GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A 57-47 road winner over Mercer on Saturday, Furman returns home to complete the first leg of its Southern Conference schedule beginning with a Thursday clash against East Tennessee State, followed by a Saturday contest versus Chattanooga.
Tipoff for the ETSU contest is set for 7:00 p.m., and Saturday's clash against Chattanooga is a 2:00 p.m. start. Both games will be played at Hayes Gymnasium on the campus of North Greenville University, live streamed via ESPN+, and include StatBroadcast live stats, with links to both accessible through the women's basketball schedule page on FurmanPaladins.com.
Hayes Gymnasium at NGU is serving as Furman's primary home court this year while the Paladins' on-campus basketball venue, Timmons Arena, undergoes a $40 million renovation before re-opening for the 2025-26 season.
Furman (12-9, 2-3 SoCon) and ETSU (11-9, 2-3 SoCon) split a pair of games a year ago with the Paladins claiming a 67-59 verdict in Greenville and the Buccaneers winning 78-59 in Johnson City. Furman holds a decisive 47-25 lead in the series and is 24-11 versus ETSU in Greenville.
In last year's contest in Greenville, the Paladins erased a 48-38 fourth quarter deficit by outscoring the Bucs 29-13 in the final period to complete the comeback victory.
Sydney Ryan paced Furman with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range as the Paladins hit on 10-of-18 treys to key the win.
Kate Johnson contributed 14 points, and
Tate Walters added 11 points and eight assists.
Furman used an 8-0 fourth quarter run to break a 42-42 deadlock on the way to its win over Mercer. Walters led the way with 14 points — all in the first half — and
Jada Session continued her resurgence with a 13-point, nine-rebound effort, with freshman
Clare Coyle contributing a season high 13 points to go with nine boards.
The play of Session and Coyle proved large as the Paladins again were forced to compete without senior All-SoCon forward
Kate Johnson (11.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and freshman guard
Raina McGowens (7.2 ppg), who missed their second game in a row due to injury. The injuries to Johnson and McGowens are the latest blows the Paladins have suffered after starting small forward
Niveya Henley (11.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, .358 3PFG%) was lost for the season with a knee injury sustained in the second quarter of an eventual 78-77 road loss at North Carolina Central in late December.
The Paladins' top player of late has been Walters, who has scored 82 points (20.5 avg.) and contributed 23 assists over the last four games while shooting 31-of-64 (.484) from the field, including 9-of-21 (.429) from 3-point range. The Buford, Ga., product tallied a career high 30 points in a 82-73 win over Western Carolina on Jan. 16, which helped her land SoCon Player of the Week honors on Jan. 21. Furman's leading scorer (13.2 ppg) this season, she became the 27th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club in a 61-57 win over Elon on Dec. 4, 2024. She currently has 1,146 career points, which is 21st in program history, and owns 421 assists, good for third on Furman's all-time ledger.
The Paladins welcomed the return of senior All-SoCon forward
Jada Session in December after she missed the first 10 games while recovering from a knee injury. Furman's leading scorer (12.1 ppg) and rebounder (8.1 rpg) a year ago, she has tallied 47 points (19x32, .594) and 25 rebounds over the last three games.
