Paladins Face ETSU in Opening Round
The Furman Paladins come into today’s game #6 seed (15-15, 5-9 SoCon) facing off versus #3 seed ETSU Buccaneers (17-12, 8-6 SoCon) in hopes furthering their weekend at the Southern Conference Championships. The Paladins under head coach Pierre Curtis look ready to give ETSU a huge battle on the court as Tate Walters, Kate Johnson, Sydney Ryan, and the Paladin team want to end this season with a bang.
ETSU comes out firing and takes the lead 16-12 as Furman calls a timeout to regroup before the Bucs get too excited as the leaders. The Paladins with 4 minutes left in the half are down 26-25 thanks to several huge three-point shots by Jaelyn Acker. Whoever wins this game will move on to face UT Chattanooga who won earlier beating Mercer, playing at 1:15pm after the first second round game of UNCG versus either Wofford or Samford.
The stat for the half is Furman shot 41% from FG range, 30% from 3-point range, and 83% from the FT line. Jaelyn Acker led Furman with 9 points and Tate Walters had 6 points with 2 rebounds. Furman will look to keep up the defensive intensity versus ETSU and get out with a win here in the second half of the game.
Furman comes out of halftime with the winner’s energy and quickly jumps to the lead and at 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter hold a 43-36 lead over the Lady Bucs of ETSU. Session, McGowens, and Coyle have now jumped into the mix of helping with points and the Paladins look sharper. Furman closes out the third quarter with a huge 3 pointer by Sydney Ryan and its 55-48 Furman with a lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play. The Paladins would hold on to win the game 64-58 and head into the next round versus UT Chattanooga at 1:15pm Friday. Here is the press conference news and notes after the game from both sides.
