Charleston, S.C. – Furman built a 14-point second half lead and held on late to nip the College of Charleston, 69-63, on Thursday night at TD Arena to claim its first victory on the Cougars' home floor since the 1952-53 season.

The victory, which snapped a nine-game skid against Charleston, improved the Paladins to 10-10 overall and 4-5 in Southern Conference play.  CofC fell to 12-8 overall and 4-5 in league play.

After carrying a 31-25 lead into intermission, Furman opened the second half with back-to-back treys from junior Bryant Irwin to grab a 37-25 advantage and Chris Toler added a jumper less than two minutes later to up the cushion to 39-25.

Trailing 41-27 with under 16:30 remaining, Antwaine Wiggins scored five consecutive points in a 9-2 Charleston run that trimmed the Furman margin to 43-36 on Andrew Lawrence's free throw with 12:55 to play.  Furman responded by pushing the margin back to double digits on five occasions in the next 11 minutes and led 67-57 when Brandon Sebirumbi drained a pair of free throws with 1:07 left.  

Matt Sundberg buried a jumper and Trevonte Dixon stole a David Brown pass and converted the layup to cut the Paladin lead to just 67-61 with 56 seconds left.  Sebirumbi missed a pair of free throws as Furman went on to convert just 2-of-8 at the line in the final minutes, but College of Charleston was unable to connect on any of its five three-point attempts in the final seconds as the Paladins survived for their fourth road win of the season.

Furman held the Cougars to 35% shooting from the field and just 4-of-23 shooting from three-point range to win at the College of Charleston for the first time in the last 14 meetings on CofC's home floor.  The Paladins, who connected on 5-of-11 from long range, shot 43.9% and out-rebounded Charleston 40-38.

Sebirumbi made 5-of-10 shot to pace the Paladins with 15 points and nine rebounds.  Irwin scored 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range while Charlie Reddick fouled out with 12 points.  Bryson Barnes tallied seven points, six rebounds and four blocks as the Paladin bench outscored Charleston's reserves 32-13.

Lawrence led the Cougars with 15 points and Wiggins and Trent Wiedeman added 12 and 10 , respectively.

Furman continues its Charleston road trip on Saturday when it faces The Citadel in a 7:05 p.m. contest at McAlister Fieldhouse.  Saturday's game at The Citadel will mark the Paladins' 196th meeting with the Bulldogs in a series Furman leads 113-82.  Furman has won four straight against The Citadel, including a 77-45 victory in Greenville, S.C., on January 5, when senior Bobby Austin poured in a season-high 17 points and the Paladins shot 55% from the field.

Furman fans can follow all the action of Saturday's game on the radio with play-by-play voice Dan Scott and color commentator Jordan Caskey on WOLT-FM 103.3, WGOG-FM 96.3 and through Stretch Audio at www.FurmanPaladins.com.