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AUSTIN, Texas -- The Samford University basketball team played its heart out Friday on the road against the Texas Longhorns in a tough environment as the Bulldogs came back from an 18-point second-half deficit to fight within striking distance in a hard-fought 59-49 loss held in the Frank Erwin Center.
 
"I loved the fight that we showed tonight," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "Our guys never gave up, never lost hope and they played hard all the way until the final horn. In a way, it was a lot like the Louisville game in that we had a hard time scoring, but the difference was that we learned from that game and we knew to keep fighting, doing the right things and we eventually had a chance to make things interesting late."
 
Samford (6-3) trailed Texas (4-3), 40-22, at the 14:40 mark in the second half and seemed to be doomed to a difficult road loss, but the Bulldogs never lost heart and used a quick 7-0 run to stop the bleeding to make the score 40-29.
 
During Samford's run, Christen Cunningham scored on a driving layup and then Darius Jones-Gibson followed with a pair of free throws. True freshman forward Matt Rose capped off the Bulldogs' run with a key 3-point basket from the left corner.
 
Cunningham finished the game with 14 points, four rebounds and a trio of assists, while Jones-Gibson added seven points and two boards despite only playing 29 minutes. Jones-Gibson battled foul trouble throughout the night and never seemed to be able to get into a rhythm offensively.
 
Samford's Rose finished with three points, four rebounds and a steal, but it was fellow true freshman Wyatt Walker that turned in a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. He also grabbed a team-high five rebounds and had to battle Texas' massive big guys Cameron Ridley, Prince Ibeh and Shaquille Cleare throughout the night.
 
"Ridley is a 6-foot-11, 290-pound monster in the middle who required so much attention from our guys that it opened so many things up for them offensively," Padgett said. "He went to work and he battled. We put three or four different centers on him tonight, because he is so big and we tried to wear him down, but he kept wanting the ball and kept fighting for the ball. That put a lot of stress on our zone."
 
The Bulldogs continued to battle with Texas throughout the second half. Midway through the period, Samford used a layup from Walker and a pair of free throws from Cunningham to trim the Longhorns' lead to 47-39 with 7:13 left to play in the game.
 
At that point, Texas' Ridley was able to connect on a one-handed jumper in the lane, but a key basket came from senior guard Javan Felix, who knocked down a 3-pointer from the left flank. Felix finished with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and registered a game-high three 3-point baskets.
 
In the final minutes, Samford's Jamal Shabazz threw down an electric one-handed, fast-break dunk in front of 80 family members and friends from his nearby hometown of Pflugerville. Cunningham also drained four more free throws and scored on a layup at the buzzer to make the final score of the game, 59-49.

The Bulldogs only shot 34 percent from the field and 18.8 percent from beyond the arc, but forced Texas into a game-high 14 turnovers.
 
Samford also hung in there on the boards and only trailed the Longhorns by five in the rebounding total, 32-27.
 
The last time that the Bulldogs played at Texas in 2005, Samford dropped a 77-33 decision and was out-rebounded by the Longhorns, 54-15.
 
Samford senior Marcus Johnson added five points, three rebounds and three assists, while Shabazz finished with four in 35 minutes of playing time. Ridley led Texas with 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
 
"I was proud of our guys' fight, their heart and their toughness tonight," Padgett said. "Obviously, when we play against a team like Texas it's hard, because athleticism is a huge difference and I thought that as well as their size proved to be the key factors. We learned a lot from this game and I'm really looking forward to how we build on this and go throughout the rest of our schedule."
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their seven-game, early-season road stretch in Tallahassee, Florida, against the Florida A&M Rattlers in a contest to be held at the Alfred Lawson, Jr. Multipurpose Center (9,639).
 
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