Asheville N.C. – Alex Wilkins poured in a career-high 34 points and Furman rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to top UNC Greensboro, 81-75, on Sunday night in the semifinal round at Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville to earn its fourth trip to the Ingles Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship Game in the last five seasons.
 
The No. 6 seed Paladins (21-12) will face No. 1 seed East Tennessee State for the league title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament at 7 p.m. on Monday in Asheville, N.C. The championship game will air live on ESPN and fans can listen to Dan Scott and Tom Van Hoy call the action 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 live audio and live statistics are available at FurmanPaladins.com. 
 
After trailing 38-27 at the halftime break, Furman used a 17-5 run to open the second half and grabbed its first lead of the night at 44-43 on Asa Thomas' triple with 12:13 to play. The lead changed hands four times over the next five minutes before Wilkins converted a driving layup with 7:15 to go to put Furman in front 58-57. The basket was part of a stretch of eight consecutive makes from the field for Furman that helped the Paladins build a 66-60 lead when Cole Bowser drained a three with 5:04 to play.
 
UNCG cut the Furman lead back to three points on four occasions during the final minutes, but Wilkins or Eddrin Bronson provided an answer each time to push the Paladin advantage back to two possessions. The Spartans' Lilian Marville connected on a three-pointer with 14 seconds remaining to pull UNCG within 77-75. Once again, the Paladins found an answer as Bronson drew a foul on the inbounds pass and converted on both ends of a one-and-one opportunity. After KJ Younger's long-range heave came up short, Wilkins grabbed the rebound and buried two free throws with 2.6 left for the final 81-75 margin.
 
Wilkins, who earned second team All-SoCon honors earlier this week, connected on 10-of-17 shots, including 4-of-7 behind the arc, and went 10-for-10 at the foul line to match Jonathan Moore's Furman single-game freshman record of 34 points, which the former SoCon Player of the Year established in a loss to Georgia on December 15, 1976. With 34 points in the semifinal win, Wilkins also surpassed Moore's freshman scoring record of 561 points in 1977 and netted the most points by a Paladin in a SoCon Tournament game since Roy Simpson totaled 36 points in a championship game loss to East Carolina in 1972.
 
Cooper Bowser finished 6-for-6 from the floor to score 14 points while Bronson added 12 points on a 6-for-6 performance at the foul line.
 
Furman went 8-for-12 from three-point range and shot 72.7% from the field over the final 20 minutes to outscore UNCG 54-37 in the second half. The Paladins shot 52.1% for the game, connected on 9-of-20 three-point tries, and went 22-for-25 at the foul line.
 
UNCG forward Justin Neely netted 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting to lead the Spartans, but the nation's leading rebounder was held to five boards after grabbing 24 in the quarterfinal round. Marville scored 20 points and Younger posted 15 for the Spartans, who shot 53.1% on the night.
 
Sunday's championship against ETSU will mark the seventh meeting between the rivals in the SoCon Tournament and first in the championship game. ETSU has won five of the previous six encounters and captured a 63-52 victory over the Paladins in the most recent postseason meeting in the 2018 semifinals. 
 
Furman is going for its eighth SoCon title and first since defeating Chattanooga in the 2023 championship game.
 
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