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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team jumped out to an early 13-point lead in the first half Saturday and used its relentless defensive pressure to cruise to a 77-65 home triumph against the Kennesaw State Owls in an early-season, non-conference contest held in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"I thought tonight we played 40 minutes of great effort, sharing the ball and tough defense," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "In the press, I thought that we really got after them. We had 13 steals and we forced them into 20 turnovers. To me, that's Samford basketball and I'm very proud of our guys and how they played today."
 
Samford (2-1) tallied its second straight victory and concluded its two-game homestand with a perfect 2-0 record. On Monday, the Bulldogs battled to a 94-79 win against Auburn-Montgomery.
 
Next week, Monday through Wednesday, Samford will be competing in the 2015 Mean Green Showcase, which will be held at The Super Pit on the campus of the University of North Texas. The Bulldogs will face Troy, North Texas and Idaho during the three-day tournament.
 
Samford finished Saturday's 77-65 victory over Kennesaw State (0-4) with four players scoring in double figures.
 
The Bulldogs' Darius Jones-Gibson tallied a team-high 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field, while Iman Johnson and Marcus Johnson both finished with 12 points apiece. True freshman Matt Rose added 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor to keep his double-digit scoring streak alive.
 
Rose, Samford's highly-touted true freshman from Lexington, Kentucky, has scored in double digits in all three games of his young collegiate career.
 
As a team, the Bulldogs shot 47.5 percent from the field and outscored Kennesaw State, 38-24, in the paint. Samford also forced the Owls into 20 turnovers and garnered a 21-10 advantage in points-off turnovers.
 
The Owls only led for a total of 21 seconds Saturday following a jumper from Nigel Pruitt to make the score 3-2 in the early minutes of the contest. Samford Wyatt Walker then connected on a free throw and senior Jamal Shabazz knocked down a deep 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.
 
Shabazz finished with seven points, four rebounds, three blocks, a steal and an assist in 30 minutes of playing time. The Bulldogs turned in a 5-of-17 performance (29.4 percent) from 3-point range.
 
Samford quickly upped its lead to 18-10 at the 13:23 mark in the opening half before taking a 43-29 advantage into the locker room.
 
In the final period, the Bulldogs opened the half with a 9-2 run and decisively built their advantage to 21 points, 56-35, at the 13:16 mark.
 
Down the stretch, Kennesaw State would get no closer than 16 points at 64-48, while Samford's Padgett subbed in his reserves leading by 21, 77-56.
 
The Bulldogs' reserves outscored the Owls' bench, 32-17.
 
Sophomore point guard Christen Cunningham started his 35^th-consecutive game for Padgett and tallied eight points, two rebounds, a pair of steals and an assist. Eric Adams added four points, six rebounds and three blocked shots, while Walker and Dakota Quinn chipped in with three points apiece.
 
Kennesaw State's Yonel Brown led all scorers with 22 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field. As a team, the Owls were limited to a 15.4-percent mark from beyond the arc.
 
The Samford University basketball team will begin a seven-game road stretch Monday at 5 p.m. (CDT) as they face the Troy Trojans in the opening contest of the 2015 Mean Green Showcase to be held at The Super Pit on the campus of University of North Texas.
 
Next week, Samford will also face North Texas on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and Idaho on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs are slated to close out the week's road trip at Austin Peay on Saturday at 7 p.m., in Clarksville, Tennessee.
 
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