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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Samford University basketball team will conclude its two-game South Carolina road trip Monday at 5 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs square off against the Furman Paladins in a pivotal Southern Conference contest to be broadcast on ESPN3 from Timmons Arena (5,000).
 
Samford (10-6, 1-2 SoCon) heads into the matchup looking to wipe the bad taste from its mouth following a heart-wrenching 69-64 road loss at first-place Wofford on Saturday. In the defeat, Samford led by as many as 11 points in the second half and by nine, 64-55, with 2:34 remaining in the contest. The Terriers ended the game on a 14-0 run to claim victory.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Furman (8-8, 2-1 SoCon) enters the contest on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Paladins are coming off their biggest win of 2015-16 on Saturday when they toppled then first-place Chattanooga, 75-60. Furman's victory snapped the Mocs' league-best, eight-game winning streak.     
 
The Paladins own a stellar 6-1 record at home this season and haven't been defeated in Timmons Arena since Dec. 12, when they dropped a 73-53 decision to Gardner-Webb. Since then, Furman has rattled off consecutive home victories over Bluefield College, 94-46, VMI, 85-57, and first-place Chattanooga on Saturday, 70-55.
 
Against the Mocs, the Paladins' Devin Sibley and Stephen Croone registered 18 and 17 points, respectively. Croone, Furman's talented senior All-SoCon performer, leads the team with 15.6 points per game and 20 assists this season.
 
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
Samford has been victorious in two of its previous three meetings with the Paladins, but suffered a 74-64 road loss in Timmons Arena last season. The Bulldogs trail the Paladins in the all-time series, 11-7, and are 2-4 when playing in Greenville since joining the SoCon in 2008-09. The first meeting between the teams occurred March 4, 1926, as Furman tallied a 25-21 home win.
 

WHAT'S TRENDING . . .
• In its last two games, Samford is forcing an average of 19 turnovers per outing. The Bulldogs have also averaged 27 points off turnovers against The Citadel and Wofford.
• Samford owns a perfect 5-0 record this season in games following a loss.
• In his last five outings, the Bulldogs' Darius Jones-Gibson is averaging 15.8 points, 4.0 assists and 2.4 rebounds per contest. He is also shooting 30-of-33 from the free-throw line.
 
FROM BALL BOY TO DIVISION I CENTER
The Bulldogs' Eric Adams has been attending Samford basketball games for a long time now. His mother, Cassandra, is the Director of Samford's Community Mediation Center and had been working in the University's prestigious Cumberland School of Law for over a decade.
 
Ever since he was in grade school, Adams remembers attending Samford games with his mother and father, Eric, Sr. He also served as one of the Bulldogs' ball boys for a few seasons. Already this year, Adams has started in games against Louisville and Auburn-Montgomery, and has earned playing time in all 16 games.
 
THE FOUR HORSEMEN
Samford's top three active leaders in points, rebounds, assists and steals are all a combination of the following four players: Jones-Gibson, Christen Cunningham, Marcus Johnson and Jamal Shabazz.
 

Here in the middle portion of the 2015-16 campaign, Jones-Gibson is ranked first in points (646), rebounds (142) and steals (60). The Bulldogs' senior guard is also listed second in active career assists with 116. Cunningham paces Samford in assists with 185 and is also ranked second on the team in points (551), steals (54) and rebounds (141).
 
Johnson, the Bulldogs' senior guard from Washington, D.C., is ranked third on the team in points (305), assists (95) and steals (37), while Shabazz is second in 3-point field goals (32) and listed third in rebounds (138).
 
738-STRAIGHT AND STILL COUNTING
The Bulldogs have made at least one 3-point field goal in 738-consecutive games. The last time that Samford did not make a 3-point basket was on Jan. 19, 1991, against UTSA.
 
The Bulldogs' streak of having made at least two 3-pointers in a game was snapped on Dec. 13, 2008, against Saint Louis when Samford turned in a dismal 1-for-14 performance from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs' streak of 476-straight games with two 3-pointers began Feb. 8, 1992.
 
UNLV is the national leader in consecutive games with a 3-point field goal as the Running Rebels have made a 3-point basket in 955-straight games dating back to the 1986-87 season. Kentucky (951) and Vanderbilt (945) are the only other two schools that have made at least one 3-point basket since the rule was adopted prior to the 1986 campaign.
 

SAMFORD'S ROSE NAMED SOCON PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Samford freshman Matt Rose was named the SoCon Player of the Week on Dec. 15 for his performance during all games played Dec. 8-14, the league office announced.
 
Rose scored 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while adding a blocked shot in an 86-67 win at Florida A&M on Dec. 12. Rose, the Bulldogs' highly-touted native of Lexington, Kentucky, scored his career-high 17 points in just 23 minutes, shooting 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
 
Overall, he was 5-of-9 from the field and his seven rebounds were a game-high against the Rattlers. Rose is averaging 9.6 points per game this year.
 
#FOE = FAMILY OVER EVERYTHING
Since taking over as head coach in 2014, Samford's Scott Padgett has coined the phrase "FOE" as his biggest mantra of the Bulldogs' basketball program. FOE stands for Family Over Everything and has truly resonated with Samford's players ... old and new.
 
"I don't really invent a lot of things, but I've worked under a lot of great coaches and have been around a lot of great people," said Padgett. "My former teammate and boss, Steve Masiello, came up with the saying Team Over Everything, and I kind of liked it, but at Kentucky it was all about Family. So, I kind of combined those two concepts and now we have Family Over Everything (#FOE).
 
"I really believe that this team is a family and that goes with everybody's extended families, as well as the staff and everybody involved with Samford basketball."
 
THE LAST TIME OUT - - WOFFORD'S LATE RALLY DOOMS 'DOGS ON THE ROAD, 69-64
With 2:34 remaining in Saturday's SoCon road showdown against Wofford, Samford held a 64-55 advantage in front of 1,948 raucous fans in Benjamin Johnson Arena. It was then that Wofford's Spencer Collins took over and drained the first of two 3-point baskets in the final minutes to spark the Terriers on a final 14-0 run to close the game and earn the 69-64 home victory.
 
Collins, Wofford's 6-foot-4 senior leader, scored 12 of the game's final 14 points and finished the contest with a game-high 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. He also finished a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point range and 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
 
Samford, which led by as many as 11 points in the second half and nine, 64-55, at the 2:34 mark, built its lead behind aggressive full-court pressure defense. The Bulldogs forced Wofford into a season-high 19 turnovers Saturday and outscored the Terriers, 24-9, in points off turnovers.
 
Samford also led, 38-14, in points in the paint, but Wofford drained 10 3-point field goals and shot 7-of-9 from beyond the arc in the second half. The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Jones-Gibson's 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field. Samford's shifty 6-foot-2 guard from Lexington, Kentucky, also added three assists and two steals, while finishing 2-of-4 from 3-point range.
 

Cunningham scored 13 points in a game-high 37 minutes of action for the Bulldogs, while Shabazz added 11 points, three rebounds and a steal. Fellow-senior forward Iman Johnson turned in a strong all-around game with eight points, eight rebounds, three assists, a trio of steals, as well as a rim-shaking, one-handed fast-break dunk in the second half.
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Following Monday's critical SoCon road game at Furman, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin a two-game weekend homestand against the ETSU Buccaneers in a key league matchup to be broadcast by ESPN3 and held at Samford's Pete Hanna Center.
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordHoopsFOE and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.

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