Greenville, S.C. – Marcus Foster tallied a career-high 23 points and added eight rebounds to lead Furman to an 85-62 victory over VMI in the Southern Conference men's basketball opener for both schools Thursday night at Timmons Arena.
The redshirt-junior connected on 8-of-15 shots, including 7-of-12 behind the arc, and dished out two assists without committing a turnover as the Paladins improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the league with their third consecutive victory. VMI slipped to 5-9 overall and 0-1 in the SoCon.
Trailing 19-17, Furman held the Keydets without a field goal over the final 7:30 of the first half and finished the period on a 16-2 run to carry a 33-21 lead into the break. After freshman
Ben VanderWal gave the Paladins the lead at the foul line, Foster drained three triples in the final five minutes of the half to key the rally. The Paladins scored the first five points of the second half and extended VMI's field goal drought to over nine minutes to push the advantage to 38-21 on
Mike Bothwell's three-pointer with 18:13 remaining.
VMI trimmed the Paladin lead down to 12 points with under 13:30 left, but Furman scored 10 straight points as part of a 13-2 run to push the margin to 75-50 on
JP Pegues' trey with 4:36 to go. The Paladins finished the night with 25 assists on 30 baskets, connected on 16 three-point attempts, and held VMI to 5-of-17 shooting behind the arc.
Pegues scored 15 points,
Tyrese Hughey totaled 13, and Bothwell added 12 to join Foster in double figures.
Jalen Slawson contributed seven points, a game-high nine rebounds, eight assists, and three blocked shots.
Furman shot 46.9% from the floor and the Paladins' bench outscored the VMI reserves 39-22. Slawson's nine boards helped Furman to a 42-34 rebounding edge, while the Paladins were charged with only 10 turnovers.
Devin Butler led the Keydets with 14 points, while Tyler Houser and Asher Woods added 13 and 10 points, respectively. VMI connected on just 37.7% of its field goal attempts, including only 27.3% in the opening half.
The Paladins are back in action Saturday afternoon versus the Western Carolina Catamounts. Tip-off at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C., is slated for 4 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Fans can listen to the action on 97.7 FM, 1330 AM, and through the Audacy app with Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy on the call.
