Men’s Basketball Defeats Furman 92-85 in SoCon Championship
Terriers Earn Sixth Conference Championship
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The No. 6 Wofford men’s basketball team (19-15, 10-8) defeated the No. 5 Furman Paladins 92-85 in the SoCon Championship on Monday night at Harrah’s Cherokee Center. The Terriers earned their sixth SoCon Tournament championship with the win.
“This is an amazing feeling,” said head coach Dwight Perry. “There’s not a program more deserving of this than this group that we have. I couldn’t be more proud of the group of people we have in our program, and I mean it’s not just players. It’s the people, players, managers, coaches, and trainers. This is for everybody associated with Wofford College.”
Five Terriers scored in double-digits on the night with Jackson Sivills scoring a career-high 20 points. The senior guard hit four threes en route to his career night. Justin Bailey followed behind with 19 points and eight free throws. Dillon Bailey scored 15 points, including three big deep balls in the second half. Kyler Filewich scored 13 points while Corey Tripp rounded out the group with 11 points.
“I was just trying to do my best to win,” said Jackson Sivills on his career night. “My goal when I came here was to put another banner up in Jerry Richardson (Indoor Stadium), and I’m blessed to be able to say that we did it.”
Wofford outrebounded Furman 30-26 and had seven offensive rebounds. Justin Bailey paced the team with seven rebounds, and Kyler Filewich grabbed six. Corey Tripp finished with six rebounds along with a career-high eight assists.
“This is the reason I wanted to come here,” said Kyler Filewich. “The pedigree of the program – five championships since 2010. Now we have made it six. I’m so glad to be a part of it. That’s the reason I came here – go dancing. And I’m so happy, so proud of all my guys for making it happen.”
The Terriers came out hot as the team started out the game on an 8-0 run. Furman responded with a couple of quick buckets, but Wofford furthered the lead out to 10, 15-5 with 11:54 left in the first stanza. Wofford would go up by as many as 13 points in the half.
Furman rallied back in the latter part of the half, going on a 13-3 run to cut the deficit to three points. Furman would eventually take its first lead of the game, 37-35, after a huge three-pointer. The Terriers could not regain the lead and would head into the break trailing the Paladins 39-37.
Furman opened the half with a three-pointer, but it was Dillon Bailey answering with what was one of three second half deep balls. Despite the hot shooting, Furman answered every rally Wofford came up with over the next several minutes.
It was not until under 10 minutes left in the game that the Terriers were able to get back in front of the Paladins, and it was Justin Bailey hitting a pair of free throws to do so. The Paladins regained the lead the next possession down. Wofford embarked on an 11-2 run to take a 77-69 lead with 6:53 remaining in the contest.
The Paladins did not quit, taking their own 83-79 advantage with just over two minutes of game time left. Corey Tripp found Kyler Filewich the next play down to shorten the deficit to two and then Jackson Sivills hit the go-ahead three to give the team a one-point lead. The Terriers got a stop the next play down and held on for the win. Wofford converted on its last eight free throws to seal the game in a 92-85 win in the SoCon Championship.
The Terriers have now won their sixth SoCon Tournament in program history. The last one came in the historic 2018-19 season. Wofford will await Selection Sunday on March 16 to find its next destination.
Women’s Basketball Battles but Falls Short to UNCG in SoCon Semifinals
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Wofford women’s basketball team left it all on the court Friday morning at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville, pushing No. 1 UNCG to the edge, but the Spartans ultimately pulled out a 54-50 victory over the No. 4 Terriers in the SoCon Tournament. Wofford concludes its gutsy campaign at 17-12 while UNCG improves to 24-6.
“I though it was two evenly matched teams,” said head coach Jimmy Garrity. “It was a hard-fought game. Points were tough to come by from both ends. I thought the difference was the free throw line. They got there 22 times to our five, and that turned out to hurt us pretty badly. I thought this team going into this tournament, they believed. They believed all season long. They never made excuses. We had more than our share of adversity, and they just continue to impress… This team just fought, and they battled. They were great teammates to one another, and I’m so proud of the culture that they have bought into, and they live it. Wofford College and the coaching staff is really proud of them.”
Defense was paramount for both squads, as each team shot similarly around 31 or 32 percent. Wofford posted a slightly better clip of 32.2 percent (19-of-59) with UNCG at 31.5 percent (17-of-54). The Terriers were better from distance with seven made threes while holding the Spartans to four. Wofford was perfect at the free throw line, 5-of-5, but UNCG made more trips to the stripe to shoot 16-of-22. UNCG won the glass, 44-33, with 15 offensive rebounds to notch five more second chance points, 14-9. Turnovers were even at eight apiece with each team tallying seven points off turnovers.
“We’re just incredibly proud,” said associate head coach Mike Merrill. “I don’t have the correct words to describe how proud we are of this group. It’s a pretty emotional locker room in there. You know, we thought we had one more game in us here. And I give them all the credit. I told them in the locker room, in order to have a chance to win a championship, we preach togetherness in our program all the time. We try to live by it where other people just talk about it. But I think you’ve got to be good. There was no doubt this team was good. We’re all a little frustrated because of our injuries. We never really quite got to show how good this team could have been. You know, you get Rachael Rose for six games, and you lose Helen Matthews for half a conference season, and there’s a number of other people that played through a lot of injuries. The other thing, too, we told them you got to be healthy, and I’m not the right person to run down our injury report, but you also have to be a little bit lucky, and in order to win a championship, you got to do those three things. And I think the healthiness we definitely didn’t have, and we caught a couple bad breaks, but we’re very proud of them.”
Fifth-year senior Helen Matthews continued to play through her arm injury to make a meaningful impact, depositing 13 points with eight rebounds and four assists alongside a block to lead the team in each category. Freshman Molly Masingale joined her in double-digits with 12 points, adding three boards and a steal.
“We talk about being together and being great teammates, and I think this team really embodied that," said Matthews after her last game as a Terrier. "We’re all such good friends, and we play for each other. I like to think that maybe I had a part in setting that culture and that it can continue.”
“One of the best things that I can say about Helen is her gratitude,” said Garrity. “She appreciates what Wofford has done for her, and she expresses that. She’s always been willing to be coached. The way she looks after the younger players, she had a big part of accepting that. It’s one thing when your coaches try to establish the culture, but it goes to a different level when your players determine what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. As a coaching staff, we just sit back and let them grow. She’s just been tremendous on and off the court, and she is going to be successful in life.”
Evangelia Paulk and Libby Privett each recorded eight points. Paulk secured seven rebounds with a steal and a block. Privett notched a pair of boards, and she matched her career best with two threes made. Queen Ikhiuwu tallied five points, and Mia Flor added four rebounds.
UNCG opened with the game’s first bucket, but Evangelia Paulk converted a pair at the charity stripe before burying a three for a Wofford lead. After trading some points, Queen Ikhiuwu secured an and-one play to keep Wofford ahead by four. The Spartans fought back and closed the quarter on a five-point run to claim a 15-14 edge entering the second.
Toni Warren opened the second quarter with a mid-range jumper, but UNCG responded with a three. After two UNCG free throws, Libby Privett buried from distance, and she nixed a Spartan bucket with a layup of her own. Privett then put home another trey, and Helen Matthews followed with one of her own for a five-point advantage, 27-22. The squads closed out the half trading a pair of baskets each, and Mia Flor’s score with 36 seconds to go kept Wofford ahead 31-26 at the break.
The Terriers kept their foot on the gas out of the halftime break, as Matthews scored, and Paulk put home a three for a 10-point lead, 36-26. UNCG went on a six-point run to pull back within four, but Molly Masingale delivered a trey for some breathing room. After trading some blows, the Spartans chipped away and pulled within a point before Masingale again connected from beyond the arc to keep UNCG at arm’s length. A late Spartan free throw made it a three-point game, 44-41, entering the final 10 minutes of play.
UNCG opened the fourth with a layup, but Matthews hit one of her own. The Spartans then hit a rhythm and scored eight-straight points to lead 51-46. Matthews and Masingale hit back-to back shots as the clock trickled under a minute to pull the Terriers within a point, 51-50, with 44 seconds left. As time wound down, Wofford was forced to foul, and the Spartans made both with 13 seconds left for a three-point edge, 53-50. The Terriers gave one last effort, but the shot missed the mark, and UNCG sealed the 54-50 win with one more free throw.
Despite the loss, Wofford concluded another impressive campaign under head coach Jimmy Garrity. The Terriers overcame a pair of season-ending injuries, including one to back-to-back SoCon Player of the Year Rachael Rose, to post a 17-12 mark overall and an 8-6 SoCon clip. Wofford advanced to the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament for a fifth consecutive season, the longest active streak in the conference.
“Helen and Rachael, their leadership ever since I was a freshman has been so important,” said Evangelia Paulk. “They’re an extension of the coaching staff. They tell us and show us all the time on and off the court what is acceptable and unacceptable. For the freshmen, they came in and they stepped up. Molly Masingale – she is not a point guard, but she ran it the entire year, and I couldn’t be more proud of them for stepping up in big moments.”
The Terriers will return to the court in the fall of 2025 to begin the next campaign looking to build on yet another successful season in Spartanburg.