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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- At the buzzer, with Samford trailing by just a point, 62-61, the Bulldogs' Christen Cunningham found Evan Taylor streaking to the rim for the possible game-winning basket, but Mercer's Darious Moten blocked the last-second shot to preserve the Bears' 62-61 Southern Conference win held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"I thought we gave a great effort in the second half," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "It wasn't quite as bad, but our slow start really reminded me of the The Citadel game. When we're going hard, we're a very tough team to face and I believe that we can beat anybody in the league on a given night. The problem is, for whatever reason, we just haven't been able to get it started at the beginning of the game in our last few outings."
 
With the loss, Samford (12-17, 5-11 SoCon) closed out its 2014-15 home schedule with an 8-6 record. Mercer (16-13, 11-5 SoCon), which entered Saturday's contest as the third-place team in the conference, improved to 5-9 in road games and swept the season series with the Bulldogs.
 
Samford will close out its regular season with road tests at UNCG and VMI next week, while the Bears are scheduled to finish up at home against Wofford and ETSU.
 
The Bulldogs started out slow on Senior Night and trailed Mercer, 21-7, at the 8:54 mark in the first half.
 
Just minutes later, Samford used a nice six-point flurry to trim the Bears' advantage to 25-20 with 6:30 to play until the intermission. The Bulldogs' run was sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jamal Shabazz and Nnamdi Enechionyia.
 
Mercer ended the first half on a 10-5 run and took a 40-30 lead into the locker room.
 
"If you play Mercer and try to beat them at their own game, then you're going to lose every time," Padgett said. "They love to play half-court execution and that's their strength. That's not our game and not what we do, but we can beat them when we're playing to our strengths, like we did in the second half. Right now, for us to win, we're going to have to play that break-neck style of full-court pressing and running up and down the court."
 
Exactly three minutes into the second period, Samford took a 10-point deficit and trimmed it to 46-45 with a keen 9-0 run from 17:00 to 11:56. During the stretch, the Bulldogs' Tyler Hood, Shabazz and Michael Bradley all scored on layups, while junior Darius Jones-Gibson converted a 3-point play.
 
With Samford's home crowd of 1,683 fans helping to shift the momentum of the game, the teams traded baskets until approximately the seven-minute mark when Mercer used a quick five-point spurt to garner a 60-54 lead with 5:33 to play.
 
In a defensive struggle down the stretch, there were 11 total points scored in the final 5:33 of the game.
 
Samford scored seven-straight points from 5:33 to the 26-second mark to take its only lead of the game at 61-60 following a thrilling layup from Hood. The Bears led Saturday's matchup for exactly 39:13, while the Bulldogs led for 19 seconds.
 
"I thought our guys did a great job of executing on those last two plays," Padgett said. "We got that nice layup for Tyler and then a great look for Evan. I would have liked to see him try to dunk the ball, but we got exactly the look that we wanted with Christen getting to the rim and dishing it to Evan. They just make a great play to block it."
 
With Samford leading 61-60, Mercer took possession with 26 left to play. The Bears ran through their motion offense and Phillip Leonard gathered the ball in the left corner. He then streaked down the baseline and was able to connect on the game-winning basket with just seven seconds remaining.
 
After Leonard's bucket, Samford set up its final play, which was executed perfectly, but Moten was able to get a paw on Taylor's final jumper.
 
Mercer finished Saturday's game with four blocked shots, while Samford tallied three.
 
All 11 Bulldogs scored against the Bears, as Shabazz came off the bench to lead the team with nine points. Shabazz, Samford's high-flying junior forward from Pflugerville, Texas, turned in a solid all-around game with three rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots. He also finished a near-perfect 4-of-5 from the field in 13 minutes of playing time.
 
"One thing about our guys is that they never quit," said Padgett. "We made a lot of improvements since the last time we played Mercer, but I'm just not very big on the moral victory part of basketball. To me, this was a winnable game that we let get away."
 
Samford's Bradley nearly tallied his fourth double-double on the season Saturday with eight points and 10 rebounds. The Bulldogs' senior from Chattanooga, Tennessee, went 4-of-7 from the floor.
 
Cunningham scored seven points, while Hood, Enechionyia and Taylor all followed with six points apiece. Samford Jones-Gibson, Brandon Roberts and Marcus Johnson all tallied five points Saturday.
 
The Bulldogs' bench outscored Mercers' reserves, 33-14, but Samford committed 19 turnovers.
 
The Bears shot a stifling 60 percent from 3-point range, but the Bulldogs outshot Mercer from the field, 47.1 percent to 40 percent.
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin their final road trip of the 2014-15 regular season against the UNCG Spartans in a critical league contest to be held at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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