WOFFORD 76, FURMAN 67
SPARTANBURG, SC ? On a day where Wofford honored its senior players, it was freshman Junior Salters who scored 19 points and hit a number of acrobatic shots in leading the Terriers to a 76-67 win over Furman at the Benjamin Johnson Arena on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, Wofford earns the number nine seed in next week’s Southern Conference Tournament to be played in the North Charleston Coliseum. Wofford will play the eighth seed, Chattanooga at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 28.
Wofford is now 10-19 overall and finishes at 5-13 in the SoCon. Furman is 14-15, 8-10.
Wofford held a 29-28 halftime lead and had possession of the ball to start the second half. Drew Gibson immediately drove the lane and lofted an alley-oop pass to sophomore Tyler Whatley who slammed it home for a 31-28 advantage. Alex Opacic scored on a layup for Furman to close the lead back to one before Salters started the Terriers on a 7-0 run. His driving layup gave Wofford a 33-30 lead and was followed up by a Whatley layup and a 3-pointer by Shane Nichols that left the Terriers ahead 38-30.
After Furman’s Moussa Diagne stopped the run with a free throw, Nichols hit another 3-pointer as Wofford opened its first 10-point lead of the game at 41-31.
Salters hit another driving layup with 14:06 to play to give Wofford a 46-33 lead. A short off-balance jumper by the freshman from Broome High School put the Terriers on top 51-40 just inside the 10 minute mark of the game. A Salters 3-pointer with 8:28 remaining gave the Terriers a 15-point margin at 57-42.
Wofford built a 20-point advantage at 71-51 with 3:01 to play following a free throw by Nichols.
Furman’s Tony Anderson then drained 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions and Eric Webb added a triple with 42 second to play as the Paladins closed the gap to 73-64. Wofford senior Adam Sheehan scored on a layup with 23 seconds left to put Wofford in front 75-64.
“I thought this was as complete a game as we played all year,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “Top to bottom, offensively, defensively, we played pretty well.
“Junior was terribly hard to guard this afternoon,” said Young. “He’s put together quite a freshman year.”
Anderson led the Paladins with 16 points including 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. Gerad Punch had 12 points and a game-high seven rebounds. Moussa Diagne added 10 points but made just three of 15 field goal tries.
Nichols finished with 18 points for Wofford including a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
Wofford seniors Matt O’Connor and Adam Sheehan each started their final home game. O’Connor finished with three points and a team-high six rebounds. Sheehan had two points on the afternoon.
Wofford will meet Chattanooga in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 28 in a 3:00 p.m. game at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Furman, the fifth seed in the tournament, will play UNC Greensboro on Thursday, March 1.