By MONTE DUTTON

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Southern Conference tournament is a meeting of warring tribes.

Most times when a team pulls out a game at the end, fans take a breath, smile and say, Had it all the way.

Against top-seeded East Tennessee State (23-11) in the Monday night’s 76-61 victory, Furman (22-12) had it virtually all the way.

Not only are the Paladins going dancing, thousands at Harrah’s Cherokee Center were literally dancing with them. ETSU brought a throng, too. Furman kept it mostly muffled.

Furman, led by junior Cooper Bowser with 21 points and 11 rebounds, wrecked the top-seeded Buccaneers by seven points (42-35) in the former half and eight (34-26) in the latter. Tom House scored 13 and passed out three assists. Ingles SoCon Men’s Basketball Championship MVP Alex Wilkins added 12 points, two assists and two steals.

The Paladins entered as the No. 6 seed, but that was misleading. Furman, wracked by injuries early in the campaign, entered the tournament three games behind ETSU (13-5) and one behind defending champion Wofford (11-7) and Samford (11-7), in a tie for fourth with Western Carolina at 10-8.

“We knew we were the best team,” said House, a senior from Dayton, Ohio, and two-year Florida State transfer. “I think [ETSU] knew it, too.”

Furman won its eighth SoCon tournament championship and second in the last four seasons. Furman earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, the school’s eighth. The Paladins will find out their opponent and first-round destination when the field of 68 is announced on Sunday, March 15, at 6 p.m. on CBS.

Furman shot .600 from the field in the opening half and answered ETSU’s first bucket of the latter with an 8-2 run to take a 50-38 advantage on House’s three free throws with 16:13 to play. The Buccaneers clawed within single digits, but Furman used another 8-2 spurt, highlighted by three-point baskets from Asa Thomas and Eddrin Bronson, to push the lead out to 61-46 with 10:30 remaining. ETSU got no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Bowser, a 6-11 junior from Woodbridge, Va., who missed 10 games due to injury, connected on 9/12 shots from the floor and 3/4 free throws.

The Paladins won just about everything in front of a near-capacity crowd of 6,111: field-goal percentage (.509-.480), rebounds (36-24), three-point percentage (.385-.188), free-throw percentage (.800-.556), assists (12-5) and blocks (3-2), second-chance points (11-2) and bench points (22-17).

Brian Taylor scored 16 points to lead the Bucs. Blake Barkley and Jaylen Smith scored 14 and 10, respectively.

“I was confident we’d come back the entire game,” Taylor said.

Head coach Brooks Savage added, “Our goal was single digits with four (minutes to go). We got that but couldn’t get any closer.”

Wilkins was joined on the All-SoCon Tournament first team by Cooper Bowser, while House received second-team honors. A native of Mattapan, Mass., Wilkins averaged 21.7 points per game for the tournament. Bowser added 16.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while House contributed 12 points per game on 5/9 shooting behind the arc.

“We never made excuses,” said Furman coach Bob Richey. “We always had the talent.”

Take a look at the stats here.

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