-trailer, and it seems like I’m a character in one of those old movies about city folks moving to the country.

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It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

Most of my books are available at Amazon. Recently I’ve been reading my own book, The Latter Days, a baseball novel. It ain’t half bad. Of course, I’m hardly objective, but it’s nice to revisit a tale every now and then.