BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Samford women's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to earn a 69-50 Southern Conference win over Wofford Saturday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
Taylor Reece led Samford in scoring with 16 points, while also grabbing five rebounds. Hannah Nichols had 14 points and seven rebounds, while Krista Stricklin added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Lydia McGee scored nine points and pulled down six rebounds, while Amara Mayers added seven points. Brittany Stevens dished out a career-high seven assists in the win.
"When we're really sharing the ball and not turning it over, we should have three or four people in double figures, and that's what we had," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We don't have anything designed necessarily one person, it's just for the open person. The biggest thing we talked about as a team in the last two or three days is we have to compete more and not get caught up in performance or winning or losing the game, but just compete each possession and I think that is what we did for the majority of the game today."
As a team, Samford made 50.9 percent of its shots overall, while limiting Wofford to just 34.8 percent shooting. Samford won the rebounding battle, 40-19. The Bulldog dished out 21 assists as a team.
For Wofford, Jordan Frazier led the way with 16 points. Maria Corella scored 12 points, while Kentra Washington added 10 points for the Terriers.
Samford started the game off hot, racing out to a 16-4 lead with 12:26 to go in the first half following a layup by McGee. Samford eventually pushed its lead out to 16 points at 22-6 with 10:02 to go in the half after a three-point play by McGee.
Wofford came back to cut the lead to 11 points at 28-17 with 4:10 left in the first half after a three-pointer by Washington. The Terriers closed to within 10 points at 30-20 with 3:12 left in the half following a three-pointer by Corella. Samford took a 32-22 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Samford pushed its lead out to 15 points at 42-27 with 16:47 left in the game after a three-pointer by Stricklin. Wofford answered with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to nine points at 44-35 with 14:18 left after a three-pointer by Frazier. The Bulldogs then pushed its lead back out to 14 points at 51-37 with 11:44 left following a layup by Mayers.
With Samford leading, 54-43, the Bulldogs went on a 13-0 run to take a 67-43 lead with 2:22 left in the contest following a layup by Mayers. Wofford could get no closer than 19 points the rest of the way as Samford came away with the 69-50 win.
With the win, Samford improves to 12-11 overall and 5-3 in Southern Conference play. Wofford drops to 7-16 overall and 2-6 in SoCon games.
Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 9, when the Bulldogs play host to the UNCG Spartans. The game, which will serve as Samford's Play4Kay game, is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.
