Greenville, S.C. -- Justin Tuoyo scored 18 of his team-high 20 points after the break, including four in overtime, to lift Chattanooga to a 74-71 overtime victory over Furman in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Thursday night at Timmons Arena.

Tuoyo opened the extra period with a basket as the Mocs grabbed a 69-65 lead and helped put the game away on a breakaway dunk with 23 seconds remaining.  After Chattanooga (16-8, 9-2 SoCon) scored the first two baskets of the overtime period, Furman's Stephen Croone scored on a floater from the left side and converted a pair of foul shots on the Paladins next possession to knot the game at 69-69.  Chattanooga's Casey Jones grabbed two offensive rebounds on the Mocs' next possession and scored on the put back off of the second rebound to give his team a 71-69 lead with 1:46 left.

Furman (7-15, 4-7 SoCon) failed to convert on a pair of free throw attempts following and offensive rebound on the next possession.  After Chattanooga missed a jumper on the other end, the Paladins' Devin Sibley had a chance to give Furman the lead but missed off of the back iron from three-point range with 31 seconds left.  Furman tried to foul on the inbounds, but Chattanooga escaped and Tre' McLean fed Tuoyo for the dunk with 23 seconds left to up the lead to 73-69.

The Paladins' Daniel Fowler scored in the paint with nine second left and Ronrico White made just 1-of-2 free throws on the opposite end to move the Mocs' lead to 74-71.  After crossing half court and calling timeout with 5.6 seconds left, Furman got the ball into Croone in front of the Paladin bench, but the junior's three missed long and Geoff Beans missed a last second shot from the right wing as time expired.

Tuoyo connected on 7-of-10 shots from the floor and made all six of his free throw attempts to score his 20 points. He added seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.  Jones tallied 14 points and nine rebounds, while White and Eric Robertson reached double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Croone paced Furman with 31 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the field and a 9-for-12 effort at the charity stripe.  Fowler, a freshman from Acworth, Ga., contributed 11 points and eight rebounds, while Kendrec Ferrara scored nine points and became the first Paladin since Will Coles in 1996 to block seven shots in a single game.

Furman led by as many as nine points in the first half and Chattanooga by as many as six points before the teams went into halftime tied at 36-36.  The Paladins reeled off seven straight points with under 10 minutes remaining in regulation to grab a 57-55 lead when Ferrara capped the run with a free throw with 6:53 left.  The Mocs, however, embarked on an 8-0 run following Tuoyo's dunk with 5:03 left and led 63-59 with under three minutes to play.  

Ferrara and Fowler connected on baskets to tie the game and Sibley's free throw with 1:16 remaining put the Paladins in front 64-63.  Croone made 1-of-2 to up the lead to 65-63, but Jones scored on a driving layup to force overtime and setup the Mocs victory.  

Furman shot 47.2% and managed a 41-32 rebounding edge, but the Mocs scored 20 points off of 13 Paladin turnovers and fashioned a 14-12 edge in second chance points despite the rebounding deficit.  The Paladins held Chattanooga to 43.5% shooting.

Furman continues its homestand on Saturday at 4 p.m. when it hosts SoCon newcomer Mercer (13-11, 8-3 SoCon) at Timmons Arena.  The game will be streamed live on ESPN3 and the Paladins will celebrate Legends Weekend as they welcome Furman basketball alumni back to campus.

Saturday's game 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.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information