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DENTON, Texas -- The Samford University basketball team extended its winning streak to four-consecutive games Tuesday as the Bulldogs toppled the homestanding North Texas Mean Green, 74-72, in the second day of action at the 2015 Mean Green Showcase.
 
"I can't fully express how proud I am of these guys," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "We knew this was going to be a battle, and like last night, they came back and we're on North Texas' home court, so they made their run like teams do, but what's more impressive is that we responded and were able to get the road win."
 
With the victory, Samford (4-1) improved to 2-0 in the four-team, three-day tournament and will square off against Idaho (4-1) in the championship game of the Mean Green Showcase on Wednesday at 2 p.m. (CST).
 
The Bulldogs' 4-1 record to start the year is the program's best start to a season since a similar 4-1 open in 1998-99. That year, Samford went on to win the Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and earned its first of two straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Samford's lone loss this season occurred Nov. 13, on the road at Louisville. Since then, the Bulldogs have rattled off consecutive victories against Auburn-Montgomery, Kennesaw State, Troy and North Texas (2-2).
 
Senior Darius Jones-Gibson, who proved to be the star in Monday's tournament-opening victory against Troy, paced Samford in scoring against the Mean Green by dropping a game-high 23 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs' shifty senior guard from Lexington, Kentucky, did most of his damage from the free-throw line by finishing 12-of-15 from the stripe.
 
True freshman center Wyatt Walker notched the first double-double of his young promising collegiate career Tuesday as he scored 13 points and added a game-high 11 rebounds. Walker is averaging seven points and seven rebounds per contest this season.
 
"Offensively, when we needed it, we were able to ride Wyatt and Darius down the stretch, because of their aggressiveness and ability to make free throws," said Padgett. "Wyatt was also huge on the backboard and I played him a lot more minutes than I would have liked to, but we needed to win this game."
 
Samford's Christen Cunningham, despite playing a season-low 25 minutes due to a fever that's been hounding the team this road trip, scored 11 points, pulled down three rebounds and added a trio of assists.
 
"I was impressed that we were able to close out this win with Christen (Cunningham) on the bench," Padgett said. "He was feeling dizzy there early in the second half and wasn't able to play the last 15 minutes of the game. Marcus Johnson played 15 huge minutes for us there late in the game and Darius Jones-Gibson played 39 minutes. Those guys came up big for us."
 
The Bulldogs' Jamal Shabazz, a native of Pflugerville, added seven points and four rebounds, while Marcus Johnson added six points, while Matt Rose notched four. Rose, who is averaging 10 points per game this season, failed to reach double-figure scoring for the first time of his collegiate career.
 
Samford trailed by as many as four points in the first half as North Texas garnered an early 15-11 lead with 11:48 remaining in the period.
 
Late in the first half, the Bulldogs used a 9-3 run to take a 26-20 advantage with 6:08 left until the intermission. During the stretch, Samford's Jones-Gibson scored five straight points and Dakota Quinn knocked down a jumper.
 
The Bulldogs took a 37-30 advantage into halftime and built their lead to nine at 46-37 before North Texas streaked on a 17-2 run and tallied a 54-48 advantage with 11:08 to play.
 
Very similar to Monday night's game when Troy went on an early run in the second half, Samford responded and used a 3-point basket from Jones-Gibson to take a 63-62 lead with 5:43 to play.
 
Jones-Gibson's bucket changed the momentum of the game again and took the crowd out of the game for a final time as the Bulldogs were able to come up with some huge rebounds down the stretch and hung on for a pivotal 74-72 victory.
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Wednesday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs close out play in the 2015 Mean Green Showcase against the Idaho Vandals. Both Samford and Idaho are 2-0 in the four-team, three-day tournament.
 
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