By MONTE DUTTON

SPARTANBURG – The late Tom T. Hall wrote a song called “I Like Beer.”

I drank two once in the past year. It was the national college-football championship game on TV at a Mexican restaurant. No doctor told me not to drink beer. It just seemed like too much trouble.

I like Spartanburg. It makes me a jolly good fellow. It helps me unwind, and sometimes it makes me feel mellow.

Makes him feel mellllow.

Now my eyes are damp. The United States just won the hockey gold medal. My heart swells the same way for Furman, which defeated Wofford, 74-67, on Saturday night at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Like the hockey match, it could have gone either way.

It didn’t. Truth, justice and the color purple ruled the night. Bring on The Citadel at Timmons Arena on Wednesday night.

A year ago, I had spent a month in the hospital. I had learned to walk again. Truth is, I had practically learned to type again. One afternoon at the rehab hospital, it took me about an hour to write a paragraph. Many times life has humbled me. Not often have I felt that stupid.

My goal was the Southern Conference Tournament. The test was the final regular-season game at Wofford. The Paladins played most home games at The Well while Timmons Arena was being reconfigured, reimagined and renovated. The downtown Greenville arena was hopelessly too big: too much walking, too many steps. Wofford’s home arena was manageable. The Paladins won, and I went on to Asheville.

But I digress.

It was a great game. The crowd was raucous. It ebbed and flowed. Both teams played with the fear of God in ‘em. Wofford (18-11, 10-6) is tied for second in the SoCon. Furman (18-11, 9-7) is tied for fourth. Every school in the league except East Tennessee State (first) and Virginia Military (last) is tied somewhere.

Kevin Giltner has done a splendid job at Wofford after taking over shortly before the season began. He is energetic and animated. His team takes on his personality, but the Paladins would not be denied.

“We’re getting hot at the right time,” said Charles Johnston. “We got a lot of things right this week. We talked about how we hadn’t been shooting well, and we’d been losing close games. We tried to break it down with a couple key things. One was we needed more intensity and effort. Coach showed us films of coming here and holding a pretty good Wofford team to 50 points (75-50 in 2022). It was inspirational.

“You watch guys like Mike (Bothwell) and Slaw (Jalen Slawson) play insane defense. We lacked a little bit of that. It was mentality, the ability to do a little bit more on each play, each second. It’s a two-sided game. If you get stops, you get buckets.”

Asa Thomas popped 6/7 three-pointers and scored 18 points. Alex Wilkins scored 15 and had five assists. The twin towers, Johnston and Cooper Bowser, each scored 13. Furman shot .519 (27/52) from the floor, .529 (9/17) from way out on the floor and .765 (13/17) shooting for free. The numbers have not always been that good, but numbers that good will win in Asheville.

Perhaps you may recall Wofford the third time last year.

“Making shots is putting the priority in the game. It’s imposing will with your defense on the floor and letting your offense be free,” Furman head coach Bob Richey said. “We didn’t get all panicky. We didn’t go out there and take bad shots and make bad turnovers. We played to the priorities of the values of the program.

“Everybody thinks we have a shooting problem. This isn’t a shooting problem. This is an intensity and a connection problem. It’s February, and it’s going to be March. We’re going to be known by our resolve, by our edge.”

This time Furman’s defense held Wofford without a basket for a stretch of nearly seven minutes in the second half. After Chace Watley’s three-point play trimmed the Furman lead to 60-59 with 7:42 left, the Paladins held Wofford without a field goal for the next 6:32 to take control. Eddrin Bronson bullied his way to the basket for two points and Johnston completed a three-point play on Furman’s next possession. Following two Wofford free throws, Wilkins found Ben Vander Wal for a layup and converted a jumper of his own with 2:45 remaining to push the margin to 69-61.

“We were challenged,” said Cooper Bowser. “We had to make a bigger impact on the game and take more ownership and dominate the game. We found a bigger belief in ourselves and that we can get things done out here.”

Bowser missed seven games, including the 74-70 Wofford victory at Timmons Arena on Jan. 17. What he didn’t miss – and bitterly remembered – was the Terriers’ 92-85 victory in the SoCon finals last season.

“I had a lot of anger stored up, and a lot of it was released,” he said. “It felt like a release of pressure. It’s a lot of motivation to experience just how big this rivalry is. It lit a fire inside of me.”

Kahmare Holmes’ 1/2 effort at the line and a Watley bucket cut the Furman lead back to 69-64, but the Paladins converted on 7/8 trips to the foul line in the final minute to secure the win an earn a regular-season series split versus the Terriers. The victory was Furman’s second straight at Richardson Indoor Stadium.

Furman connected on eight of its first 10 three-point attempts, including 6/6 from Thomas, to build a 43-27 first half lead. The Terriers answered by scoring the final nine points of the half to slice the Furman advantage to 43-36 at intermission and stretched the spurt into a 21-1 run by opening the second half on a 12-1 run. Down 48-44, Wilkins splashed a triple and Tom House sank a pair of free throws to rally the Paladins, who allowed just six field goals the rest of the night as Wofford hit just two of its last 15 offerings from the floor.

The Paladins amassed a 35-30 rebounding edge and outscored the Terriers 36-32 in the paint.

Holmes led Wofford with 20 points while Cayden Vasko scored 13 and Rex Stirling added 10. The Terriers shot .439 but hit just 7/26 three-point tries and 10/19 free-throw attempts.

Furman wraps up its regular-season home slate on Wednesday night when it hosts The Citadel at 6 p.m.

Take a look at the stats here.

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Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.