February 17, 2003
SOUCHU, DA LUZ POWER FURMAN PAST THE CITADEL, 77-60
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Karim Souchu scored a game high 26 points and Guilherme Da Luz added 14 points and a game high 10 assists to power Furman past arch-rival The Citadel, 77-69, in Southern Conference basketball action Monday night at Timmons Arena.
With the victory Furman (11-16, 5-8 SoCon) posted its first back-to-back wins since late November and solidified its hold on fifth place in the league’s south division, two games ahead of The Citadel (8-16, 3-10), which dropped its fourth straight contest. The Bulldogs were paced by Kevin Hammack’s 14 points.
Souchu’s 26-point performance moved him into fourth place on Furman’s career scoring chart with 1,908 points, behind only Paladin All-Americans Darrell Floyd (2,281), Jonathan Moore (2,299), and Frank Selvy (2,538). Da Luz’s 10 assists lifted him ahead of Davidson’s Ali Ton into third place on the Southern Conference’s all-time assists ledger with 649. His three steals also moved him into a first place tie with Hal Henderson for most career thefts (194) in Furman history.
“Sometimes it takes a long time for a team to jell, and I think we’re finally seeing our team come together behind our four seniors,” said Furman head coach Larry Davis. “I was pleased to see Guilherme come back with another strong game. He gave us some scoring punch, but the thing that jumps out at you are the 10 assists and three steals and no turnovers in 36 minutes. That’s outstanding. And Karim had another big night. When those two have good games, we usually have a chance to be successful.”
“We played well in spots, but Souchu was on fire and really hurt us,” said The Citadel head coach Pat Dennis. “They (Furman) hit a lot of threes and shot the ball very well.”
The Paladins scorched the nets at a 55.6 percent clip, converting 25-of-45 field goal attempts, including 10-of-22 from three-point range (45.5 percent). Furman also racked up 13 steals. The Citadel, meanwhile, shot 43.1 percent from the field (22-x51), but the Bulldogs were only 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) at the free throw line compared to Furman’s 17-of-23 (73.9 percent).
Joining Souchu and Da Luz in double figures for Furman were Kenny Zeigler and Jason Patterson with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Zeigler also claimed a game high 10 rebounds.
Michael Joseph was the only other double figure scorer for The Citadel with 11 points, but his performance helped him become only the 22nd player in Bulldog basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau (1,008).
Trailing 20-19 midway through the first half, Furman reeled off 15 straight points on the strength of a three-pointer and a pair of Souchu dunks, including his second flush at the 3:03 mark to grab a 34-20 lead.
On top 39-26 at intermission, the Paladins saw their advantage narrowed to single digits only once in the second half, that coming at the 17:45 mark on a basket by Max Mombollet that made it 41-33.
Furman quickly recovered, however, scoring eight straight points on back-to-back three-pointers by Souchu and Tony Carter, and on a Souchu dunk at the 15:54 juncture to increase its margin to 49-33.
Furman returns to action on Saturday when it takes on Wofford in Spartanburg in a 7:00 p.m. game. The Citadel will play host to Georgia Southern on Saturday, with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and McAlister Field House.