GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Citadel led by as many as 10 points early in the second half, but a late Furman rally was the difference as the Bulldogs fell, 72-63, inside Timmons Arena on Wednesday evening to close the 2020-21 regular season.
 
Game Information
Final Score: Furman 72, The Citadel 63
Record: The Citadel (12-11, 5-11 SoCon), Furman (16-7, 10-4 SoCon)
Location: Greenville, S.C. (Timmons Arena)
Series: Furman leads 128-84
 
How It Happened

• Trailing 6-3 in the early going of the game, The Citadel's offense came to life with an 8-0 run thanks to strong post play, with Hayden Brown scoring four of the points during the stretch and Stephen Clark pitching in another pair to take an early 11-6 advantage.
• Furman answered back immediately with a long run of its own, scoring nine straight points to regain the lead. Clay Mounce, who was honored in Furman's Senior Night festivities, tallied five points to key the run.
• Another big run from The Citadel, this time a 12-3 burst spanning four minutes midway through the half, gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game to that point. A pair of three-pointers from Kaiden Rice and Rudy Fitzgibbons III paced the run, and a Brown layup at the 6:39 mark put The Citadel in front, 23-18.
• Furman briefly re-took the lead on two occasions in the closing minutes of the half, but a pullup from Derek Webster, Jr., on The Citadel's final possession of the half sent the Bulldogs into the locker room with a 32-31 edge.
• The Citadel came out of the halftime break on fire, scoring 11 of the first 13 points of the second half to build a double-digit lead as Rice splashed a three-pointer with 16:09 to play to push the lead to 43-33.
• Over the next five minutes, however, Furman would erase the deficit on the back of a 16-4 run. Back-to-back shots from Mike Bothwell put the Paladins back in front, 51-49, with just over 10 minutes remaining.
• Clark's basket with 9:22 on the clock briefly put The Citadel back in front, but Furman quickly regained the lead on a Jonny Lawrence triple and would not trail again over the final nine minutes of the game.

 
Inside the Numbers

• Hayden Brown fell just shy of another double-double but finished with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds on Wednesday evening. The redshirt junior rounds out the regular season averaging a double-double of 19 points and 10.5 rebounds.
• Kaiden Rice finished the night with 14 points and wraps up the regular season having scored in double digits in all 23 of The Citadel's contests. Rice also closes the regular season with 91 three-pointers, the fifth-most in program history for a single season.
• Stephen Clark turned in a well-balanced performance, matching his career-high with 14 points while adding four assists, three steals and a pair of rebounds. Clark's .602 field goal percentage sits just outside of the top 15 on The Citadel's single-season list.
• Derek Webster, Jr., was a force on the boards again, pulling down seven rebounds against the Paladins. He now has five or more rebounds in four of his last five outings.
• Brent Davis drew his second straight start, replacing Fletcher Abee in the starting lineup for the Bulldogs.
• Entering the conference tournament, The Citadel is assured of finishing with at least a .500 record this season, marking the first time that has happened since the 2009-10 squad finished with a 16-16 record.
• Although Furman hit eight three-pointers on Wednesday, The Citadel's defense held the Paladins to .296 (8-for-27) shooting from beyond the arc, the seventh time in Southern Conference play this season that the Bulldogs have held an opponent below 30 percent.
• The Citadel held Furman to 72 points, the fourth-fewest that the Paladins have scored inside Timmons Arena this season.

 
Up Next
With its regular season concluded, The Citadel will await its final seeding for the 2021 Ingles SoCon Basketball Championship presented by General Shale that is set to begin on Friday, March 5, at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C. The team's originally scheduled regular-season finale against Samford on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. inside McAlister Field House has been cancelled due to positive COVID tests and quarantine requirements within Samford's program.