13-seed Furman stuns No
ORLANDO, Fla.– It took almost 50 years, but Furman finally has another NCAA competition win.The Paladins did it in quite significant fashion, too.Garrett Hien
intercepted a stubborn pass and fed the ball to JP Pegues, who struck a long 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds to play to offer the 13th-seeded Paladins a 68-67 triumph over 4th-seeded Virginia at the Amway Center on Thursday. It’s the program’s very first NCAA competition success because 1974.
“It’s an unbelievable moment,” said Furman head coach Bob Richey, who wasn’t born up until three years after the Paladins had made their last tournament look in 1980. “… What a day to be a Paladin.”
It was a pretty good one for Pegues, too. The sophomore guard had missed his previous 3 3-point attempts however the Paladins’ leader in 3-point basket this season buried his last from several feet behind the 3-point line. It’ll go down as one of the most significant shots in program history considering that the Paladins had just one other NCAA competition win.
“As quickly I saw it to into Garrett Hien’s hands, I resembled, I want the ball,” Pegues stated. “I seem like those are minutes I’ve produced my whole life and I seem like I’m developed for. So as soon as I got the ball and I [saw] a shot effort I had, I knew all I might do at that point was simply ride up and shoot it and I had complete belief that it was entering and it did.”
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Furman’s victory was the first upset of the tournament and they were a trendy choice to get it done. At Caesars Sportsbook, the betting was on the Furman side, with 61.6% of the tickets and 55.6% of the money on the Paladins.At BetMGM books, more bets were positioned and more money bet on Furman plus the points (5.5) than on any other group in Thursday’s games by tipoff.The Paladins(28-7), who have won 15 of their last 16 games, will play the winner of the San Diego State-Charleston game on Saturday in a second-round game.” This team’s done a fantastic task making history all year so Saturday’s going to be another possibility to make history, and this group has actually performed the very best under the brightest lights all year,”Furman forward Jalen Slawson stated. “We played well in [the Southern Conference] champion, however we played better today. Imagine if we go play better Saturday.”For Virginia(25-8 )it was a pointer of another heartbreaking first-round loss. Thursday’s game began the five-year anniversary of their loss to UMBC, the first time a 16 seed had beaten a 1 seed. The Cavaliers rebounded to win the national title in 2019 but have actually lost in the first round of their last 2 competition appearances.It was also a heartbreaking moment for Virginia guard Kihei Clark, who got captured in a trap on the standard and
tossed an errant downcourt pass that Hien obstructed. Virginia still had a timeout remaining however neither Clark nor coach Tony Bennett called one. “Couldn’t see out of it,” Clark stated.”Saw Reece [Beekman] going back a little bit and after that saw Jayden [Gardner] down there. Just attempted to throw it up.”… Perhaps could have threw it to Isaac [McKneely] on the right wing. Just could not see.
It was a good trap. “Virginia had a 12-point lead with 15:11 to play but Furman changed to a zone defense and tried the lead, eventually proceeding on a Slawson layup with 5:02 to play. Clark put Virginia ahead by four with 19 seconds to use a totally free toss however two Hien totally free throws with 12 seconds to play set the phase for Clark’s turnover.” I believed we fought to get that lead back,”Virginia coach Tony Bennett said.”That’s where I believed,’ Okay, we got it back. Excellent, difficult play and believed we were going to be using Saturday. But we’re not.” That’ll be Furman, instead.” We’re just soaking all of it in, “Pegues stated.”We’re enjoying the moment. “