By MONTE DUTTON

This Furman men’s basketball team is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. To borrow from a nursery rhyme, when it is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it is horrid.

The Paladins have mostly weathered their injuries, but the reassembly is thus far incomplete, and Furman evinced its best and worst in Sunday’s 67-64 loss to UNC Greensboro (10-16, 6-6 SoCon) at Timmons Arena.

Furman (16-9, 7-5) never led in the latter half but trailed the Spartans from close range. Close range was also where Cooper Bowser resided for 20 points.

Alex Wilkins, word of whom has spread throughout the Southern Conference, was a bit off for the second game in a row, but he played with four fouls for a frightening portion of the stretch drive and nearly won the game by himself.

Wilkins scored 15 points and dished out five assists. Asa Thomas scored nine points in his first action since Jan. 10.

The team has taken on Wilkins’ character, for better and worse. Wilkins is a breathtaking talent and an effusive personality who sometimes gets ahead of himself, which is hard. Still, he is good and getting better.

UNCG’s Justin Neely lived up to his reputation, scoring 24 points and completing his 16^th double-double.

Furman trailed throughout the second half but trimmed the double-digit deficit down to one point on Wilkins’ free throw with 2:01 to play. Furman forced a miss on UNCG’s next possession; however, the Paladins turned the ball over and the Spartans’ Noah Norgaard followed a 30-second timeout by popping a three-pointer from the left wing with 47 seconds left to push the margin back to 65-61.

Wilkins answered with a pair of free throws for the Paladins to pull within two at 65-63 and Charles Johnston rebounded a Spartan miss with 13 seconds to go. Cooper Bowser, who scored a team-high 20 points for Furman, drew a foul after receiving a pass in the paint. The junior stepped to the line and made the first free throw but missed the second. Neely pushed the UNCG lead to 67-64 on two free throws with six seconds remaining and Wilkins’ double-clutch three-pointer missed at the buzzer to allow the Spartans to escape and earn a regular-season split versus the Paladins.

UNCG shot just .415 but connected on 10/19 three-point attempts and scored 16 points off 11 Furman turnovers. Neely went 8/14 from the field and pulled down 13 boards to lead both teams in scoring and rebounding while Norgaard and Donald Whitehead Jr. each added 11 points.

Furman shot .434 from the field and converted on 13/17 trips to the charity stripe, but the Paladins connected just 5/19 three-pointers. Head coach Bob Richey’s team posted a 36-32 rebounding edge and outscored UNCG 32-18 in the paint.

The Paladins held a 17-14 lead early in the game before UNCG finished the first half on a 25-15 run to carry a 39-32 lead into the locker room. The Spartans stretched their advantage to 10 points in the early moments of the second half.

Furman travels to Macon, Ga., to face the Mercer Bears on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Take a look at the stats here.

It was a rotten weekend for Furman athletics and Timmons Arena.

Carmen Richardson drained a three-pointer from the right wing with four seconds remaining in the game to lift East Tennessee State to a 58-55 win over Furman in Southern Conference women’s action Saturday afternoon.

The sophomore guard’s last-minute heroics included a jump shot with 50 seconds on the clock that tied the contest at 55-55.

Richardson’s game-winner came after Furman’s Raina McGowens missed a pair of free throws with 33 seconds left with the score tied 55-55, setting up the Buccaneers’ final possession.

East Tennessee (12-11, 5-3 SoCon), which trailed 50-44 midway through the fourth quarter, overcame a 52-47 deficit in the final four minutes by scoring points on five of their final six possessions, a stretch that included two baskets and a pair of free throws by Anala Nelson.

Richardson finished the game with 14 points, followed by Jaidyn Harper with 13 and Nelson with 10.

Furman’s Clare Coyle paced all scorers with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Samaria Taylor tallied 11 points off the bench in 24 minutes of action, and McGowens finished with 10.

The Paladins connected on just 1/9 field-goal attempts and trailed 11-6 after one quarter but rallied to take a 23-21 halftime lead.  It remained a tight contest until the Paladins pieced together a 6-0 run over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter to take a 50-44 lead following a Coyle free throw with 5:42 to go.  Furman (14-10, 6-3) managed points on only three of their final 10 possessions.

The Paladins play Thursday at Western Carolina in a 7 p.m. contest.

Take a look at the stats here.

Men’s soccer coach Doug Allison, men’s basketball standout Matt Rafferty, All-American golfer Natalie Srinivasan and volleyball setter Kassidy Jo Wilks were inducted into the Furman Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies held Friday night.
 Allison, who recently retired following a 31-year career at the helm of the Furman men’s soccer program that culminated with the school’s first trip to the NCAA College Cup, led the Paladins to 12 Southern Conference regular season titles, 11 SoCon Tournament championships and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances on the sideline at Stone Soccer Stadium. He compiled a 365-175-77 record and finished his career as the winningest coach in league history. The list of 31 All-Americans developed and coached by Allison includes United States Men’s National Team stars Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, and Walker Zimmerman.
Rafferty, a power forward, guided Furman men’s basketball to a 90-46 overall record and 51-21 league mark during his four-year career from 2016-19. The Hinsdale, Ill., native ranked first in the SoCon in plus/minus rating and offensive rating among all league players over the last 16 seasons, according to College Basketball Reference. Rafferty produced one of the greatest seasons in school history during the 2019 campaign to lead the Paladins to a school record 25 wins, the school’s first appearance in the Associated Press Top 25, victories over 2018 Final Four participants Loyola Chicago and nationally-ranked Villanova and the school’s first home contest in the NIT.

Srinivasan captured the ANNIKA Award, PING WGCA National Player of the Year honors and first team All-America accolades in 2020 after ranking as the top player in the nation, according to GolfStat, and boasting a nation-best 70.51 adjusted stroke average. She earned 2020 Edna Hartness Furman Female Athlete of the Year honors, the 2020 Dr. Gary Clark Student-Athlete Achievement Award, and was named 2019-20 SoCon Female Athlete of the Year. Srinivasan, who gave up a career in professional golf to pursue a career in medicine, finished her career with a then program-record 72.6 stroke average.
Wilks concluded her four-year career as one of the most decorated setters in SoCon history. A three-time All-SoCon selection, she guided the Paladins to the 2014 SoCon regular-season title before capturing tournament MVP honors while leading Furman to the SoCon Tournament crown in 2015. Wilks ranks as Furman’s all-time leader with 5,216 assists and helped the Paladins compile an 85-38 overall record in her four seasons. The 2015 Furman Student-Athlete Achievement Award winner, Wilks received a SoCon Postgraduate Scholarship in 2016.

North Carolina blanked the Furman men’s tennis team, 7-0, Thursday afternoon at Chewning Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.
Furman drops to 1-4 overall while North Carolina improves to 3-1 on the season.
The Paladins head to Conway next weekend, February 13-14, to face Coastal Carolina and William & Mary.
Under the leadership of first-year head coach Mary Beth Dennison, softball got off to a slow start by falling to Tarleton (Texas) State, Youngstown (Ohio) and Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C., at the Runnin’ Bulldog Classic.

In conclusion …. I don’t know Bad Bunny from Bugs Bunny (who was featured all week on TCM). About all I know is Trump doesn’t like him.

Apparently the kids love him, and that’s all right with me. I’m old. The Super Bowl halftime show isn’t supposed to be for me. I remember when old folks didn’t get Electric Light Orchestra.

And I don’t like Kid Rock, either.

I’m still getting personal and medical matters together, but I went to Clinton High School and Presbyterian College over the weekend, and I’ll be back at Timmons Arena soon.

I’m still in transition.

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