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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The Samford University basketball team will continue play in the 2014 Maui on the Mainland Invitational this weekend as the Bulldogs are set to compete in the regional bracket portion of the event being held at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
 
Samford (1-2) is scheduled to play the CSUN (1-2) Matadors at 1 p.m. (CST) on Saturday, before facing either Missouri-Kansas City or homestanding Arkansas-Little Rock Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The winners of Saturday's games will square off Sunday, as will the losers. CSUN will play the 1 p.m., contest no matter what Sunday due to an early flight home to the West coast.
 
Samford opened the 2014 Maui on the Mainland Invitational with hard-fought road losses at Purdue and Pittsburgh last week, but rebounded Wednesday with a thrilling, last-second home victory over Austin Peay, 68-67, on an Evan Taylor buzzer-beater.
 
Trailing by a point with mere seconds remaining in regulation, Samford's Taylor gathered a pass from Christen Cunningham, took three quick dribbles to his right and pulled up for a 15-foot jumper. Taylor fired off the shot with two seconds left and drained the game-winning basket with exactly :0.9 remaining on the clock as the Bulldogs registered their huge win over the Governors in their home opener held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
The win proved to be the first of The Scott Padgett Era after Samford opened its 2014-15 campaign with road losses at Purdue and Pittsburgh last week.
 
Taylor, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-4 true freshman guard from Cincinnati, Ohio, finished the Bulldogs' game against Austin Peay with five points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field, but knocked down the biggest shot of the evening when it counted. Coming off the bench, Taylor led all reserves with 26 minutes of action and added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.
 
Prior to his clutch, game-winning basket Wednesday, Samford's Taylor was in the midst of a 2-for-20 shooting slump.
 
CSUN is in the midst of its second season under the direction of Head Coach Reggie Theus and is coming off a 17-18 record from a year ago. So far this season, the Matadors opened with a tough 79-58 loss at San Diego State before dropping an 86-68 decision on the road versus consensus No. 2-ranked Arizona on Sunday.
 
More recently, CSUN played host to Montana State on Wednesday and earned a 72-65 victory. The Matadors' leading scorer this season is senior forward Stephen Maxwell with 16.3 points per game. He scored 15 against Montana State.
 
Samford will square off against CSUN on the hardwood for just the second time in school history Saturday.
 
The teams' first meeting occurred Dec. 29, 1995, as a part of the Dr. Pepper Classic held at The McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the non-conference matchup, the Bulldogs earned a significant 70-55 victory over CSUN.
 
California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is a public university located in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles and is a member of the Big Sky Conference. CSUN is the third largest university in California with an enrollment of 38,310, behind only Cal State Fullerton and UCLA.
 
Samford fans can expect a much faster paced offense this season.
 
With plenty of depth and a roster chalk-full of talented guards, the Bulldogs will look to get up and down the court in 2014-15 and create easy buckets in transition. For the last two seasons, under previous head coach Bennie Seltzer, Samford would tend to use the shot clock and walk the ball up the floor on its offensive possessions.
 
In the preseason, Samford's Padgett wanted to associate with something local that would represent both the state of Alabama, as well as his new exciting brand of fast-paced, full-court basketball. That's when the Bulldogs' marketing department set him up with a photo shoot at the Talladega Superspeedway.
 
"My dad's a big NASCAR fan and so in growing up around him I really got into it as well," said Padgett. "I wanted to do something that definitely related to us as a team, but also something that was very much the state of Alabama. I don't know how much Samford basketball has recruited Alabama in years past, but I do know that we are going to hit this state hard in recruiting.
 
"I also like being associated with Talladega. Obviously, speed is what racing is all about and that's the way we're going to play. We're going to play fast and I thought the two fit hand in hand. I thought it was a perfect match."
 
Nine of the Bulldogs' 15 members of the 2014-15 roster are underclassmen. Samford boasts four true freshmen this season in Cunningham, Alex Peters, Gerald Smith and Taylor, while Eric Adams, Ryan Dickey, Nnamdi Enechionyia, Emeka Ikezu and Brandon Roberts comprise the Bulldogs' talented sophomore class.
 
With such a young team this season, the Bulldogs' senior class comprised of Michael Bradley, Brandon Hayman and Tyler Hood will all need to take key leadership roles, both on and off the court.
 
In both of Samford's games to start the 2014-15 season, all three of the Bulldogs' seniors have been listed in the starting lineup. Hayman started at the No. 3 guard position, while Hood was the team's lone forward and Bradley started at center.
 
It's been a tale of two games recently for Hood. At Pitt on Sunday, Hood drained a career-high six 3-point baskets, five of which came in the second half as he nearly rallied the Bulldogs past the homestanding Panthers. Conversely, Hood struggled at home against Austin Peay on Wednesday and finished 0-for-7 from long distance.
 
Samford's Hood enters this weekend's slate needing just 157 points to reach the prestigious 1,000-point plateau in his career. With the achievement, Hood would become just the 24th player in the Bulldogs' illustrious history to reach the milestone.
 
At his current scoring pace this season, Hood would reach the historic milestone on Jan. 15 at home against Chattanooga in a Southern Conference showdown to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Following Saturday's Maui on the Mainland matchup with CSUN, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Sunday at 3:30 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs conclude play in the two-day, four-team event against either Missouri-Kansas City or Arkansas-Little Rock. The contest will be held at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Jack Stephens Center.

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