Live Video (ESPN3) Live AudioLive Stats Game NotesKENNESAW, Ga. -- The Samford University basketball team will compete in its third straight game on the road Wednesday as the Bulldogs take the short trip to Kennesaw State University for an inaugural meeting with the Kennesaw State Owls to be held at 1 p.m. (CT) in the KSU Convocation Center (4,600).
The game will be broadcast live to a national audience on ESPN3.
Samford (2-3) heads into the contest looking to capitalize on some positive momentum since knocking off Missouri-Kansas City on Sunday, 64-55, in the third-place game of the 2014 Maui on the Mainland Invitational held in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Bulldogs finished the victory with seven players scoring at least five points.
Samford opened the contest with an 11-0 start and never looked back as the Bulldogs rolled to a wire-to-wire triumph against UMKC. Samford held an average 10.2-point advantage throughout the game and the Bulldogs shot a brilliant 53.7-percent from the field and 60 percent (9-of-15) from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs'
Nnamdi Enechionyia scored Samford's first eight points of the game and finished with a career-high 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor, including a near-perfect 5-of-6 outing from beyond the arc.
Kennesaw State (1-4) will be playing at home for the first time this season Wednesday. After losing at Syracuse, Cal, Mercer and North Dakota State to open the 2014-15 campaign, the Owls topped Alcorn State, 83-80, on Saturday.
Kennesaw State enters the contest boasting three players averaging double figures in scoring this season.
Nigel Pruitt leads the Owls with 13 points per game this year, while Orlando Coleman follows with 10.8 points per outing. Pruitt has attempted a team-high 33 3-point field goals this season and is shooting a sizzling 45.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Coleman paces Kennesaw State with 6.6 rebounds per game in 2014-15 and has also earned six steals. Additionally, Yonel Brown is averaging a team-high 34.6 minutes and 10.6 points per game.
Samford will face the Kennesaw State Owls on the hardwood for the first time in school history Wednesday.
Kennesaw State University was founded in 1963 and boasts an enrollment of 24,100 students. KSU ranks third in the state of Georgia in enrollment behind Georgia and Georgia State. The Owls compete in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Bulldogs have made at least one 3-point field goal in 695-consecutive games. The last time that Samford did not make a 3-point basket was on Jan. 19, 1991, against UTSA.
The Bulldogs' streak of having made at least two 3-pointers in a game was snapped on Dec. 13, 2008, against Saint Louis when Samford turned in a dismal 1-for-14 performance from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs' streak of 476-straight games with two 3-pointers began Feb. 8, 1992.
UNLV is the national leader in consecutive games with a 3-point field goal as the Running Rebels have made a 3-point basket in 894-straight games dating back to the 1986-87 season. Vanderbilt (889) and Kentucky (885) are the only other two schools that have made at least one 3-point basket since the rule was adopted prior to the 1986 campaign.
In 2013-14, Samford turned in a 33-percent shooting mark from beyond the arc. The total wasn't bad for the Bulldogs last season, but first-year Head Coach
Scott Padgett expects his squad to turn in a better total from long range this year.
Padgett's full-court pressing defense and fast-paced offensive attack should allow for many wide open shots in transition throughout the 2014-15 campaign.
One of Padgett's top themes this season is #PlayFast. Samford's first-year skipper looks to have his team press full-court for 40 minutes and then push the ball up the court on the offensive attack.
"The thing that's going to get us playing fast offensively is going to be our defense," said Padgett. "We're going to be a defensive team. There are going to be a lot of times when we score a lot of points, but those points are going to be directly related to playing great defense and getting the rebound.
"Once we get a defensive rebound, we will be pushing to get a layup every time down the court, or at least a wide-open shot. We're going to be in attack-mode all game long. We teach our guys that we want to dictate what the offense does when we're on defense, and we also want to dictate what their defense does when we are on the offensive side of the ball. There will be times when teams try to slow us down, but we're going to keep the game going 90 miles per hour all the time."
Following Wednesday's game at Kennesaw State, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Friday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their early-season, four-game road stretch against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs to be held at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana.
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