Greenville, S.C. – Junior
JP Pegues scored seven of Furman's final nine points, including four free throws in the final minute to help the Paladins rally past East Tennessee State, 65-63, Saturday evening at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tenn.
The Paladins connected on 12-of-13 field goal attempts in the final 13 minutes to erase an 11-point second half deficit while improving to 13-12 overall and 7-5 in the Southern Conference. ETSU, who fell for the first time in four games, slipped to 13-12 and 5-7 in league play.
Trailing 30-29 at the break, the Buccaneers opened the second half on an 11-3 run to grab the lead and increased their advantage to 11 points at 56-45 on Quimari Peterson's layup with 7:15 to play. ETSU continued to hold a double-digit lead until Pegues and PJay Smith converted on back-to-back jumpers beginning with the Nashville, Tenn., product's basket with 6:05 to play. The Bucs pushed the margin back to eight, but
Marcus Foster answered with five straight points and Pegues responded to an ETSU bucket with a triple to bring Furman within 61-59 with 2:55 remaining.
Pegues fed
Cooper Bowser for an alley-oop slam to knot the game at 61-61 with 2:15 left and Furman got a defensive stop to take possession. A turnover on an inbounds pass led to a breakaway slam for ETSU's Jaden Seymour with 1:03 to play.
On Furman's next possession, Pegues drew a foul with 43.6 to go and drained both free throws to even the game at 63-63. Seymour missed a jumper from the right baseline with 23 seconds left and the Paladins got the ball in the hands of Pegues who drew a foul on a drive down the right side of the lane with 1.8 seconds left. The guard converted on both free throws and ETSU threw the inbounds pass away. Pegues was fouled Furman's inbounds and missed the front end of the one-and-one but the Bucs' last-second pass down the court was knocked away as time expired following a timeout.
Furman shot 59.1% in the second half, including 12-of-13 over the final 13 minutes, finish at 50% for the night. Pegues led the Paladins with 15 points and added five boards and four assists. Foster scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Tyrese Hughey and
Ben VanderWal chipped in with eight points apiece.
Peterson scored 14 points to lead five Bucs in double figures. Jadyn Parker scored 13, Seymour netted 12, Ebby Asamoah contributed 11, and Allen Strothers totaled 10. ETSU 39.7% from the floor but made just 4-of-19 three-point tries and 13-of-22 free throw attempts.
Furman returns home on Wednesday, February 14, to host the VMI Keydets at 7 p.m. inside Timmons Arena.
