BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Samford women's basketball scored a season-high 88 points in earning an 88-66 Southern Conference win over UNCG Monday night in the Pete Hanna Center.
The game was Samford's Play4Kay game, raising money and awareness for breast cancer research.
"I thought we were definitely solid offensively," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "From an offensive standpoint, I thought we did a really good job of just playing. This was the type of game, based on the way they were guarding, where you couldn't necessarily get organized and run a set play, so you just kind of have to play and be aggressive. I thought we did a really good job of being aggressive, attacking the rim and making the right decisions."
Samford was led by Hanna Nichols with 22 points, tying her career high. Krista Stricklin scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Destiney Elliott scored 15 points, while Lydia McGee added 13 points and six rebounds.
UNCG was led by Lucy Mason with 25 points. Jade Scaife added 12 points for the Spartans.
UNCG jumped out to an early lead, taking a 7-4 advantage with 17:12 to go in the first half following a three-pointer by Keli Foster. Samford scored the next five points to take a 9-7 lead with 14:44 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Nichols. After UNCG came back to take an 11-9 lead, Samford went on a 12-2 run to take a 21-13 lead with 10:04 left in the half after a layup by Elliott.
The Spartans came back to cut the lead to four points at 21-17 with 8:22 left in the first half after a layup by Scaife. Samford then took control of the game with a 16-4 run to push its lead to 37-21 with 4:02 to go in the half following a three-point play by Elliott. Samford eventually pushed its lead out to 20 points at 45-25, and the Bulldogs took a 47-27 advantage into halftime.
Early in the second half, Samford increased its lead to 23 points at 53-30 with 18:16 to go following a pair of free throws by Taylor Reece. UNCG then went on a 10-0 run to cut the Samford lead to 13 points at 53-40 with 15:37 to go after a jumper by Mason. Samford answered with a 10-0 run of its own to make the score 63-40 with 13:11 to go after a jumper by Nichols.
With Samford leading, 63-43, the Bulldogs went on an 11-2 run to take a 29-point lead at 74-45 with 10:07 to go after a three-pointer by Stricklin. The Bulldogs eventually pushed their lead out to 30 points at 81-51 with 6:27 left after a pair of free throws by Brittany Stevens. UNCG could get no closer than 22 points the rest of the way as Samford came away with the 88-66 win.
As a team, Samford made 58.0 percent of its shots from the floor, including 44.4 percent from three-point range. UNCG shot 41.4 percent overall and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc. The teams finished the game with 31 rebounds each. Samford dished out 21 assists on 29 made field goals in the contest.
Samford improves to 13-11 overall and 6-3 in Southern Conference play with the win. UNCG drops to 5-19 overall and 0-9 in SoCon games.
Samford will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 14, when the Bulldogs play at Wofford. The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. (CT) start from Spartanburg, S.C.
