2015 SoCon Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket

Greenville, S.C. -- Lee Skinner netted 17 points and Karl Cochran added 11 as Wofford held on to defeat Furman, 62-60, in the Southern Conference regular season finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena.

The loss dropped Furman to 8-21 overall and 5-13 in league play.  The Paladins will be the No. 10 seed and face No. 7 seed The Citadel in the opening round of the Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championships at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C., on Friday, March 6, at 8:30 p.m.  With the win, Wofford finishes the regular season at 25-6 overall and 16-2 in the SoCon.  The Terriers earned the No. 1 seed and a bye in the opening round of the tournament.

With Furman leading 28-27 following Daniel Fowler's layup with 18:06 remaining, Wofford reeled off a 16-2 run over the next seven-and-a-half minutes to claim a 43-30 lead it would not relinquish.  Six different Wofford players scored during the run as the Terriers defense held Furman without a basket from the 18:06 mark to the 10:28 mark of the second half.

Kendrec Ferrara's layup ended the run and Devin Sibley and John Davis III followed with three-pointers to pull the Paladins within 43-38 with 6:44 to play.  Wofford built its lead back to nine, but Sibley drained another trey and Davis III scored on a driving layup to trim the deficit to 48-44.  Once again, Wofford answered by extending the lead to eight points before Sibley buried another trey and Davis III responded to a Terrier free throw with a three-pointer from the wing to slice the margin to 54-51 with 56 seconds remaining.

After the team's exchanged a pair of free throw to make the score 56-53 with 45 seconds to play, Furman fouled Cochran and the senior hit 1-of-2 free throws with 38 seconds left.  Sibley sprinted down the court and finished at the rim to pull Furman within two at 57-55 with 27 seconds to play.  On the inbounds, Wofford got a 2-on-1 break and freshman Geoff Beans was whistled for excessive contact on a foul as C.J. Neumann drove to the basket.  Neumann hit both free throws and Wofford got possession of the ball.  The Terriers hit three of their six free throws in the final 22 seconds to hold off the Furman charge.

Davis III led Furman with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 4-for-6 effort from three-point range.  Sibley hit 6-of-11 shots and scored all 15 of his points in the second half, while Ferrara rounded out the Paladins' double figure scorers with 14 points.

Furman, playing without leading scorer Stephen Croone, shot 50% from the field and made 9-of-22 three-point attempts, but the Paladins connected on just 5-of-12 trips to the foul line.

Wofford shot 40.8% from the field, but the Terrier made only 3-of-14 three-point attempts.  Skinner hit 9-of-10 free throws and added seven rebounds to go with his team-high 17 points.

Friday night's SoCon Tournament opening round game versus The Citadel can be heard live on the Furman IMG Sports Network on flagship station WGOG 96.3 FM and Fox Sports 1440 AM with play-by-play voice Dan Scott.  The audio broadcast will be available by logging onto TuneIn.com.  Links for the broadcast and live statistics will be available at FurmanPaladins.com.

The winner of Friday's Furman-The Citadel game will face No. 2 seed Chattanooga in quarterfinal round action on Saturday at 6 p.m.  All SoCOn Tournament games will be streamed on ESPN3 with the championship game set to air on ESPN2.

Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information