2002 Mountain Dew Southern Conference
Championships
North Charleston Coliseum
Charleston, S.C.
Game Seven — Furman 73, Georgia Southern 70
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Anthony Thomas scored 21 points to lead Furman, the fifth seed from the south division, to a 73-70 victory over the south’s top seed, Georgia Southern (16-12), in the quarterfinal round of the Mountain Dew Southern Conference Championships.
Thomas scored 19 points in the first half, including five three-pointers, which helped Furman (16-13) jump out to an early lead it never relinquished.
Trailing 69-60 with three and a half minutes to play, Georgia Southern started to rally. A Terry Williams three-point goal with 1:34 left in the contest cut the deficit to two. The Eagles had a chance to tie with 29 seconds left and Julius Jenkins on the line shooting two foul shots, but he only converted one.
The Paladins connected on 4-of-5 from the foul line over the final 29 seconds to secure the victory.
“I’m just really proud of these guys,” stated Furman head coach Larry Davis after the game. “The stretch where they came back on us, they were rebounding and getting in the lane. We bent, bent, bent, but didn’t break under the pressure. Somehow we won the game, partially due to the outstanding first half by Anthony Thomas.”
Thomas made 7-of-10 field goal tries, including 5-of-8 from three-point range. Paul Foster was one of three other Paladins to reach double digits in points with 11, matching a career high. Kenny Zeigler and Karim Souchu scored 10 points each.
Julius Jenkins paced the Eagles with 17 points. The backcourt tandem of Sean Peterson and Williams each registered 14 points each, while Williams equaled his career high with four trifectas in the game. Kordel Gibson scored 13 points for GSU, and Kashien Latham added a game-high 13 rebounds in the losing cause.
“My hat’s off to Furman,” Georgia Southern head coach Jeff Price said. “They played hard, we didn’t shoot well ... we were a team of two halves all year. This is the wrong time of the year to do that.”
Furman used a 5-0 run over the final 1:01 of the first period to claim its largest lead of the contest 50-37 at the intermission. In the opening stanza, the Paladins shot a blistering 62.1 percent, then finished the game at 58.7 percent from the floor.
Furman advances to the second semifinal contest Saturday night and will face the winner of the game between East Tennessee State and College of Charleston. Furman's semifinal appearance will be the second in the last three years for the Paladins.