Wilkins’ late jumper propels Furman to victory in SoCon opener

By Justin Mathis (@J_Math23)

GREENVILLE, S.C. – As the page prepares to turn over to 2026, the opening game of Southern Conference play closed out the final day of 2025 as Furman Paladins hosted Mercer on Wednesday at the pristine Timmons Arena.

 

With two notable absences, specifically Cooper Bowser due to an injury in a December 18 road win at Manhattan, Furman leaned on a balanced attack. With time winding down, freshman Alex Wilkins landed the knockout blow with a jumper outside the lane that lifted the Paladins to a thrilling 74-72 victory over Mercer in what felt like a 12-round heavyweight fight.

 

Prior to that shot, Furman held a five-point lead on three separate occasions over the final 2:41 of regulation. However, Mercer was relentless and kept landing jabs throughout to eventually pull even. Ben Vander Wal hit two free throws to provide a 66-61 cushion for the Paladins, but Mercer’s Zaire Williams canned a triple that cut the margin to two points with 2:27 remaining in regulation.

 

“That was a fun one,” said Furman head coach Bob Richey. “That was a war. Ryan (Ridder) has done an incredible job with (Mercer), and they played with tremendous fight. You knew that they would just keep coming, and both teams just battled it out. I am proud to come out on the other side of it. There is a lot of bad things being said about college basketball, but you couldn’t beat that game out there today.”

 

Less than 20 seconds later, Asa Thomas answered with a three-pointer of his own and pushed the Furman lead back out to five points. Baraka Okojie hit a shot near the paint, which cut the deficit to three, but Thomas was fouled on a three-pointer and made two of three free throws, making a 71-66 margin with 1:37 to play.

 

On the ensuing Bears possession, Okojie knocked down a three-pointer and trimmed the margin to two once again. Thomas converted the front end of a one-and-one, but Brady Shoulders squared up from the left corner and drilled a game-tying triple for the Bears with 40 seconds left.

 

Furman put the ball in the hands of Wilkins, who drove down the right side and hit a runner amid strong contact for a 74-72 Paladin lead with 19.1 seconds left. 

 

“I thank God,” Wilkins exclaimed. “My teammates put a lot of trust in me and so does Coach Richey. I put in a lot of work in on my craft, so it was a great opportunity, and to seize it was amazing. I just play every game to try and make my teammates proud, make Coach Richey proud, make sure I didn’t make any mistakes, and it worked today. I’m excited and this was a good conference win.”

 

After moving the ball up court and calling timeout, Mercer ran one final play with 5.4 seconds to play. Okojie took a handoff at the top of the arc and put up a floater from the left free throw line extended, but it kicked off the back iron. A tap back by Armani Mighty was short, and Furman emerged with the win. 

 

The result also notched the 100th career coaching win for Richey in SoCon play.

 

“The story of today is we had enough to beat the highest NET-ranked team in the league,” Richey stated. “For us to send three freshmen out there (Wilkins, Abijah Franklin, and Owen Ritger) to fight like that, and for guys to step up to make key plays, that’s the joy that you get to see a group come together. There’s no self-pity. These are the circumstances and they’re not always ideal, but that’s life.”

 

“You have to go find a way. I think our group has done a good job of keeping that mindset of not accepting defeat, not accepting pity, and not accepting ‘woe is me.’ We’ve got to stay connected and make sure that our strength must be our connection. We’ve got to go play to our identity and let’s see what happens.”

 

Wilkins paced the Paladins (10-4, 1-0 SoCon) with a team-high 20 points and a game-high seven assists. Thomas finished 19 points, while Tom House and Vander Wal tallied 13 and 11 points, respectively. Furman will return to action at home against Western Carolina on Saturday, at 4 p.m.

 

Okojie posted a game-high 22 points for Mercer (8-6, 0-1 SoCon) in the loss, along with 13 points from Williams. Mighty had the third-highest field goal percentage in the country (70 percent) prior to Wednesday. He was held to eight points and 13 rebounds on 4-for-11 shooting. Bench scoring favored Mercer, 16-2, as did points in the paint (38-28), and second chance points (17-8). The Bears will visit East Tennessee State on Saturday at 4 p.m.