Darius Banks scored a game high 26 points to lead the Chattanooga Mocs to a 64-58 victory over the Furman Paladins in Southern Conference men's basketball action, Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena.
Furman drops to 17-10 overall and 9-5 in the conference, while Chattanooga improves to 22-5 on the season and 12-2 in league play.
Jalen Slawson led the Paladins offensively with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting while adding eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Mike Bothwell and Marcus Foster both contributed 11 points. Bothwell posted six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Banks finished the contest shooting 10-of-14 overall and grabbed nine rebounds along with Malachi Smith. Smith also recorded 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting and seven assists.
The Mocs outscored Furman 17-11 over the game's final 5:15 to secure the six-point victory. The Paladins tied the score 47-47 on Conley Garrison's layup but Chattanooga responded with 11 of the next 15 points to go ahead 58-51 with 2:36 remaining. Bothwell scored five consecutive points and trimmed Furman's deficit down to 58-56 with 1:38 left following his layup. Foster kept the Paladins within two just over a minute later, making two free throws to make the score 60-58.
Banks sealed the win for the Mocs at the free throw line, going 4-of-4 over the last 17 seconds to give Chattanooga the six-point victory.
Furman, who led by seven at halftime, built an 11-point lead twice in the second half with the last coming at 36-25 with 15:25 to go when Slawson knocked down a jumper. Chattanooga answered with a 12-1 run over the next 3:19 to even the score at 37-37.
The Paladins led by as many as eight points twice during the first half. Slawson gave Furman a 20-12 lead at the 5:56 mark and later made a pair of free throws to increase its advantage to 24-16 with 3:17 remaining.
The Paladins concluded the game shooting 44.2 percent (23-of-52) from the field and held the advantage in points off turnovers (10-8) and fast break points (6-0). Furman sits in 2nd place in the SoCon regular season standings , one game ahead of VMI with four games left. Chattanooga's magic number for the regular season crown is one with four games left in conference play.
Furman travels to Cullowhee, N.C. on Wednesday, February 16 to face Western Carolina at 7 p.m. from the Ramsey Center. You can listen to the "Voice Of The Paladins" Dan Scott on 97.7 FM/1330 AM in Greenville, 97.1 FM/950 AM in Spartanburg, through the Audacy App and on the streaming player below. Hear Every Furman game, all season long on ESPN Upstate.
