March 4, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team will square off against The Citadel Bulldogs in the opening round of the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament on Friday at 6 p.m. (CST) at the Bojangles Coliseum (11,000) in Charlotte, N.C.

Fans unable to attend the game in person can listen live to Samford's broadcast on WVSU 91.1 FM or via the Internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. GameTracker will also be available at www.SamfordSports.com.

Samford (11-19, 5-13 SoCon) enters the first-round matchup as the No. 5-seeded team from the North Division. The Bulldogs finished the regular season in a two-way tie for fifth place in the division with Elon, but won the tiebreaker with the Phoenix because they swept this year's home-and-home series.

Samford heads into the tournament with aspirations of snapping a three-game losing streak. Since defeating Chattanooga 60-54 on Feb. 20, the Bulldogs have dropped consecutive contests against Georgia Southern, Western Carolina and Appalachian State.

In its last outing, an 82-68 loss at Appalachian State on Saturday, Samford's Andy King drained a deep 3-point basket from the right wing to trim Appalachian State's lead to 61-58 with 7:29 to play. King's basket capped off a 7-0 run for the Bulldogs in which Bryan Friday banked home a six-foot jumper and Josh Davis scored on a turnaround layup.

Davis, Samford's junior sharpshooter from Lubbock, Texas, led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. He was also able to connect on 3-of-6 of his attempts from 3-point range.

After King's 3-pointer trimmed the Mountaineers' lead to 61-58 with 7:29 to play, Appalachian State retaliated with a quick 8-0 run of its own to extend its advantage back to 69-58. The Mountaineers used a put-back layup from Josh Hunter and back-to-back 3-point baskets from Jeremi Booth and Donald Sims to regain its 11-point lead in a minute and 35 seconds.

Appalachian State was able to capitalize off of some late Samford miscues and outscored the Bulldogs 21-10 in the final 7:29 of the game to earn its 82-68 victory. With the loss, Samford concluded its 2010 regular season with a three-game losing streak.

The Citadel (15-15, 9-9 SoCon) also closed out its regular season with a three-game losing streak. After stringing together five straight wins from Feb. 4-18, the Bulldogs have dropped consecutive games to UNC Greensboro 59-53, Furman 59-44 and Wofford 75-66.

In its regular-season finale against 2010 SoCon Champion Wofford, The Citadel's Cameron Wells scored a game-high 25 points. His performance marked the 28th time in his career, and 12th of the season, that he has scored 20 points or more. Coincidentally, Wells now has 1,469 points during his three-year career with the Bulldogs.

Teammate Harrison DuPont notched 16 points, along with a team-high seven caroms, to round out double-digit scorers. As a unit, The Citadel hit 27-of-51 (52.9%) from the floor, including a 7-for-18 performance from beyond the arc. Wells finished a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range, while Zach Urbanus (2-7), Austin Dahn (1-7) and DuPont (1-3) also connected from downtown.

The Citadel finished the 2009-10 campaign as the fourth-seeded team in the South Division. The Bulldogs are only averaging 61.1 points per game this season, but boast the conference's best defense. So far this year, The Citadel is only allowing a stingy 60 points per contest. The Bulldogs' Wells is ranked third in the SoCon in scoring at 17.4 points per game.

Samford will be squaring off against The Citadel for only the sixth time in school history Friday. The all-time rivalry began in 1992 as the teams split a home-and-home series which lasted until 1993. The teams resumed their rivalry last season as Samford joined the SoCon.

Since then, The Citadel has played its way to a 3-1 advantage against Samford. Last season, The Citadel handed the Bulldogs their worst defeat in Pete Hanna Center history 70-45, before Samford retaliated by knocking The Citadel out of the 2009 SoCon Tournament in the quarterfinal round 76-67.

Already this season, Samford has dropped a pair of games against The Citadel by a total of five points. The Bulldogs lost the first matchup at home in the Pete Hanna Center 51-50 on Jan. 16. In the second meeting between the teams, The Citadel earned a 61-57 victory in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 4.

Samford returned 11 players from last season's squad that streaked to the semifinal round of the 2009 SoCon Tournament. This year's team boasted four returning starters in Trey Montgomery, Davis, Bryan Friday and King, a group that accounted for 70 percent of the total scoring from the 2008-09 squad.

In total, Samford returned 87.3 percent of the team's scoring from last season. Seniors Montgomery and Friday entered the year as third-year starters, while Davis and King have both spent a majority of the time entrenched in the Bulldogs' starting lineup this year.

Heading into Friday's game against The Citadel, Samford's quartet of Montgomery, Davis, Friday and King have totaled 284 career starts, with Montgomery leading the way with 90.

Samford made its SoCon Tournament debut last season as the annual event was held at The McKenzie Arena in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn. The Bulldogs entered last year's competition as the third-seeded team in the North Division and squared off against Furman in the opening round of play.

Samford used a game-high 17 points from Friday to defeat Furman by a score of 57-52 and advanced to a second-round matchup against The Citadel, which was the No. 2 seed in the South Division. Behind one of its best performances of the 2008-09 season, Samford defeated The Citadel to advance to the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament.

In their semifinal matchup, the Bulldogs lost to eventual tournament champ and hometown-favorite Chattanooga, 81-70. The Mocs turned in a 48-percent outing from 3-point range and defeated Samford for a third time last season.

Stephen McDowell, Chattanooga's Second-Team All-SoCon guard, exploded for 32 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field. The Mocs' senior transfer from South Carolina was also 7-of-10 from both 3-point range and the free-throw line.

Scoring all of the Bulldogs' points were five double-figure scorers in Friday (17), Davis (16), Montgomery (16), King (11) and Josh Bedwell (10). All five players shot the ball well from the floor as Samford finished the contest shooting a game-high 51 percent from the field.

Friday turned in a 7-for-10 performance from the floor, while both Davis and Montgomery were 6-for-10. Bedwell, the Bulldogs' 6-foot sophomore from Hartselle, Ala., was 3-for7 on his field-goal attempts, 2-for-3 from 3-point range. King also knocked down a pair of 3-point baskets and finished the game shooting 4-for-10 from the field.

This season, Samford is ranked among the top-five teams in the SoCon in six statistical categories. Samford is the top-ranked squad in the conference in field-goal percentage defense and is ranked second in the league in both scoring defense and rebounding defense.

The Bulldogs are only allowing opponents to score an average of 60.9 points per game and are limiting the opposition to a 42.0 shooting percentage from the field. Samford is also only allowing opponents to grab an average of 31.7 rebounds per game this season. Additionally, the Bulldogs are ranked second in the league in field-goal percentage (46.0).

Individually, the Bulldogs' Davis is ranked third in the SoCon in 3-point field goals made per game. Samford's sharpshooting guard from Lubbock, Texas, is averaging 2.8 3-pointers per contest and is also ranked 12th in the SoCon in scoring with an average of 12.9 points per game.

The winner of Friday's opening-round matchup will advance to the quarterfinals of the SoCon Tournament on Saturday where they will face off against the North Division champion Appalachian State Mountaineers at 6 p.m. (CST) in Bojangles Coliseum.

Samford Basketball Game Notes
Live Stats - Samford vs. The Citadel
2010 SoCon Tournament Bracket
SoCon Tournament Blog