Greenville, S.C.—Hunter Hale led five players in double-figures with a season-high 17 points as the Eagles fell 80-73 at Furman, Saturday evening at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
WINTHROP (4-7, 0-0 BIG SOUTH)
SCORING LEADERS
FURMAN (10-3, 0-0 SoCON)
SCORING LEADERS
- R.J. Nembhard (15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals)
- Jaire Grayer (12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals)
- Desmond Bane (11 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal)
FIRST HALF
- Furman led 4-0 and 7-3 in the early going as the game remained a 1-5 point lead for the Paladins over the first 11 and a half minutes
- Jordan Lyons knocked down a three for a 13-8 lead for Furman, but Charles Falden kept it a one possession game with a jumper in the lane
- Chase Claxton drew the Eagles within a point with 14:04 left as he made a free throw to convert a three-point play
- Lyons put Furman up six points with 11:29 left as he converted a four-point play to lead 22-16
- Winthrop responded with an 8-0 run to grab its first lead of the game
- Falden started the run with a three and then Josh Ferguson completed a three-point play to tie the game with 9:30 left
- Ferguson then dunked off a feed from D.J. Burns Jr. for a 24-22 lead with 8:47 on the clock
- With the game tied at 28-28 with 6:02 left on the clock, Noah Gurley hit two free throws that started a 12-0 run
- The run was highlighted by two triples from Lyons as he scored the final eight points of the run
- Chandler Vaudrin knocked down two free throws to end the run and Jamal King hit a three for a quick 5-0 spurt to make it a seven point game
- Eagles were just 1-for-8 to finish the half as Furman led 46-33 at the break
- Winthrop shot 46 percent from the floor while Furman shot 41 percent
- Eagles committed 12 turnovers that led to 15 points for the Paladins
SECOND HALF
- Furman pushed its lead to 18 points in just over four minutes into the half as Tre Clark dunked for the 18-point advantage off a Winthrop turnover
- The Paladins led by 14-18 points for most of the second half and even extended it to 19 points with 7:43 to play but after a couple of offensive rebounds the Eagles scored on a Falden jumper
- Falden's jumper ignited a 9-0 run that got the deficit to 10 points with 5:09 to play
- Furman pushed the lead back to 15 points with a little over three minutes remaining, but the Eagles kept fighting and got the deficit to single-digits with 1:21 to play after Falden scored on a drive
- Winthrop even got within seven points with 15 seconds remaining on another Falden bucket
- Eagles shot 42 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes, but were just 3-for-18 behind the arc
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Winthrop finished the game shooting 44 percent while Furman shot 43 percent
- Each team finished with eight threes in the game as the Eagles shot 29 percent behind the arc while Furman made 36 percent
- Furman had a big advantage at the foul line going 20-for-28 while the Eagles were 9-of-12
- After allowing 15 points off turnovers in the first half the Eagles only yielded three points to Furman in the second half
- Chase Claxton posted his first double-figure game at Winthrop with a career-high 14 points
- Hale's 17 points were a season and career-high while Falden (11), Ferguson (11) and Vaudrin (10) were also in double-figures
- Eagles allowed a season-high 46 points in the first half
- Winthrop won the battle of the boards 42-35 with 15 offensive boards
- Vaudrin hauled in 10 rebounds for a second straight game as he posted his first double-double for points/rebounds as his first Winthrop double-double was 12 points, 10 assists vs. Coastal
- It was a tight game late in the second half when the Eagles went cold from the field, going 3-for-18 from the 5:34 mark of the first half until the 14:58 mark of the second half
NOTABLES
- Hale's 17 points pushed him over 1,000 career points in his collegiate career (needed just eight points going into the game)
- Josh Ferguson inched closer to 600 career rebounds as he pulled down seven in the game and now has 587
- Ferguson is also approaching 900 career points as he now has 873 in 104 career games
- Winthrop had won five straight meetings as Furman won for the first time in the series since Dec. 20, 1988 at home
- Eagles have dropped four straight games for the first time since the 2013-14 season
- Russell Jones Jr. missed his third straight contest with an injury
UP NEXT
Eagles return home for the next three contests beginning with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 11 a.m.
