Asheville, N.C. -- Junior Stephen Croone poured in a game-high 27 points to power Furman to a 73-56 victory over The Citadel in the opening round of the Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship presented by General Shale at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C., on Friday night.

The Paladins advanced to face No. 2 seed Chattanooga in quarterfinal round action on Saturday at 6 p.m. Saturday's game will be streamed live on ESPN3 and can be heard 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 of Saturday's game will also be available by logging onto TuneIn.com.  Links for the broadcast and live statistics will be available at FurmanPaladins.com.

"It was a great effort by our guys," said Paladin head coach Niko Medved.  "We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game and I thought we came out with great intensity.  I thought we picked up from where we had been last week. It was a great all-around effort."

Croone connected on 9-of-16 shots and made good on all six trips to the foul line to net his 27 points.  SoCon Freshman of the Year Devin Sibley was the only other Paladin in double-figures with 11 points, adding two assists and two steals. Kris Acox pulled down a team-high six rebounds, while Kendrec Ferrara added six points on two threes, five rebounds and a team-high four blocks.

The Paladins raced out to a 21-11 lead and carried a 38-27 advantage into intermission after hitting six first half three-pointers and scoring 15 points off of 12 Bulldog turnovers in the opening period.  Furman began the second half on a 9-0 run to extend its lead to 47-27 on Sibley's layup with 16:21 remaining, before The Citadel mounted a rally.

Jake Wright drained a three to ignite the Bulldogs' rally and Tom Koopman tallied five points during the run as The Citadel outscored Furman 14-2 to cut the Paladin lead to 49-41 on C.J. Bray's basket with 12:36 to play.  Acox tipped in a John Davis III miss to end the run and Croone followed with a three-point play and a trey to up the margin to 16 points.  Marshall Harris III answered with a three-pointer with 9:37 to play, but Furman held The Citadel without a basket for the next 7:06 and reeled off a 14-0 to put the game out of reach.

Furman forced 18 turnovers and held The Citadel to 31.3% shooting from the field.  The Paladins shot 47.5%, including 10-for-23 from three-point range, and committed just nine turnovers.  A 32-16 edge in points in the paint and 24-9 advantage in points off turnovers helped the Paladins improve to 6-2 versus The Citadel in postseason play and win its ninth game in the last 12 meetings against the Bulldogs.

Harris III and Bryan White led The Citadel with 11 points, while Ashton Moore added 10 points.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information