GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Wofford men's basketball team went on the road to Furman on Saturday, defeating the Paladins 72-64 in Timmons Arena.
Fletcher Magee led the Terriers with 23 points on five 3-pointers, while Cameron Jackson scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Keve Aluma totaled 11 points and seven boards in the victory. As a team, Wofford scored 30 points in the paint and got 12 second-chance points, outrebounding the Paladins 33-30.
"I'm very proud of this bunch," said Wofford head coach Mike Young. "It was Furman's senior day, they said goodbye to two guys we think a lot of in Rafferty and Brown. We weren't exactly where we needed to be defensively to start, but I thought we just had to settle in and we did."
With the win, the Terriers take the season-series from Furman (2-0) and now sit at 24-4 (16-0 SoCon) overall on the season, extending their winning streak to 15. Wofford returns to the court on Thursday, traveling to Chattanooga to face the Mocs at 7 p.m.
Jackson opened the game up with a bucket, and after Magee and Murphy drained a pair of threes, Wofford held a 14-10 advantage. Furman responded, taking a 21-16 lead but the Terriers began to take over in the paint, as Jackson, Aluma and Fletcher all finished at the rim to make the score 22-21 Wofford.
"Keve Aluma was awesome tonight," Young said. "You've heard me say it a lot of times, I have a very, very good basketball team, and Aluma has been a big part of that since day one."
The Terriers extended their lead, getting a 3-pointer from Donovan Theme-Love and a pair of buckets from Jackson and Matthew Pegram to make the score 31-23 in favor of Wofford. Nathan Hoover would knock down his first trey of the night and Jackson hit a jumper with time winding down in the first to give the Terriers the 11-point lead at the break.
The Terriers would lead the rest of the way, as Hoover drilled a 3-pointer from the wing to open up the scoring in the second. Moments later, Aluma grabbed an offensive rebound and found Magee who knocked down his third three of the game to give the Terriers a 13-point lead.
"I just try and out-battle the guys that are trying to box me out," Aluma said of his rebounding prowess. "I've learned so much from Cam (Jackson) over the years about just doing whatever I can for the team, so I don't really think about it. I just go after the ball."
Furman would respond, getting a pair of threes to cut it to seven, before a Matt Rafferty bucket made it made the score 47-42 in favor of the Terriers. With the score 49-46, Chevez Goodwin scored in traffic to give Wofford some breathing room. Aluma made his presence felt once again, getting a pair of feeds from Magee and converting at the rim to push the lead back to nine.
"I asked our big guys to win that matchup down low. I thought Rafferty had a good game, but I thought Cameron was Cameron today and Aluma was Aluma today."
The senior duo of Magee and Jackson closed down the Paladins, as a pair of 3-pointers form Magee and a strong bucket inside from Jackson pushed the lead back to 11 (70-59). Jackson would ice the game, knocking down a pair of free throws and grabbing a board as the Terriers took the game 74-62.
"You have to have a good basketball team to come in here to win," Young said. "It's hard to win on the road, but we have a special bunch and were able to do that today."
