Greenville, S.C. – The Furman men's basketball team continues its push for a Southern Conference regular season title and No. 1 seed in the upcoming SoCon Men's Basketball Championship when it entertains the Mercer Bears in the regular season home finale presented by Harper General Contractors Wednesday evening at Timmons Arena.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased online at
FurmanPaladins.com. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and fans can listen to the radio broadcast on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM, 1330 AM, and via the Audacy app with Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy on the call.
Furman comes into Wednesday's matchup at 22-7 overall and 13-3 in the SoCon. The Paladins are tied with UNC Greensboro for second in the league, just one game back of Samford. With a win on Wednesday against the Bears and a victory at Samford on Saturday, Furman can secure a share of the regular season title for the first time since 2017 and capture the No. 1 seed in the tournament for the first time since 1991.
The Paladins upended East Tennessee State, 83-79, on Sunday night at Timmons Arena to complete their first regular season sweep of the Bucs since the 1986-87 campaign and join Duke, Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Liberty, and Saint Mary's as the only teams to register 22 or more victories in at least six of the last seven seasons. Redshirt-junior
Marcus Foster paced the Paladins with 15 points and added six boars, three assists and three steals. Junior
Garrett Hien and sophomore
JP Pegues finished with 13 points apiece while fifth-year senior
Jalen Slawson posted his eighth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore
Alex Williams gave Furman five players in double figures by contributing 10 points.
A win on Wednesday would clinch a significant milestone for seniors
Mike Bothwell and Slawson, who would join former teammate
Alex Hunter as the winningest players in school history with their 111
th victory at Furman.
Wednesday's matchup marks the 36
th all-time meeting between Furman and Mercer with the Paladins holding a 25-10 series lead. Furman has won each of the last 16 meetings versus Mercer, including an 84-66 victory in Macon, Ga., on January 11 behind a career-high 25 points from Foster. The Bears have not defeated the Paladins since the 2015-16 campaign and last won in Greenville, S.C., in 2014-15.
Mercer is 12-17 overall and 5-11 in the SoCon following a 71-68 home loss to Western Carolina on Saturday. The Bears have dropped four straight games since claiming an 80-54 win over VMI on February 4.
Furman caps the regular season with a 2 p.m. EST tip-off versus Samford on CBS Sports Network at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday. The 2023 SoCon Men's Basketball Championship is set for March 3-6 at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.
