Box Score
Samford Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- In a game that consisted of 13 ties and 17 lead changes Thursday, the Samford University basketball team rallied from 11 points down in the second half to take a 70-69 lead with 4:49 remaining to play, but the first-place ETSU Buccaneers came through with some clutch shots down the stretch to hang on for an 81-77 Southern Conference win held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"We're still a young team and we're making a lot of mistakes," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "My frustration level is that we're not making new mistakes. We're making the same mistakes that we made in game four and we have to get past that point if we're going to be better as a team.
 
"We gifted them at least 10 points in the second half where we were supposed to rotate a certain way in the press and we couldn't get it done. Maybe they didn't score on the possession, but it still kept us from getting the steal and then the easy basket on the other end."
 
With the loss, Samford (10-8, 1-4 SoCon) dropped to 4-2 at home this season and moved to 1-5 all-time against ETSU (11-6, 4-0 SoCon). The Buccaneers escaped with another close victory on the road and extended their SoCon-best winning streak to six-consecutive games.
 
The Buccaneers' last loss occurred Dec. 22, at Tennessee.
 
ETSU's T.J. Cromer, the reigning SoCon Player of the Week, led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. He also handed out six assists and grabbed four rebounds, while finishing 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
 
Lester Wilson, the Buccaneers' all-time leader in 3-pointers made, knocked down 4-of-6 of his 3-point attempts Thursday and finished with 16 points in 30 minutes of action. Senior guard Ge'Lawn Guyn scored 17 points and added seven rebounds, while Isaac Banks nearly tallied a double-double with 11 points and nine boards.
 
As a team, ETSU shot 51.8 percent from the field and 9-of-23 (39.1 percent) from 3-point range.
 
"My biggest frustration in the game was our inability to comprehend what a shooter is," Padgett said. "Now, we've had three games in conference play alone where all we talked about was shutting down their shooters and not allowing them to get open shots. Tonight, we didn't want Ge'Lawn Guyn, Lester Wilson or T.J. Cromer to get any 3-point attempts and they finished with 18. Not only did they get to take 18, but they made eight just between those three guys alone."
 
Samford also turned in one of its best scoring performances of conference play and shot 53.4 percent from the field. The Bulldogs only connected on four 3-point field goals, but only attempted a total of 12 for 33.3 percent in the game.
 
Senior guard Darius Jones-Gibson paced Samford with 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, while he added five assists and four rebounds. True freshman center Wyatt Walker turned in his best game of SoCon action with 14 points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals. The Bulldogs' big man from Jacksonville, Florida, also finished 7-of-10 from the floor.
 
"Wyatt's a perfectionist and I think he'd been struggling a little bit lately, because he wants to be so good that he frustrates himself," Padgett said. "We talked to him a lot about just going out, playing hard and getting into the rhythm of the game. Tonight, he finished well around the rim, rebounded the ball and I thought he had a good game."
 
Samford senior Iman Johnson continued to turn in solid all-around games Thursday as the Bulldogs' native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, scored 11 points, pulled down eight rebounds, handed out three assists and added a pair of steals in 28 minutes of action. He also finished a near-perfect 5-of-6 from the field.
 
Sophomore standout Christen Cunningham chipped in with 11 points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals.
 
Cunningham made the free throw that gave Samford its 70-69 lead with 4:49 remaining to play in the second half. The Bulldogs garnered the momentum of the game at that point, but ETSU's Banks and Guyn knocked down free throws of their own on the Buccaneers' next two possession and then Cromer scored on a fast-break layup to build the Buccaneers' lead back up to 74-70 at the 2:56 mark.
 
ETSU finished the game shooting 63.6 percent from the charity stripe, while Samford turned in a lackluster 55-percent performance from the free-throw line. The Bulldogs entered Thursday's contest shooting 71.7 percent from the line.
 
"Let's face it, despite all of the mistakes we made tonight, if we would have just made our free throws then it would have been a totally different ballgame," said Padgett. "As bad as it was, it's still misleading. We went 11-for-20 from the line, but three of those were the front end of one-and-ones, so really we were just 11-for-23. In a game that ended up being a one-position game down the stretch, those misses ended up being huge."
 
In the final minutes, Samford would trim ETSU's lead to two points on a pair of occasions and used a Walker free throw to make the game, 77-76, with 18 seconds left to play.
 
At that point, Guyn was able to drive down the court for a layup, but then the Bulldogs answered with a free throw from Jones-Gibson to move the score to 79-77. Samford's senior missed the second attempt and the Bulldogs were forced to foul.
 
Cromer then iced the game away with a pair of free throws for the final 81-77 score.
 
"This conference is too tight on talent to make simple mistakes and to miss free throws," said Padgett. "Everybody can play with everybody in this league and it's the little things that are going to be the difference between wins and losses for the remainder of the season."
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their two-game weekend homestand against the Western Carolina Catamounts in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
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