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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- The Samford University basketball team will compete in its fourth road game in nine days Saturday as the Bulldogs square off against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in a continuation of the 2013 First Bank and Trust Company Roundball Showcase to be held at the newly-renovated E.A. Riddle Arena.
 
Samford (1-4) heads into the contest looking to rebound from an 89-75 road loss at East Tennessee State on Thursday. Since opening the 2013-14 campaign with a 79-62 home victory against Martin Methodist, the Bulldogs have dropped consecutive road games at UT Arlington, 88-75, No. 23-ranked Indiana, 105-59, ULM, 86-52, and ETSU.
 
In Thursday's game at ETSU, Samford held a seven-point advantage, 54-47, with 13:15 left to play in the second half. The Bulldogs built a 37-34 lead at the intermission and then opened the second half of play in a good rhythm by knocking down five of their first eight shots of the period.
 
Raijon Kelly, Samford's junior guard from St. Paul, Minn., drained a 17-footer from the top of the key to give the Bulldogs their seven-point advantage.
 
At that point, the Buccaneers called timeout and subsequently went on a 16-2 run to take a
63-56 advantage in the game with 8:52 remaining to play. During ETSU's second-half rally, A.J. Merriweather and Rashawn Rembert both scored five points, while Lester Wilson and Kinard Gadsden-Gillard tallied three points apiece.
 
Samford true freshman Jordan Capps scored three of his five points on an old-fashioned 3-point play at the 5:35 mark in the game to trim ETSU's lead to 68-63. The Buccaneers then answered with a jumper from Wilson and 3-point basket from Jalen Riley to move their advantage back to 10 at 73-63.
 
From that point in the game, Samford would never come any closer than eight points. The Bulldogs were led in both scoring and rebounding by sophomore forward Tim Williams, who accumulated 21 points and seven boards.
 
Western Kentucky (2-1) enters Saturday's contest riding the positive momentum of a two-game winning streak. The Hilltoppers opened their 2013-14 campaign with a 66-49 loss at No. 16-ranked Wichita State on Nov. 12. Since then, WKU has earned back-to-back home victories against ETSU, 57-50, and UNC Wilmington, 73-58.
 
Against UNC Wilmington on Thursday, the Hilltoppers finished with three players scoring in double figures as WKU powered to its seventh-straight non-conference home win.
 
The Hilltoppers held the Seahawks to 33.3 percent shooting in the first half and just three 3-point field goals for the game en route to the win, and in the process, held its eighth-straight opponent to fewer than 70 points.
 
WKU's George Fant led all scorers with 16 points, including 12-straight for the Hilltoppers at one point in the second half, while T.J. Price added 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Caden Dickerson also added 12 points and two clutch 3-pointers late in the game. WKU had 13 assists on 25 field goals and committed just eight turnovers in the game.
 
The Hilltoppers have been buoyed by their defense and rebounding so far in 2013-14. WKU is only scoring 59.7 points per game this season, but is only allowing teams to score 58. Additionally, the Hilltoppers are averaging 41.3 rebounds per game and hold a plus 4.3 margin in the category. WKU's leading scorer is Price with 14.7 per game this season.
 
The Bulldogs have never defeated WKU and hold an 0-7 all-time record in the series. The teams have not met in nearly 27 seasons as the latest game in the series occurred Dec. 13, 1986, in Birmingham, Ala. Samford will play in Bowling Green, Ky., on Saturday for a fourth time in school history where the Bulldogs own an 0-3 record.
 
In mid-October, the Southern Conference released its annual preseason rankings and Samford was projected to finish fourth in the conference by both the league's head coaches and media. Elon was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the SoCon title in 2013-14.
 
Samford's fourth-place preseason ranking proved to be its best since joining the SoCon and its highest tally since 2006-07 when the Bulldogs were predicted to win the Ohio Valley Conference.
 
Samford and Appalachian State tied for fourth place in the preseason poll with 67 points apiece. The Bulldogs return four starters from last season's team that registered a 9-9 mark in SoCon play. In just Head Coach Bennie Seltzer's second year at the helm, Samford's fourth-place preseason ranking is its highest in SoCon history.
 
The Bulldogs' 2013-14 roster is comprised of eight newcomers, six true freshmen, three sophomores and five juniors.
 
Samford's lone seniors on the team this season are walk-ons Hamilton Bailey and Tony Thompson. Seltzer has quickly changed the makeup of the Bulldogs' roster and nine of the team's extremely talented 16 players are underclassmen.
 
With Samford's up-tempo offense and hardnosed man-to-man defensive mindset, Seltzer realizes that there will always be a need for quickness, agility and speed on his roster.
 
The Bulldogs' 2013-14 squad boasts 10 guards, including five players capable of filling the point guard position out of the 16-man roster. The only non-guards on the team are forwards Eric Adams, Jordan Capps, Tyler Hood, Emeka Ikezu, Williams and center Michael Bradley.
 
Following Saturday's game at Western Kentucky, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their arduous six-game road stretch against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in a Roundball Showcase matchup to be held at William R. Johnson Coliseum in Nacogdoches, Texas.

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