Greenville, S.C. – The Furman men's basketball team opens Southern Conference play this week when it hosts the VMI Keydets on Thursday night at Timmons Arena and visits the Western Carolina Catamounts on Saturday afternoon at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, while Saturday's game is slated for 4 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+, and fans can listen to both matchups on 97.7 FM, 1330 AM, and through the Audacy app with Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy on the call. Tickets are available for Thursday's game at
FurmanPaladins.com. Furman's Season Swishes ticket packages are also available by
clicking here.
Furman, tabbed as the preseason favorites in the SoCon by the head coaches and media, enters league play at 9-4 after scoring a season-high 106 points and dishing out a season-best 29 assists in a 106-79 victory over the Anderson Trojans in its last outing on December 19. Sophomore
JP Pegues paced five Paladins in double figures with a career-high 20 points, and freshman
Ben VanderWal also posted a career-best with 13 as Furman claimed its seventh win in its last nine games.
The Paladins, who scored victories over opponents from the Missouri Valley Conference (Belmont), SEC (South Carolina), Sun Belt (Appalachian State), and WAC (Stephen F. Austin) during the non-conference schedule, enter Thursday's game as the highest ranked team in the league in the Pomeroy Ratings (No. 94) and NCAA NET Rankings (No. 135). Furman ranks 22
nd in the nation in scoring (82.6 ppg), fifth in assists per game (19.5 apg), and 10
th in effective field goal percentage. Fifth-year senior
Mike Bothwell, who poured in a career-high 36 points in the Paladins' win over Stephen F. Austin on December 17 and leads the team at 20.2 points per game, ranks 18
th in the country in scoring.
Thursday's matchup marks the 105
th all-time meeting between Furman and VMI with the Paladins holding a 67-37 series advantage. VMI claimed a 76-67 victory in last season's first meeting in Lexington, Va., before Furman returned the favor with a 79-64 triumph at Timmons Arena on January 26, 2022, that snapped a three-game skid versus the Keydets. Entering SoCon play, VMI sports a 5-8 record, including victories over Navy and Radford. The Keydets dropped an overtime decision on the road against a 12-win Fordham team in their last outing on December 21.
Saturday's first SoCon road trip will mark the 82
nd renewal of the Furman-Western Carolina rivalry. Furman holds a 52-29 series lead and has won each of the last 13 versus the Catamounts, including a 103-85 triumph in Cullowhee in the last meeting on February 16, 2022. The Catamounts are 7-6 on the season and have won three straight games entering their SoCon opener versus UNC Greensboro on Thursday night.
