January 20, 2003
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON HOLDS OFF FURMAN 59-52
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Troy Wheless scored 15 points and Thomas Mobley added 14 to lift College of Charleston to a 59-52 win over Furman in Southern Conference basketball action Monday night at John Kresse Arena.
With the win College of Charleston improves to 13-5 overall and 3-2 in Southern Conference play. The loss, Furman’s second straight and sixth in its last seven outings, dropped the Paladins to 7-13 overall and 1-5 in league action.
“I thought we played hard for 40 minutes and had a tie game and a chance to win with four minutes to go, but we didn’t execute when the opportunities were there,” said Furman head coach Larry Davis. “I thought we responded well after a slow start, shot 50 percent in the second half, and did a pretty good job on the boards, but the turnovers hurt. That said, if we keep playing with the intensity we showed tonight, I think we’ll be rewarded with a victory soon.”
With the Cougars leading 53-48, Wheless converted a layup with 55 seconds left for a seven-point lead.
After back-to-back driving layups by Furman’s Karim Souchu and Guilherme Da Luz sliced the margin to 55-52, Wheless took a lead pass from Tony Mitchell and made his second straight layup with 23 seconds left to give College of Charleston a 57-52 advantage.
A pair of A.J. Harris free throws with five seconds remaining provided the game’s final margin.
Da Luz paced Furman with 16 points and tallied five assists in 40 minutes of action to become on the fifth player in Southern Conference history to reach the 600-assist plateau. Souchu was the only other Paladin in double figures with 12 points.
Furman started slowly and trailed 17-7 a little over 12 minutes into the game before rallying to tie the contest at 23-23 with a Souchu three-pointer at the 1:36 mark.
Trailing 25-23 at intermission, Furman managed to tie the game three times over the game’s final 20 minutes but could never take the lead.
A Da Luz layup at the 9:30 juncture tied the contest at 36-36, and later a Souchu dunk off an assist by Da Luz gave the Paladins their second tie at 38-38.
Two baskets by Tony Mitchell and layup by Mike Benton put Charleston ahead 44-38 before Furman clawed back and knotted the game at 46-46 on a three-point play by Souchu with 3:41 left.
But Charleston answered with a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to grab a seven-point lead following a three-pointer by Mobley at the 1:27 mark.
Furman stayed within striking distance by shooting 50.0 percent (11x22) over the game’s final 20 minutes but finished the contest at a 40.9 percent clip (18x44). Charleston, meanwhile, connected on 25-of-55 field goal attempts (45.5 percent), including 14-of-26 in the second half (53.8 percent).
The Paladins outrebounded Charleston 35-30 but committed 18 turnovers to the Cougars’ six.
Furman returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Chattanooga at Timmons Arena in a 2:00 p.m. game.