January 31, 2004
CARTER’S 20 LEADS FURMAN PAST APPALACHIAN STATE, 85-74
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Tony Carter scored a season high 20 points to lead Furman to an 85-74 win over Appalachian State in Southern Conference basketball action in front of 2,582 fans at Timmons Arena Saturday.
Carter, a sophomore point guard from Burlington, N.C., found the mark on 6-of-12 field goal attempts, including a pair of three-pointers, and drained 6-of-8 free throws to help Furman (11-8, 3-5 SoCon) earn its third win in the last four games.
Appalachian State (8-13, 3-5 SoCon), which dropped its fourth straight contest, was paced by Herbert Jones with 14 points.
Carter’s performance, which also included four assists, topped his previous season high tally of 18 points recorded in a 98-87 win over High Point and matched his career high notched last year in a 71-67 victory over Western Carolina. Robby Bostain converted 10-of-11 free throws on the way to 16 points, and Maleye Ndoye added 12 points and seven rebounds. Moussa Diagne accounted for nine points and a game high rebounds for the Paladins, who outrebounded the smaller Mountaineers 42-32.
“I thought we played exceptional basketball in the first half, both offensively and defensively,” said Furman head coach Larry Davis, “but in the second half Appalachian State’s traps bothered us and caused us to get a little tentative at times. I think we’ll learn from that, but the important thing is we won and won by double digits. We’ll look to build on it.”
Furman shot a solid 50.0 percent from the field (26x52), 45.0 percent from three-point range (9x20), and 80.0 percent from the free throw line, knocking down 24-of-30 attempts, but the Paladins suffered 23 turnovers.
For the second time in its last three games Furman forged a big early lead to seize control of the contest. Ahead 15-8 a little over eight minutes into the game, the Paladins reeled off 17 consecutive points to extend the advantage to 32-8 following a free throw by Diagne with 6:36 to go before Matt Jones drained a three-pointer to halt a five-plus minute Mountaineer scoring drought.
The Furman margin grew to as many as 30 points after Eric Webb drained a three-pointer to make it 46-16 with 2:38 remaining before Appalachian State scored the last seven points of the half to cut the Paladin advantage to 46-23.
Herbert Jones scored nine points in an 11-1 Appalachian State run to start the second half and pull the Mountaineers to within 13 points at 47-34 with 16:55 left.
Furman countered with a jump shot by Marijan Pojatina, a pair of free throws by Bostain, and three-pointer by Sanders over the next minute to regain an 18-point cushion, and the Paladins maintained the double digit lead until Appalchian State cut it to nine points following a three-point play by Chris McFarland with 1:42 to go.
ASU, however, could get no closer due, in part, to solid free throw shooting by Furman, which made its last six attempts over the final 48 seconds.
Furman returns to action on Monday when it takes on Elon in Burlington in a 7:00 p.m. contest. Appalachian State will entertain Georgia Southern in Boone on Monday, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.