Getty The Furman Paladins will visit the East Tennessee State Buccaneers.
The East Tennessee State Buccaneers will host the Furman Paladins at Timmons Arena for a Southern Conference clash on Saturday.
The game is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable required) that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games–and several other sports–every week.
You can start a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including ETSU vs Furman — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
ETSU vs Furman Preview
The Paladins (19-5 overall, 8-4 in the SoCon) won their first 12 games of the season and got as high as No. 23 in the Associated Press poll before falling at LSU on December 21. Eight days later, ETSU (19-6, 9-3) crushed Furman 79-56.
“We had a great plan last time, I thought, and beat them handily here,” ETSU head coach Steve Forbes said, according to the Johnson City Press. “That’s what we have to do again.”
Junior forward Jeromy Rodriguez led the Bucs with 19 points and 11 rebounds, adding two dimes and a block. Sophomore guard Patrick Good poured in 12 points and dished four assists without turning the ball over.
“We’re expecting a tough game,” Good said of the rematch, per the Johnson City Press. “They’re fourth in the league. They’re hungry and they want to get to the top just like we are. It’s going to be a high level game.
“We’ll be ready to go.”
ETSU is coming off a 78-76 overtime loss to Wofford, the conference’s only undefeated team. Terriers senior guard Fletcher Magee, the leading scorer in the conference a season ago, scored 11 points in the extra period and 32 overall.
“They’re hurting, but they should,” Forbes said of his players, per the Johnson City Press. “But I think we’ll be ready to play.”
Rodriguez scored 15 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, and Good led the Bucs with 18 points.
The Paladins posted a 4-5 stretch after they opened the season 12-0. They’ve responded with a three-game winning streak, most recently demolishing Western Carolina 64-45 on the road.
Furman leans heavily on seniors Matt Rafferty and Andrew Brown. The 6’8″ Rafferty leads the team in points (16.9), rebounds (9.1), assists (4.2), steals (2.7), and blocks per game (1.2). Brown primarily comes off the bench and is second on the team in three-point percentage, hitting 1.7 threes per game at a 40.8 percent clip.
“Those two are obsessed with whatever it takes to win a game,” head coach Bob Richey said of the pair of seniors, according to the Greenville News. “If that means I’ve got to guard post players, if that means I’ve got to guard guards, if that means I don’t get to play tonight, if I get to take three shots instead of 13 – there’s just a huge desire to compete.”
When the pair arrived on campus, Furman had one 20-win season since 1991 to its credit. They won 19 their freshman season before posting consecutive 23-win campaigns. A victory on Saturday would mark the school’s first run of three consecutive 20-win seasons since the Paladins did it from 1972-73 to 1974-75.