Kissimmee, Fla. – Furman held off a furious rally in the final minutes to hand Richmond its first loss of the season, 73-72, on Thanksgiving and advance to the finals of the Imagination Bracket at the Terry's Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational at State Farm Field House inside the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
 
The Paladins (4-3) will take on the Illinois State Redbirds (5-2) in the championship game on Friday at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 while Richmond (5-1) will face Charlotte (3-4) in the consolation game at 12:30 p.m. Illinois State downed the 49ers, 79-69, in the second game on Thursday at State Farm Field House.
 
With Richmond trailing 73-65 and under three minutes to play, Will Johnston reeled off five straight points with a second-chance three-pointer and a fastbreak layup to cut the margin to 73-70. After a Furman turnover, Collin Tanner grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on the putback to pull the Spiders within a point with 1:13 to go.
 
Two more turnovers gave Richmond a chance to take its first lead since the opening minute, but the Paladins forced a shot clock violation following the first miscue and a blocked shot at the rim by Asa Thomas was followed by a Furman timeout. Richmond's Aiden Argabright missed a jumper coming out of the timeout and Mike Walz could not convert from the middle of the lane on the offensive rebound before Thomas grabbed the loose ball as time expired to secure the Paladin victory.
 
The win marked Furman's first against a current Atlantic-10 Conference opponent since scoring back-to-back wins over Loyola Chicago during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Freshman Alex Wilkins hit 10-of-19 shots to match a career-high with 26 points for the Paladins while Thomas drained five triples to add 20 points.
 
Furman used a one-three-one zone to force 11 first-half turnovers and connected on 6-of-11 three-point attempts in the opening 20 minutes to build a 13-point lead before carrying a 43-38 advantage into the halftime break. The Paladins extended the lead back to 11 points at 60-49 with under 10 minutes remaining before Richmond used a 10-2 run to trim the margin to 62-59 on Walz's jumper with 7:08 left.
 
The Paladins answered by holding Richmond without a field goal for over three minutes as they fashioned a 9-3 run, capped by Thomas' fifth three of the game with 4:13 left to give Furman a 71-62 lead. Furman withstood the final Richmond spurt by holding the Spiders to 1-of-7 shooting to close the game.
 
Furman shot 52% from the field and scored 18 points off 17 Richmond turnovers to offset a 9-for-21 performance at the foul line. Cooper Bowser joined Wilkins and Thomas in double figures with 10 points while Charles Johnston added nine points and seven rebounds.
 
The Spiders finished 40.7% from the floor and connected on 15-of-17 free throw attempts, but Richmond was limited to 32.3% shooting in the second half, including a 3-for-14 effort behind the arc.
 
Jaden Daughtry led the Spiders with 12 points and Johnston and Mikkel Tyne finished with 10 apiece. Walz added game-high of 10 rebounds and six assists to go with his seven points.
 
Fans can also listen to Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy call the action of Friday's championship game on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg, and via the Audacy app. Links for the broadcast, live audio, and live statistics are available at FurmanPaladins.com.
 
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