Furman’s 3-Point Barrage Ends Samford’s Season
Well sometimes it is just not your night. Samford goes one and done in Asheville falling to Furman 95-78. A year ago, Samford knocked Furman out of the Southern Conference Tournament en route to a tournament championship. This year, Furman’s three-point assault lifted them to the semifinals.
For the night, the Paladins finished 17-29 from behind the three-point line. Furman’s PJay Smith, Nick Anderson, and Tom House combined for 16 of the 17 made threes. Overall, Furman shot 59% from the field in the game and 71% in the second half. Furman’s 17 made threes were just one shy of a SoCon Tournament record.
To quote Bucky McMillan after the game, “Furman could have beaten everyone in the league tonight, probably by double digits.” He is not wrong as that’s just the way basketball goes sometimes.
Furman used their 1-3-1 zone to slow down Samford in the half court early in the first half. After the first media timeout, Samford went scoreless over the next 4:34 of game time as Furman took a nine point lead.
In the first half, it was Furman’s Nick Anderson who once out-scoring Samford by himself 14-12. Furman’s biggest first half lead was 11 but Samford was able to just be down 38-36 at the break. They had withstood every Furman run and made seven of their final nine shots in the half to get that lead down to two.
All things considered, it was a major win for Samford to just be down two at halftime. Transitioning to the second half, at the start both teams were trading punches. At the 16:56 mark, we were all knotted up at 45. Then over the next 1:06, Furman goes on a 7-0 run to make it a 52-45 game. That was the last time the game was tied. All night Samford found themselves scratching and clawing their way back into the game. Seemingly every time Samford had a little stretch of momentum, Furman would answer with a three or two of their own.
Eight different times in the second half, Furman responded with a three to a Samford score. Samford’s defense was not bad either, Furman just made shot after shot.
Josh Holloway continued to improve throughout the season and showed more of that leading Samford in scoring with 21 points in 32 minutes. He provided a big spark when Samford needed it in the first half making consecutive threes to get his team back in it.
Samford never wavered though, they never gave up. That has been the story of the season, no matter the deficit this team never quit. McMillan talked about just that after the game, this team’s resiliency.
“They’re resilient. This is not the best offensive team we’ve had and so they’ve just found ways to win games all throughout the season, different ways. They just found ways and a lot of it is just scrapping it out. We’re fighting back and we’re right there and looks like it’s about to swing our way and they made some shots. But again you saw the heart of our players all the way through and I always appreciate that. They play for this program and it means a lot.”
Samford was never out of a game this season but sometimes that just catches up to you over the course of a long season. They could have been down 15 like Samford was against North Dakota State back in November and they found a way. Rylan Jones who finished with eight points and nine assists never gave up. He mentions what he will remember the most as his collegiate career finishes.
“I’ll just remember going to war with those guys every single day. You know you can never count us out even if the lead seemed pretty big. Just love the guys, we had a terrific season and Coach said it in the locker room. When you go to the locker room and you can lose with your team and you still have that bond. I love every single one of them and I’m just happy I got to play with them. We’ll have memories for a long time.”
Furman’s shooting just turned out to be too much to overcome.
From last year’s record breaking team, Samford returned just four players in Rylan Jones, Riley Allenspach, Lukas Walls and Josh Holloway. Bucky McMillan and staff had to rebuild this team from the ground up basically. McMillan made a specific point at the end of his press conference to shout out his team.
“I know when the season ends, you always feel the last game. There’s a lot when you look at this group over the course of the season. They had a terrific season. They had the highest NET ranking in the SoCon, the highest KenPom rating, and were only number two to last year’s team of games won in the regular season. I wanted to say that for my guys because I know they’re going to have a sour taste coming out of there because we don’t accept anything but winning a championship.”
That is how Samford’s program has changed under Bucky McMillan and company, it’s a culture shift. “We don’t accept anything but winning a championship.” Samford fell short of that this season and while it is disappointing to not win one, there are plenty of those ahead. Samford, under this leadership, will continue to invest in the program and give them everything they need to chase more of those championships.
This season will still go down in history as Samford won the second most regular season games in school history. We may just have finished Bucky McMillan’s fifth year as Samford’s head coach but it’s only the beginning. It’s a movement.
