Greenville, S.C. – Mike Bothwell led all players with 26 points, while JP Pegues scored a career high 18, on Wednesday evening to propel the Furman men's basketball team to an 88-50 victory over the Western Carolina Catamounts in Southern Conference action from Timmons Arena.

With the win, the Paladins have now won four consecutive SoCon contests inside Timmons Arena and 12 straight against the Catamounts in the overall series. Furman improves to 13-7 overall and 5-2 in the conference, while Western Carolina drops to 8-11 on the season and 2-4 in league play.

Bothwell connected on 9-of-17 field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers, and went 4-for-4 at the free throw line. The senior also contributed three rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Pegues turned in a career game setting new marks in points (18), field goals made (6) and 3-pointers made (6) while matching his career best four rebounds. Conley Garrison made four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Alex Hunter and Joe Anderson both compiled nine points. Jalen Slawson pulled down a game high 10 rebounds and Hunter dished out five assists.

Vonterius Woolbright registered a team high 14 points and seven rebounds for the Catamounts. Marvin Price added 11 points.

A 15-0 run midway through the first half broke the game open for the Paladins after knocking down five straight 3-pointers, including two by Pegues, to put them ahead by 21 points.

Furman opened the game on a 7-2 run before Western Carolina responded with back-to-back threes from Price and Marcus Banks to give the Catamounts their only lead of the contest at 8-7 with 13 minutes remaining. The Paladins responded by scoring nine consecutive points, with Bothwell collecting seven, to go back in front 16-8 at the 8:20 mark. Price made two free throws with 6:53 to go and cut Western Carolina's deficit down to 16-10.

The 15-0 run by Furman pushed its lead from six to 21 points when Pegues' second triple of the run extended the lead to 31-10 with 3:25 remaining. The teams combined for just eight points over the final 3:05 of the half and the Paladins went into intermission leading 33-16.

The 16 points scored by the Catamounts was the lowest point total Furman has held an opponent during a half since limiting Western Carolina to only 14 in the first half of an 85-37 win at Timmons Arena on January 25, 2017.

The Paladins outscored the Catamounts 24-10 over the first 8:10 of the second half and built their lead out to 57-26 at the 11:50 mark on Bothwell's 3-pointer. Western Carolina would only get to within 29 points the remainder of the half with Furman holding a lead of at least 35 during the final 8:47. The Paladins took their largest lead of the game, 82-38, with 3:23 left after Bothwell made two free throws. Pegues kept Furman's lead at 44 points with just under two minutes to go in the contest when his 3-pointer made the score 88-44.

The Catamounts got a basket with 11 seconds remaining to put the final score at 88-50. The Paladins were 17-of-33 (51.5 percent) shooting in the second half including a 58.3 percent (14-of-24) mark from 3-point range. Furman also limited Western Carolina to only 1-of-6 shooting behind the 3-point line.

The Paladins concluded the game shooting 45.3 percent (29-of-64) from the field, 47.7 percent (21-of-44) behind the 3-point line and 90.0 percent (9-of-10) at the free throw line. Furman held the advantage in points off turnovers (26-12), second chance points (10-2), fast break points (9-8) and bench points (34-24).

The Catamounts finished at 34.0 percent (18-of-53) overall and 17.4 percent (4-of-23) from three.

The Paladins head to Spartanburg on Saturday to face Wofford at 7 p.m.