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ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The Samford University basketball team's 2014 Southern Conference Tournament run came to a close Saturday against the top-seeded Davidson Wildcats as the Bulldogs suffered a 77-54 decision in the quarterfinal round of the 11-team, four-day event being held at the U.S. Cellular Center.
 
"I thought we ran into a situation where Davidson's experience and their older players really showed early in the game," said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer. "Davidson is a very good team. I thought our game plan was good from the start, but when you're going against a veteran team like Davidson, you can't make any mistakes, and today we committed too many early turnovers and allowed them to get a number of offensive rebounds."
 
Samford (13-20) was paced offensively by Jordan Capps' career-high 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, but committed 15 turnovers as a team.
 
Davidson (20-11) made the Bulldogs' pay for their miscues and outscored Samford, 19-6, in points off turnovers. The Wildcats also pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and tallied a 21-6 advantage in second-chance points.
 
Davidson began the game with a 12-2 run powered by SoCon Player of the Year De'Mon Brooks. Brooks scored 10 of the Wildcats' 12 points in the opening burst and capped it off with a three from the top of the key at 16:03. Jordan Barham extended the lead to 20, 28-8, six minutes later with a put-back off an offensive rebound.
 
"We knew that we had to get off to a good start," said Seltzer. "Throughout the season, Davidson would tend to jump out on teams pretty quickly, so we knew that we needed to have a good start if we were going to have a chance to win. Even after we got down early, I have to give our guys credit, because they never gave up and they fought to the very end."
 
Samford held the Wildcats without a basket for the next 4:04 trimming the margin to 14, 28-14, on three straight Capps layups. Davidson's Brooks then ended the drought with a three-point play at 6:01 leading his squad to a 16-point halftime advantage, 42-26.
 
Tim Williams's jumper got the second half started for the Bulldogs, but 14 points proved to be as close as it would get. Williams' layup at 9:40 also got it to 14, 56-42. The Wildcats put together a 13-2 run as Brooks' tip-in stretched it to a game-high 25-point lead, 67-42.
 
"Brooks is the best player in our league," Seltzer said. "In terms of trying to stop him, nobody has been able to stop him all year. We would be right in that boat with everybody else. Last time we played them, they hit 16 3-pointers against us, so we wanted to do a much better job of guarding the 3-point line. We did a better job of that, but Brooks is the best player in our league and he's very difficult to stop."
 
Brooks finished Saturday's SoCon Tournament contest with game-high totals of 26 points and 12 rebounds. Jack Gibbs (14) and Barham (10) combined for 24 points off the bench. Capps led the Bulldogs with 14 points and six boards.
 
Davidson awaits the winner of No. 4 Elon and No. 5 Western Carolina. The semifinal is slated for a 5 p.m. (CST) tipoff Sunday in ExploreAsheville.com Arena inside the U.S. Cellular Center. It is scheduled to air on both CSS and ESPN3.com.
 
Samford concluded its 2013-14 season with a 13-20 overall record and 6-10 mark in SoCon play. Next year, the Bulldogs will return a majority of its young, talented roster as the only seniors on the team are walk-on guards Hamilton Bailey and Tony Thompson.
 
"We're a very young team and at times this season we were starting three freshmen," said Seltzer. "Every single day is their first day. For a lot of our guys, this was their first time losing in the SoCon Tournament. Yesterday, was their first time winning in the tournament, and tomorrow will be their first day following a season in college. Every single day is their very first and they will learn from this and head into next year with a lot more experience."
 
Against Davidson on Saturday, Samford's bench outscored Davidson's reserves, 33-28. A majority of the Bulldogs' points were scored off the bench as Samford's starters accounted for 21 of the team's 54 points.
 
Capps paced the way with 14 points in 23 minutes of action, while Raijon Kelly followed with seven points and two rebounds. Williams, who became the first sophomore in Samford history to reach the prestigious 1,000-point plateau on Friday, finished with six points against the Wildcats.
 
Additionally, the Bulldogs received four points apiece from Nnamdi Enechionyia, Michael Bradley, Connor Miller, Brandon Roberts, Brandon Hayman and Tyler Hood.
 
Davidson's Brooks scored 17 points in the opening half of play as the Wildcats jumped out to a 42-26 advantage at the intermission. Brooks, the three-time SoCon Player of the Year, shot 6-of-10 from the field in the first period and pulled down five rebounds.
 
As a team, Davidson shot 46.9 percent from the floor and 38.5 percent (5-of-13) from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes of action. The Bulldogs turned in a 44.4-percent mark in the opening half, but went just 2-of-6 from long range.
 
The Wildcats opened the game with a 12-2 run and forced Samford's Williams into early foul trouble. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 All-SoCon performer on played 13 minutes in the first half and didn't score in the opening stanza.
 
Samford's Capps paced the team offensively with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor. He also pulled down three rebounds and played tough physical defense.

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