The Paladins (22-11) advanced to Monday's championship game against No. 1 seed Chattanooga at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
"It wasn't pretty. Winning the big games in March is tough," said Furman's coach Bob Ritchie. "You just have to be able to find a way."
Furman survived despite opening with one of his worst stops of the season. The Paladins went 28-13 in the first half with less than six minutes to spare. By the end of the half, Furman was shooting 37 percent, while allowing Samford to shoot 60.9 percent. The Bulldogs also had a 21-9 advantage in the rebound. The Paladins' leading rebounder was then freshman reserve Tyrese Hughe, who had three rebounds but also three fouls.
The opening half was essentially a replay of the second half of the teams' 23 February game at Samford. That night, the Bulldogs shot 64 percent after halftime to register an eight-point victory. On Sunday, the Paladins again trailed only eight, but with another half to play and still within shouting distance.
When the second half began, there was no one to roar louder than Mike Bothwell.
2 seed over the past two seasons, the heartbroken senior, who had been heartbroken over being upset in the quarterfinals, was about to reach the final slip without a fight. A Bothwell 3-pointer from late in the first half pushed him to eight before taking that big Samford to five.
"Even though we didn't want to cut the lead like in the first half, we just saw the spark and did what it took to make it happen," Bothwell said. "It wasn't an offensive thing. We just had to get more stops and deflections and transition the game. We knew we had to start on the defensive to get back."
Samford (21-11) started the ball in the second half until Bothwell stole it and went for the lay-up. The Bulldogs' next possession also ended on a Bothwell steal and this led to a three-point play by Marcus Foster and the Bulldogs' 35–27 halftime lead was reduced to three from less than 50 seconds in the half.
"All of a sudden," Richie said, "it's like, 'Reset the game. Let's play.' ,
Three minutes later, Bothwell made another steal and then a 3-pointer reduced the lead to 40-35.
"Mike is just a competitor and it's hard to bring him down. He just keeps playing and he made some big plays for us," Richie said. "He's not afraid of the moment. ... some people like the stage, and this season we went on stage and played a lot in non-conferences, and then our league tests you every night. ,
That quick start of the second half kept Furman intact. By no means was the difference more than two during the final 10 minutes until the Paladins went up to three with eight seconds remaining.
Bothwell's three-point game with 2:45 remaining gave Furman a 62-60 lead, and it was never far behind. While he was fouled out 15 seconds later, Bothwell was still a key part of closing the win.
“When he got out, he was active, active and talking. The biggest thing we have built our schedule on, since 2013 when we were ranked 347th in the RPi, has been a great teammate,” Richie said. "That's what this program is made of and that's why we won tonight. Because he didn't put his head down and we still had faith."
Bothwell and Jalen Slavson each had 17 points to lead the Paladins, who would go after the school's first SoCon championship on Monday nights since 1980.