Cullowhee, N.C. – Celena Taborn came off the bench to score 13 points on Thursday evening as the Furman women's basketball team had three players score in double figures en route to a 69-59 victory in SoCon play over the Western Carolina Catamounts at the Ramsey Center.

Furman improves to 17-10 on the season and 7-5 in league play while Western Carolina falls to 5-21 overall and 2-9 in the conference.

Le'Jzae Davidson led the Paladins offensively with 18 points, on 6-of-12 shooting, and tied her career-high of eight rebounds. Tierra Hodges went 7-of-14 from the field and finished with 16 points while tying Davidson with eight rebounds. Taborn's 13 points came on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Milica Manojlovic matched her career-best of nine assists.

Lauren LaPlant scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Catamounts on offense, shooting 8-of-17 for the game. Mia Littlejohn contributed nine points while Tembre Moates posted eight points and eight rebounds. Jewel Smalls dished out four assists.

Furman had built a 10-point lead in the second quarter when a layup by Hodges with 4:57 remaining extended its lead to 28-18. Western Carolina then used a 12-2 run over the next two minutes to even the score at 30-30 with just over one minute left before intermission. Davidson's layup just before the buzzer sent the Paladins into halftime leading 32-30.

Leading by two at the start of the second half, Furman posted a 23-14 score in the third quarter on 66.7 percent (10-of-15) shooting. The Catamounts had cut their deficit down to three points in the quarter before a 9-2 run by the Paladins over the course of nearly three minutes pushed their lead to 49-38 at the 3:05 mark on a layup by Sutton West. Taborn and Hodges combined for the final two field goals of the period to give Furman a 55-44 advantage.

The Paladins maintained a double-digit lead for almost four minutes to begin the fourth quarter until Western Carolina got to within seven points, 61-54, with 2:57 to go on LaPlant's 3-pointer. Furman held off the Catamounts and led by double figures for the final 1:41. Davidson gave the Paladins their largest lead of the game, 69-56, with 11 seconds remaining following her 3-pointer. A last-second triple by LaPlant put the final score at 69-59.

Taborn scored all 13 of her points in the second half, on 6-of-7 shooting, as Furman's bench outscored Western Carolina's 41-13 for the contest.

The Paladins concluded the game shooting 47.5 percent (28-of-59) from the field while outrebounding the Catamounts 36-26.

Furman also held the advantage in points in the paint (38-32), points off turnovers (13-8) and second chance points (17-0).

With her team-high 18 points in the victory, Davidson moves into third place all-time for career points by a Paladin with 1,699. Head coach Jackie Carson also surpassed Marshall's Judy Southard for eighth all-time in wins by a SoCon coach with 161.

Furman closes out its road schedule on Saturday afternoon traveling to UNC Greensboro for a 4 p.m. tipoff.