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Live Stats Game NotesBIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team's challenging 2015 Southern Conference slate will continue in spades Monday as the Bulldogs welcome the ETSU Buccaneers to the Pete Hanna Center for the first time in school history. The contest is slated to begin at
7 p.m. (CT) and will mark the conclusion of Samford's current five-game homestand.
Samford (7-9, 0-3 SoCon) boasts a solid 5-2 record at home this season, but is coming off a hard-fought 68-65 loss to conference-favorite Wofford on Saturday. The Bulldogs have been victorious in four of their last five outings, but have never defeated
ETSU (7-4, 2-1 SoCon).
The Buccaneers, who are in the midst of the first season of their second stint as SoCon members, are coming off an exhilarating 98-88 league victory against VMI on Friday. ETSU owns a 3-3 record on the road this season, but has dropped its last two at VCU, 84-60, and Tennessee, 71-61.
ETSU enters Monday's game as one of the top scoring offenses in the nation. The Buccaneers are scoring an average of 79.5 points per game this season, which is ranked 20th in the country. Additionally, ETSU does most of its damage from 3-point range and boasts the nation's No. 3 ranking with 11.3 3-point field goals per contest.
Senior guard Rashawn Rembert is ranked No. 5 in the country with an average of 3.91 3-point field goals per game. The Bucs' native of Tampa, Florida, is also scoring 16.9 points per outing.
The Bulldogs will square off against ETSU for only the fourth time in school history Monday, but the second time in two seasons.
The all-time series began Jan. 29, 1979 as the Buccaneers rallied for a 64-63 win held in Birmingham. The teams then played again Feb. 2, 1980, when ETSU posted an 86-78 victory in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Last season, Samford and ETSU ended the series' 33-year hiatus as the Bucs earned an 89-75 victory at Freedom Hall. The Bulldogs are 0-3 all-time versus ETSU.
With 13:15 left in last year's game, Samford held a seven-point advantage over the Buccaneers, 54-47. The Bulldogs led 37-34 at the intermission and then opened the second half of play in a good rhythm by knocking down five of their first eight shots of the period.
At that point, ETSU called timeout and subsequently went on a 16-2 run to take a 63-56 advantage with 8:52 remaining to play. During their second-half rally, the Bucs' A.J. Merriweather and Rashawn Rembert both scored five points, while Lester Wilson and Kinard Gadsden-Gillard tallied three points apiece.
Samford later trimmed ETSU's lead to 68-63 with just over five minutes left to play in the game, but the Buccaneers then answered with a jumper from Wilson and 3-point basket from Jalen Riley to move their advantage back to 10 at 73-63.
From that point in the game, Samford would never come any closer than eight points.
Against the defending SoCon Tournament champs and the favorite to win the 2014-15 league title, Samford charged late to nearly upend the Wofford Terriers, 68-65, on Saturday in a key conference showdown held at the Pete Hanna Center.
Down by 13 points, 61-48, with 2:51 remaining to play, Samford rallied to within 65-61 at the nine-second mark and later connected on a deep 3-point basket at the buzzer to make the final score 68-65. The Bulldogs'
Christen Cunningham drained the team's final 3-pointer and proved to be the key factor in Samford's second-half resurgence.
Cunningham, the Bulldogs' dynamic true freshman point guard from Georgetown, Kentucky, scored nine of his career-high 20 points in the final two minutes and turned in a perfect 5-of-5 performance from the charity stripe. He also grabbed three rebounds, handed out two assists and tallied a pair of steals.
Samford is 7-0 this season when shooting better than its opponent from the field. So far this year, the Bulldogs are shooting 42 percent from the floor, while ETSU is connecting on 42.7-percent of its attempts.
Eight of the Bulldogs' 15 players are in the midst of their first season at Samford University, and only two (
Brandon Hayman and
Tyler Hood) have been on the roster longer than two years.
Three of the Bulldogs' probable starters, Cunningham,
Darius Jones-Gibson and
Alex Peters, are in their inaugural seasons at Samford.
Cunningham is a highly-touted true freshman point guard from Georgetown, Kentucky, while Jones-Gibson, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, transferred in the summer from Barton County Community College. Peters is a talented true freshman from Mountain Brook, Alabama.
Nine of the Bulldogs' 15 members of the 2014-15 roster are underclassmen. Samford boasts four true freshmen this season in Cunningham, Peters,
Gerald Smith and
Evan Taylor, while
Eric Adams,
Ryan Dickey,
Nnamdi Enechionyia,
Emeka Ikezu and
Brandon Roberts comprise the Bulldogs' talented sophomore class.
With such a young team this season, the Bulldogs' senior class comprised of
Michael Bradley,
Brandon Hayman and
Tyler 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 11 of the team's 16 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 Hood enters Monday's game needing just 13 points to reach the prestigious
1,000-point plateau in his career. With the achievement, Hood would become just the 24th player in the Bulldogs' illustrious history to reach the milestone.
The Bulldogs have made at least one 3-point field goal in 706-consecutive games. The last time that Samford did not make a 3-point basket was on Jan. 19, 1991, against UTSA.
Following Monday's home SoCon test against ETSU, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 6 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs hit the road for the first time in over three weeks against The Citadel Bulldogs in a key league contest to be held at the McAlister Field House in Charleston, South Carolina.
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