Sophomore JP Pegues drained a three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left to help No. 13 seed Furman shock No. 4 seed Virginia, 68-67, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
With its first tournament victory since claiming a 75-67 win over South Carolina in first round play on March 9, 1974, the Paladins advanced to face No. 5 seed San Diego State in Saturday's round of 32. Tip-off time will be announced later tonight.
"What an unbelievable college basketball game," said Paladin head coach Bob Richey. "All year we've been saying that this team just knows how to win. We knew we were going to have a great opponent in Virginia. We knew there were going to be some advantages in terms of their size, in terms of their physicality, the way they rebound, the way they defend. It's an unbelievable moment, and give all glory to God for allowing me to be able to lead it, but this is a day these players just found a way."
Down 67-63 with 12 seconds remaining, Furman's Garrett Hien converted on two free throws to cut the deficit to two points. Furman trapped the Cavaliers on the inbounds pass and Hien intercepted Kihei Clark's pass near midcourt. He fed the ball to Pegues on the right wing and the Nashville, Tenn., product buried the go-ahead triple to put the Paladins in front. Following a timeout, Virginia got the ball in the hands of Reece Beekman but his last-second heave from long range missed off the back iron as time expired.
Fifth-year senior Jalen Slawson paced the Paladins with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists to notch his ninth double-double of the season and 19th of his career. Redshirt-junior Marcus Foster, who connected on three second-half triples, finished with 14 points. Pegues and Mike Bothwell contributed 11 points apiece.
Virginia raced out to an 8-0 lead and carried a 32-27 advantage into the half. The Cavaliers scored the first six points of the second half and extended their lead to 42-30 on Clark's basket with 15:24 to play.
An 8-0 run, which included threes from Foster and Bothwell, cut the margin to 50-46. Slawson's three-point play with 6:10 on the clock pulled Furman within 54-51 and the Summerville, S.C., native evened the game with a triple on the next possession. Another three-point play by Slawson stretched Furman's run to 9-0 and gave the Paladins a 57-54 advantage with 5:02 to go.
The Paladins led 63-60 with under 2:30 to go when UVA went on a 7-0 run to seemingly take control. A pair of free throws from both Beekman and Kadin Shedrick put the Cavaliers in front 66-63. Virginia missed the front end of a one-and-one on its next possession and Clark connected on just 1-of-2 moments later before Furman's five-point rally to claim the victory.
Sheddrick led the Cavaliers with 15 points, 13 boards, and four blocked shots, while Beekman added 14 points. Isaac McKneely posted 12 points off the bench. Virginia held Furman to 39.3% shooting and fashioned a 39-31 edge on the glass, but the Paladins outscored UVA by 24 behind the arc and scored 11 points off eight turnovers. Furman hit 6-of-14 three-point attempts and all nine of its free throw attempts to net 41 second-half points.
Playing in its first NCAA Tournament since 1980, Furman (28-7) notched its school-record 28th victory and became the first SoCon school to claim a tournament win since 2019. With 11 points on Thursday, Bothwell became the fifth player in school history to reach 2,000 career points. Slawson surpassed 1,500 career points in the historic win.
