GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman's women's basketball team hits the road for its next two Southern Conrerence games, taking on Samford on Thursday in Homewood, Ala., and Mercer in a Saturday contest in Macon, Ga.

Tipoff for the Samford game at Pete Hanna Center is set for 7:00 p.m. ET, while the Mercer contest is slated for 2:00 p.m. at Hawkins Arena.  Both games will be live streamed via ESPN+ and include StatBroadcast live stats, with links to both available on the women's basketball schedule page on FurmanPaladins.com.

Competing on the road this season is a challenge the Paladins (11-8, 1-2 SoCon) know well as 12 of their 19 games thus far have been road affairs in a 2024-25 campaign that features just 11 home contests, with nine slated being played at Hayes Gymnasium on the campus of North Greenville University while Furman's on-campus basketball venue, Timmons Arena, undergoes a $40 million renovation before re-opening for the 2025-26 season.

Furman is coming off a 64-54 home loss to UNC Greensboro on Saturday at Greenville's Bon Secours Wellness Arena in downtown Greenville.  The Paladins were paced in that contest by Tate Walters and Jada Session, who tallied 17 points apiece, but it wasn't enough as Furman fell behind in the second quarter and never recovered in the face of hot shooting by UNCG, which connected on 10-of-21 3-point ers (.476) after entering the contest shooting just 29.4 percent from beyond the arc.

In the Paladins' two SoCon losses this season, Wofford and UNC have combined to connect on 24-of-50 3-point attempts (.480).

Walters' work against UNCG, which followed a career high 30-point effort in the Paladins' 82-73 win over Western Carolina last Thursday, helped her net SoCon Player of the Week honors for the third time in her Paladin career.  The 5-foot-9 graduate guard from Buford, Ga., who leads Furman in scoring (12.7 ppg), currently has 1,111 career points, which ranks 22nd in program history, and the All-SoCon performer also owns 412 assists, good for third on Furman's all-time ledger.

Session, a 6-foot-1 senior All-SoCon forward, continues her comeback after missing the squad's first 10 games this season while recovering from a knee injury.

Furman is getting solid play from 6-foot-4 senior All-SoCon forward Kate Johnson (11.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg), who leads the SoCon and ranks 18th nationally in field goal percentage (.603).  Her work on the glass fronts a Paladin squad that sports a SoCon best +7.8 rebounding margin.

The Paladins were dealt a big blow in late December when starting redshirt junior guard Niveya Henley (11.7 ppg, .358 3PG%) went down with a season ending knee injury.

Both Samford (5-14, 0-3 SoCon) and Mercer have proven to be rough competition on the court for Furman.  The Bulldogs own a 21-15  lead in the series and have claimed seven of the last nine meetings, including the last two. Mercer, meanwhile, sports a 25-7 series advantage and is 9-3 versus the Paladins in the last 12 encounters, though the two split last year's meetings.