2002 Mountain Dew Southern Conference
Championships
North Charleston Coliseum
Charleston, S.C.
Game 10 — Furman 44, College of Charleston 43
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Before the second-largest crowd in Southern Conference Tournament history, Furman ousted the College of Charleston, 44-43, to advance to its first touranment championship game since 1980. The Paladins will play Davidson at 6:00 p.m. in a contest televised by ESPN.
College of Charleston narrowed the deficit to one point on a pair of Jeff Bolton free throws at 44-43 with 1:37 remaining. Neither team could convert on their last four field goal attempts. Bolton missed on a three-point ty with 1.8 seconds left that would have given Charleston the victory.
“It was probably one of the best looks I got all tournament. I just didn’t knock it down,” Bolton said.
Anthony Thomas netted his first field goal of the contest to put the Paladins (17-13) in front 2-0 and they would never relinquish the lead. Thomas was the lone Paladin player to tally double digits in the scoring column with 11.
“It is great to get the monkey off our backs and beat the Cougars,” stated Furman head coach Larry Davis. “We felt that if we pressed them and ran them—they play a limited number of guys —we could outlast them. Jeff missed that last shot. I think he was tired.”
Charleston (21-9) shot just 29 percent from the field in the game, a season low by the Cougars, and was paced by Leighton Bowie’s game-high 18 points and nine rebounds. Bolton added 10 points in the losing cause.
“If there were ever shooting demons, we had them tonight,” said College of Charleston Head Coach John Kresse. “We got so many open looks that we normally knock down. They just didn’t go in tonight.”
The contest was witnessed by a crowd of 8,320, the second-largest attendance figure in Southern Conference Championship history. The league established its all-time mark in the semifinals of the 2000 SoCon Championship with 10,445 at the BI-LO Center in Greenville, S.C.
Reaching the championship for the first time since it last won the SoCon crown in 1980, Furman’s victory gives the Paladins their highest victory total since the 1991-92 campaign. The win also snaps a nine-game losing streak to College of Charleston.
The 87 combined points marked the lowest scoring SoCon tournament game since the 1986 final.
Sunday's championship game clash against Davidson will mark the first final appearance against the Wildcats since 1973, when Furman claimed a 99-81 win in Richmond, Va.