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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team will square off against its Southern Rail Rivals, the Chattanooga Mocs, on Thursday at 7 p.m. (CST) in a pivotal Southern Conference contest to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Thursday's matchup will be Talladega SuperSpeedway Night and is also Samford's "Academy Admit 4 Game". Visit your local Academy Sports and Outdoors store in one of three Birmingham, Alabama, area locations to pick up your "Academy Admit 4" voucher.
 
Talladega SuperSpeedway will also be on hand with a stock car on campus for students and fans to take pictures with. It will be located outside of the Pete Hanna Center.
 
The first 250 students will get a free Talladega t-shirt. Also, two lucky students will have a chance to win $1,000 towards tuition if they make a half-court shot at halftime. For tickets, please call 205-726-DOGS.
 
Samford (7-12, 0-6 SoCon) heads into Thursday's contest looking to put an end to a tough four-game conference losing streak. Since cruising past Auburn-Montgomery on Dec. 30, 94-60, the Bulldogs have dropped hard-fought league contests against ETSU, The Citadel and first-place Wofford (twice).
 
At Wofford on Saturday, Samford led by as many as 10 points, but succumbed to a late Terrier run on the road in Spartanburg, South Carolina, 72-62.
 
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 10-point lead against Wofford, 20-10, midway through the first half as Samford took advantage of a 52.9-percent shooting performance in the opening 20 minutes of play. Behind their hot streak, the Bulldogs garnered a 32-31 advantage at the half.
 
Evan Taylor, Samford's highly-talented true freshman from Cincinnati, Ohio, scored 10 points in the first half and finished Saturday's contest with a career-high 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field. Taylor's performance tied his previous personal-best mark of 12 points, which he achieved versus Jacksonville on Dec. 1.
 
In the second half, Samford and Wofford continued to battle back and forth throughout the early portion of the period, before the Terriers went on a 10-2 run to take a 67-55 lead with 1:10 left in the game.
 
Prior to Wofford's run, the Bulldogs only trailed in the game, 57-53, at the 3:35 mark in the second half.
 
Chattanooga (11-7, 4-1 SoCon) enters Thursday's game as one of the hottest teams in the conference. The Mocs have won eight of their last 10 contests, including two straight league games against Western Carolina, 66-60, and ETSU, 74-71 (OT).
 
Chattanooga heads into the matchup as the top-ranked team in the conference in scoring margin. The Mocs are winning by an average of 5.7 points per game this year and are ranked No. 4 in the nation in blocked shots.
 
Chattanooga sophomore forward Justin Tuoyo, who transferred from VCU prior to the 2013-14 season, has already blocked 63 shots this year and is ranked No. 2 in the nation behind only Washington's Robert Upshaw. The Mocs' leading scorer this season is junior guard Casey Jones with an average of 13.4 points per game.
 
The all-time rivalry between Samford and Chattanooga began Feb. 12, 1926, as the Mocs registered a 23-12 victory held at the Birmingham Athletic Club. One week later, the Bulldogs traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., and tallied a key 38-29 road triumph. Samford trails in the all-time series, 52-37, as each team won on its home court a year ago.
 
On Jan. 9, 2014, the Bulldogs suffered a heart-breaking 90-81 loss at Chattanooga. Then, on Feb. 8, in the teams' second matchup of the season, Samford tallied a thrilling 92-85 overtime triumph against the Mocs at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford's Tyler Hood scored six points against The Citadel on Jan. 8 to become just the 24th player in the school's rich 113-year history of basketball to reach the prestigious 1,000-point plateau in his career.
 
Hood, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-6 senior from Lenoir City, Tenn., heads into this week's games against Chattanooga and Mercer with 1,011 career points.
 
Through all of the changes of the last few years, Samford's Hood has been the constant. He's been a reliable leader and consistent figure on the Samford basketball team.
 
In a recent meeting, he stated that he's had three different head coaches, eight assistant coaches and 38 teammates. But if you know Hood, he wasn't complaining. He gushed about how blessed he was to have been able to meet and bond with so many different guys.
 
"Not too many people get the opportunity to develop a brotherhood with that many people," Hood said.
 
With such a young team this season, the Bulldogs' senior class comprised of Michael Bradley, Brandon Hayman and Hood will all need to take key leadership roles, both on and off the court.
 
Samford's Bradley and Hood have been listed in the team's starting lineup in 12 of the team's 19 games this season, while Hayman has been coming off the bench to provide a key spark for the Bulldogs. All three Samford seniors have earned playing time in every game this season.
 
Samford's talented freshman point guard Christen Cunningham has already recorded 83 assists this season. Cunningham, Samford's highly-touted floor general from Georgetown, Ky., is on pace to tally 144 assists in his freshman campaign, which is only two behind Raijon Kelly's current Samford single-season record of 146 that was achieved in 2012-13.
 
Samford's Darius Jones-Gibson has scored in double figures in six-consecutive outings and is averaging a team-high 14.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game since Dec. 28, 2014. Jones-Gibson is ranked No. 26 in the nation with 108 free-throw attempts this season.
 
So far this season, the Bulldogs have been shooting the ball significantly better at home in the friendly confines of the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford is shooting 47.8 percent from the field at home this year, but only 37.9 percent from the floor when playing on the road. Additionally, the Bulldogs are shooting 7.4 percentage points better at home from 3-point range; 37.4 at home versus 30.0 on the road.
 
Samford fans are enjoying a much faster paced offense this season. With plenty of depth and a
roster chalk-full of talented guards, the Bulldogs have been able to get up and down the court in 2014-15 and create easy buckets in transition.
 
In the preseason, Samford head coach Scott Padgett wanted to associate with something local that would represent both the state of Alabama, as well as his new exciting brand of fast-paced, full-court basketball. That's when the Bulldogs' marketing department set him up with a photo shoot at the Talladega Superspeedway.
 
"My dad's a big NASCAR fan and so in growing up around him I really got into it as well," said Padgett. "I wanted to do something that definitely related to us as a team, but also something that was very much the state of Alabama. I don't know how much Samford basketball has recruited Alabama in years past, but I do know that we are going to hit this state hard in recruiting.
 
"I also like being associated with Talladega. Obviously, speed is what racing is all about and that's the way we're going to play. We're going to play fast and I thought the two fit hand in hand. I thought it was a perfect match."
 
Following Thursday's home SoCon duel with Chattanooga, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 3 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs return to the road for another tough league test against the Mercer Bears to be held at Hawkins Arena in Macon, Georgia.

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