BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team shot 60.8 percent overall and 54.5 percent from three-point range on its way to an 81-47 win over North Florida Monday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"I thought we had a great team effort," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "From a defensive standpoint we defended well and did some good things. We have some good shooters and they made some shots and that gave us momentum. Once we made some shots from the arc, it opened some things up for some things around the goal. This was a great team effort."
 
In the win, Samford was led by Hannah Nichols with 17 points and five rebounds. Nichols made 6-of-11 shots overall and 5-of-10 from beyond the arc. Taylor Reece and Krista Stricklin had 13 points each, and Kassidy Blevins added nine points. Destiney Elliott led the team in assists with six.
 
As a team, Samford had 31 made shots on 24 assists. The 24 assists ties a school record that had been achieved eight previous times. The Bulldogs also won the rebounding battle, 30-29.
 
For North Florida, Destinee Smith led the Ospreys with 12 points and four rebounds. Janea Williams scored eight points and grabbed a team-high five rebounds, while Bailey Florin had eight points and four rebounds.
 
Samford jumped on top quickly; scoring the first seven points of the game to take a 7-0 lead with 16:17 left in the first half following a layup by Reece. North Florida fought back to cut the lead to 10-5 with 14:23 left in the half after a three-pointer by Lindsey Levings. Samford, however, answered with an 8-0 run to take an 18-5 lead with 9:11 left in the half after a free throw by Stricklin.
 
North Florida then went on a 7-0 run of its own to cut the Samford lead to just six points at 18-12 with 6:22 left in the half after a jumper by Caitlyn Spane. With Samford leading, 26-18, the Bulldogs went on another 8-0 run to push their lead to 34-18 with 2:47 left in the half after a three-pointer by Blevins. Samford took a 17-point lead into halftime at 43-26.
 
Samford opened the second half with a 9-0 run to make the score 52-26 with 18:06 to go after a three-pointer by Nichols. Samford stretched the lead to 57-30 with 14:24 left following another three-pointer by Nichols. UNF then fought back to cut the lead to 21 at 57-36 with 12:29 left after a jumper by Williams.
 
Samford pushed its lead out to 32 points at 72-40 with 6:34 left after a free throw by Hailey Pierson. UNF cut the lead to 29 at 76-47, but Samford scored the final five points to come away with the 34-point win, 81-47.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 2-1 on the young season. North Florida drops to 1-3 with the loss.
 
Samford will return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 26, when the Bulldogs play host to UT Martin at 12:30 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center. The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.