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ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The Samford University basketball team cruised to a 70-56 win over the No. 9-seeded Appalachian State Mountaineers on Friday in the teams' third meeting in 23 days. The contest kicked off the 94th Southern Conference Tournament being held at the U.S. Cellular Center.
 
With the victory, Samford (13-19) snapped a four-year losing streak in SoCon Tournament play and advanced to Saturday's quarterfinal round of action where the Bulldogs will face No. 1-seed Davidson at 11 a.m. (CT).
 
"I thought this was a game that we had to do the little things in order for us to be successful," said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer. "We'd played these guys twice already and they always say it's hard to beat a team three times in a season. Turnovers hurt us the first two times that we played them, but today we did an unbelievable job of taking care of the basketball."
 
Tim Williams was the man for the Bulldogs. He posted game highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Michael Bradley added 14 points and Connor Miller chipped in with 11 for Samford.
 
With Williams' 21-point performance Friday, he upped his career total of 1,012 and became the first sophomore in school history to reach the prestigious 1,000-point mark. The Bulldogs' talented 6-foot-8 native of Chicago, Ill., also proved to be the 24^th player in Samford lore to reach 1,000 points.
 
"We've jumped on Tim's back all year and let him carry us offensively in a lot of games," Seltzer said. "He's been extremely consistent with his effort and he has a great ability to score the basketball. Appalachian State does a good job against Tim, and today he went 9-of-17 from the field, but for Tim that's actually well below his average of 61 percent on the season."
 
The Bulldogs built a 29-24 lead at the half and upped its advantage to six points early in the second half, but then Appalachian State (9-21) scored on three-consecutive possessions to tie the score at 31-31 on a layup by Michael Obacha. Samford took control from there.
 
The Bulldogs used a 15-4 run to go up by 11, 46-35, on Raijon Kelly's jumper at 13:13. The lead then swelled to 12 before the Mountaineers chipped away late in the half. Tab Hamilton's layup at 5:19 cut the margin to six, 57-51.
 
Williams answered 16 seconds later. His emphatic slam off a nice look from Jordan Capps righted the ship for the Bulldogs. His dunk keyed three straight scoring possessions to pull away for the 14-point triumph.
 
"This was very important for us to get this win today," said Seltzer. "When you start a season, you're number one goal is to win a championship. We come to work every day and we prepare ourselves to win a championship. That was our goal to start the season and we still have an opportunity to accomplish our goal."
 
Samford forced Appalachian State into 15 turnovers Friday, while only committing eight of its own. The Bulldogs also out-rebounded the Mountaineers, 37-33, and improved to 8-0 this season when pulling down more boards than the opposition.
 
Bradley turned in another solid game for Samford Friday and finished the opening-round contest with 14 points and five rebounds in 25 minutes of playing time. He also finished 6-of-9 from the field and played impressive defense on Appalachian State's front line.
 
Miller, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-4 junior from Stanley, Wis., drained a trio of key 3-point baskets en route to his 11-point performance. He also tallied three rebounds, two steals and an assist in a game-high total of 35 minutes.
 
Five Appalachian State players reached double digits with Hamilton and Frank Eaves leading the way with 11. Michael Obacha, Tommy Spagnolo and Ty Toney each had 10 with Obacha grabbing a team-best nine boards.
 
Samford ended the Mountaineers' 2013-14 season Friday and handed Appalachian State its first opening-round loss in six years.
 
Samford's Bradley scored a game-high 10 points in the first half of play Friday as the Bulldogs garnered a 29-25 lead at the intermission.
 
Bradley, Samford's 6-foot-10 junior center from Chattanooga, Tenn., finished 5-of-8 from the field in the opening period and pulled down five rebounds. The Bulldogs' Tim Williams also grabbed five boards in the first half, while he added seven points in the stanza.
 
Samford shot 40. 6 percent from the field in the opening half and limited Appalachian State to just 36-percent shooting from the floor to start Friday's contest. The Bulldogs also forced the Mountaineers into eight first-half turnovers.
 
The Samford University basketball team advance to Saturday's quarterfinal round of play and will face the top-seeded Davidson Wildcats at 11 a.m. (CT) at the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Asheville.
 
The Bulldogs and Wildcats met once earlier this season as Davidson shot lights-out en route to a 109-88 victory in Birmingham, Ala., on Feb. 6.

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