ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Furman Paladins rode a strong second-half effort in Thursday's 68-54 win over the Wofford Terriers in the quarterfinals of the Ingles Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship presented by General Shale. Furman outscored its rival 38-23 in the decisive second half.
 
Wofford led 37-33 early in the third quarter on two Cairo Booker free throws. Celena Taborn in the post and Le'Jzae Davidson from 3 gave the lead back to the Paladins in just two possessions, 38-37. That sparked a 9-0 run capped by a Tierra Hodges layup in transition. The Terriers cut it to two three times before Taborn's offensive board work sent the Paladins into the fourth quarter with a narrow 51-47 lead.
 
It was all Furman from there. Taborn, Milica Manojlović and Hodges combined to score the first seven points out of the quarter break as the lead swelled to 11, 58-47. Alea Harris and Jamari McDavid answered, cutting it to a manageable seven with 6:56 remaining. The Paladins allowed just one basket the rest of the way, locking down the easy win.
 
Davidson led a trio of double-digit scorers for the winners with 18. Taborn added 16, while Hodges had a dominant day in the post with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Niyah Lutz posted 15 for the Terriers with Booker and McDavid chipping in 13 and 11, respectively.
 
The Paladins' win sets the top half of the bracket. They square off with 2020 regular season tri-champion Samford in Friday's first semifinal contest. That game tips off at 11 a.m. in Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville, broadcasting on select Nexstar affiliates as well ESPN+.
 
RECORDS: No. 4 Furman 19-11| No. 5 Wofford 15-15
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW
- Furman is now 18-20 in the quarterfinal round, Wofford 9-21. The 18 wins rank behind Chattanooga's 23 entering Thursday for most in league history.
- The Paladins improve their series advantage to 46-10. They took two of the three from their arch-rival with Wofford winning the first meeting 66-62 in Spartanburg, while Furman won the regular-season finale in Greenville 62-56. Interesting that both of the SoCon quarterfinal matchups (Samford/Western Carolina & Furman/Wofford) were rematches of the last regular-season contest.
- Second straight semifinal appearance for Furman. It reached the championship game a year ago, losing 66-63 to two-time champ Mercer.
 
3 STATS TO KNOW
- Season-low eight turnovers for Furman. Previous low was 10 at Western Carolina and at Mercer. The Paladins averaged 17.2 per game for the season.
- Tough shooting day for the Terriers, managing just 35.8 percent (19-for-53) from the floor including 33.3 percent from 3-point range.
- Furman struggled from long range, making just 31.6 percent (6-for-19) beyond the arc but made up for it inside it. Shot 51.5 percent (17-for-33) from inside it along with a +6 advantage at the free -throw line, hitting 76.2 percent (16-for-21).

Head Coach Jimmy Garrity
Opening Statement
"I wanted to give Jackie and her team a lot of credit. They're such a good team. They're hard to guard at all three levels. Pretty good inside, they're strong and they come at you in multiple ways. For our guys, in the first half, we won all of the critical categories we talked about in order to win the game. Second-chance points, rebounding, getting to the free-throw line, had a few more turnovers than I would like to but in four categories, we were all in the positive and in the second half it really just flipped. They won the second-chance opportunities, they won the rebounding battle, they went to the line an awful lot. And I think that was the difference. The third quarter percentage was 57 percent and we struggled to score that third quarter and that got them the lead a little bit, so I thought we had a good game plan. We didn't quite execute it in the second half so, I'll give Furman the more credit in that and us making mistakes. Really proud of this team and all that we have accomplished throughout the season."
 
On his thoughts on his seniors
"When we took over the program, they were the freshman, and to see where they have taken this program as the players, and to know all the time and effort and just the stuff off the court, the bus trips, the plane trips, inside the locker room I told those guys there's not another team out in the country that I would trade them for and I appreciate they didn't complain, they came to work. And they were fun to be around and we'll carry those experiences with us for the rest of our lives."
 
Sophomore guard Niyah Lutz
On her motivation against Furman
"I think it was the seniors knowing that this was their last go-round, I wanted to give them everything that I had and be a good teammate overall. They kept encouraging me, second game (against Furman during the regular season), I didn't shoot the ball well and throughout that whole week of preparation it was just, 'keep your head up and keep shooting the ball' and I just wanted to go out and play for them."
 
Senior guard Cairo Booker
On the "what-if" game
"It's actually really difficult but I just want to piggyback off what Coach G said, four years ago, we didn't even think we had a chance, and he just changed the program tremendously. I'm just happy that I had the opportunity to lay the foundation for this Wofford program. I told the team after the game that I hope they learned something from me through my time here. I just hope it's a learning experience for everyone."