GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman's women's basketball team wraps up its regular season with a pair of road Southern Conference contests, taking on Chattanooga at 6:00 p.m. Thursday and East Tennessee State in a 2:00 p.m. Saturday tilt.

Both games will be live streamed via ESPN+ and include live stats, with links available thru the women's basketball schedule page on FurmanPaladins.com.

Furman appears destined to take the No. 6 seed into Southern Conference Tournament play, which gets underway next Thursday at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.  The Paladins will play in 3:30 p.m. first round matchup against the No. 3 seed, which could be Wofford, Chattanooga, Samford, or East Tennessee State, depending on final regular season results.

Furman (14-14, 4-8 SoCon) dropped its first meeting of the season with Chattanooga (13-12, 8-4 SoCon) — a Feb. 1, 68-60 verdict at North Greenville University's Hayes Gymnasium, which served as the Paladins' primary home court this year during the $40M renovation of Timmons Arena on campus, which is scheduled to re-open for the 2025-26 season.  

The Mocs' Caia Elisadez scored 24 points and Chattanooga limited Furman to only five second quarter points to gain the upper hand en route to the win.  Sydney Ryan paced four Paladin double figure scorers with 15 points, followed by Clare Coyle with 13.  

Chattanooga owns a 61-28 edge in the series with Furman and is currently riding a six-game winning streak against the Paladins, whose last win over UTC, a 70-63 verdict, came on Mar. 3, 2022, in SoCon Tournament first round action.

East Tennessee State also edged Furman, 72-62, in Jan. 30 action at Hayes Gymnasium.  The Bucs' Paige Lyons' 23-point scoring performance keyed ETSU, which used a 27-point fourth quarter to notch the victory.

Furman is led by graduate guard Tate Walters, who became the 27th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club in a 61-57 road win over Elon on Dec. 4, 2024, and currently has 1,216 career points, which is 19th in program history — four shy of 18th place, currently held by Tonya Bristow (1,220 pts., 1995-98).

Walters also owns 447 assists, good for second on Furman's all-time ledger, and is fifth in 3PFGM (171) and third in 3PFGA (522).  She captured the SoCon's Ann Lashley Award after completing her return to action last year and averaging 10.0 ppg while contributing 107 assists after missing the 2022-23 season with a torn Achilles tendon. 

Senior forward Jada Session delivered an 18-point, 10-rebound performance in the Paladins' 73-62 loss to Samford on Saturday — her fourth double-double of the season.  Session, who missed the season's first 10 games while recovering from a knee injury, is one of four Paladins in the starting lineup averaging double figures (10.1 ppg).  With 643 career rebounds, she is 22 caroms shy of Elizabeth Noethling (1995-98), the mother of Paladin senior Kate Johnson, who is currently 10th with 665 rebounds.  Johnson is shooting 59.2 percent from the field this year — tops in the SoCon — and 58.3 percent for her career, which ranks third in Furman history.  

Three Paladin freshmen have played prominent roles this year — guards Raina McGowens (7.2 ppg) and Chantelle Stuart (4.0 ppg, 90 ast., 43 stl.), and forward Clare Coyle (5.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg).  Coyle, who has tallied double figures in five of her last 10 outings, ranks second among SoCon freshmen in rebounding and seventh overall.