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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team will play its first game at home in 17 days Sunday as the Bulldogs welcome the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks to the Pete Hanna Center for a momentous non-conference showdown scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (CST).
 
Samford (4-8) heads into the contest with a full head of steam after earning an 81-71 road triumph at Presbyterian College on Tuesday. The win proved to be the largest margin of victory of The Scott Padgett Era and helped the Bulldogs finish their three-game road swing with a 1-2 record.
 
Samford trailed, 34-33, at the intermission and then exploded for 48 second-half points to trump homestanding Presbyterian in only the teams' second all-time meeting. With the win, the Bulldogs remained undefeated against the Blue Hose and improved to 2-0 in the series.
 
On Tuesday, Samford drained seven 3-point field goals in each half as the Bulldogs finished 14-of-30 from beyond the arc. Samford shot 48.3 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from long range. The Bulldogs limited Presbyterian to a 23.1-percent shooting performance from 3-point range.
 
Samford's 14 3-point field goals proved to be its best shooting performance of the season and the Bulldogs' top tally since Jan. 19, 2012, when they finished 16-of-30 from beyond the arc in an 86-80 road victory at Elon.
 
Senior forward Tyler Hood paced Samford with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-6 sharpshooter from Lenoir City, Tennessee, also tied his career high with six 3-point field goals.
 
Hood finished 6-of-9 from beyond the arc Tuesday and evened his performance from at Pittsburgh earlier this season on Nov. 16.
 
Samford finished with four players scoring in double figures for the second time this year. After Hood's season-high 22 points, guards Christen Cunningham and Brandon Roberts added 11 apiece. Junior guard Darius Jones-Gibson chipped in with 10 points, while also handing out five key assists.
 
Louisiana-Monroe (6-4) enters Sunday's matchup boasting a two-game winning streak. Since falling at New Mexico on Dec. 13, 54-46, the Warhawks have defeated Central Baptist, 78-53, and LSU-Alexandria, 76-71, at home.
 
Louisiana-Monroe has been one of the top defensive teams in the nation this year. The Warhawks are ranked No. 15 in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (36.1) and are even better, No. 14 in the country, in total blocked shots with 60.
 
ULM's 6-foot-10 junior forward Majok Deng leads the team with 20 blocks this season and is also averaging 8.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest.
 
Offensively, the Warhawks are paced by Tylor Ongwae's 16.6 points per outing. Ongwae, a senior forward from Eldoret, Kenya, is also grabbing 6.7 boards per game.
 
Samford trails Louisiana-Monroe in the all-time series, 8-5, but the Bulldogs have been victorious in each of the last two meetings held in Birmingham. The last matchup hosted in the Steel City proved to be a 76-62 Samford triumph on Nov. 27, 2004, in Seibert Hall.
 
Last season, the teams played in Monroe, Louisiana, as ULM posted a lopsided 86-52 win. Samford committed 15 turnovers and finished 1-of-15 from 3-point range in the setback held at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
 
Also in last year's meeting, the Bulldogs were outscored in points off turnovers, 23-7, and in fast-break points, 14-0. Samford also suffered a 56-36 discrepancy in points in the paint.
 
Louisiana-Monroe shot a sizzling 50.7 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Bulldogs, 42-32. The Warhawks' Amos Olatayo scored a game-high 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the floor and added four rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
 
Jayon James and Ongwae both registered 14 points apiece for ULM, while Daniel Grieves came off the bench to score 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
 
Sunday's game will mark the first contest of a five-game homestand, which will also feature battles with Campbell University, Auburn-Montgomery, Wofford and ETSU. The Bulldogs own a 2-1 record at home this season, but are 1-6 when playing on the road.
 
So far this season, Samford has been shooting the ball significantly better at home in the friendly confines of the Pete Hanna Center.
 
The Bulldogs are shooting 44.3 percent from the field at home this year, but only 36.1 percent from the floor when playing on the road. Additionally, Samford is shooting 1.2 percentage points better at home from 3-point range; 31.3 at home versus 30.1 on the road.
 
Samford's Cunningham is ranked No. 25 in the nation with 58 total assists. Cunningham, the Bulldogs' talented true freshman point guard from Georgetown, Kentucky, has handed out 32 assists in his last five games and is averaging 6.4 per outing during the stretch.
 
In his last two games versus Wake Forest and Presbyterian, Samford's Hood averaged 20 points and three rebounds per contest. He also turned in a stellar 50 percent shooting mark from 3-point range (10-of-20) and is coming off a career-high six 3-point field-goal performance at Presbyterian on Tuesday.
 
Following Sunday's home game against Louisiana-Monroe, the Samford University basketball team will take a week off from competitive action for the Christmas Holidays and then return to action at home on Dec. 28 at 1 p.m. (CST) against the Campbell University Camels in a non-conference contest to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.

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