Women's Hoops Falls At Furman, 51-45 - Samford University Athletics

Monday, February 17

Greenville, S.C.

6 p.m.

Samford University

9-17, 7-8SoCon

Furman University

14-11, 8-6SoCon

Team	1	2	F
Samford	22	23	45
Furman	26	25	51

Brittany Stevens scored a career-high 10 points Monday night at Furman.

2.17.14 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Joey Mullins

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Samford women's basketball team fell at Furman, 51-45, Monday evening at Timmons Arena.

"I thought overall we defended well enough to win the game, but we did a poor job of executing from an offensive standpoint with too many turnovers," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "Our effort was good, and I thought our defense was good, but we just had too many turnovers to try to win a game on the road."

In the loss, Samford was led by senior Christy Robinson with 14 points. Freshman Brittany Stevens scored a career-high 10 points, while freshman Hannah Nichols added nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.

"Furman is very good, with (Brittany) Hodges around the goal," Morris said. "I thought we had an opportunity to win the game if we could have been a little better offensively. Hopefully, we'll learn from this, improve and move on."

For Furman, Holli Wilkins led the way with 16 points. Brittany Hodges had 12 points and 15 rebounds. Whitney Bunn also scored 12 points for the Paladins.

In the first half, Furman jumped out to an early 6-2 lead with 15:15 to play in the first half after a basket by Sarah Durdaller. Samford fought back to tie the score at 8-8 with 13:26 left in the half after a three-pointer by Stevens. Furman scored the next six points to take a 14-8 lead with 8:46 to go in the first half after a basket by Wilkins.

Samford scored the next five points to close to within one point at 14-13 with 7:41 left in the half after a basket by Robinson. Furman pushed its lead out to seven points at 24-17 with 3:42 left in the first half following a basket by Hodges. Samford scored the next five points to cut the lead to 24-22 with 1:55 left in the opening period after a layup by Stevens. Two late Furman free throws gave the Paladins a 26-22 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Furman pushed its lead out to eight points at 35-27 with 15:35 to go after a three-pointer by Allison Beasley. Samford cut the lead to five points at 37-32 with 13:27 to go after a three-pointer by Nichols.

With Furman leading, 39-32, Samford fought back to close to within three points at 40-37 with 7:02 left following a layup by Robinson. Furman pushed its lead out to nine points at 47-38 with 3:36 left after a free throw by Wilkins. Samford fought back to cut the lead to four points at 49-45 with 23 seconds left, but Samford could get no closer as Furman came away with the 51-45 win.

As a team, Furman out-rebounded Samford, 37-30 in the game. Samford made 37.5 percent of its shots, compared to 38.8 percent for the Paladins.

With the loss, Samford falls to 9-17 overall and 7-8 in the Southern Conference. Furman improves to 14-11 overall and 8-6 in league play.

Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 24, when the Bulldogs play host to Chattanooga. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.