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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Despite miscues and a poor shooting performance from 3-point range Saturday, the Samford University basketball team nearly toppled the first-place Chattanooga Mocs, 63-56, in front of a season-best home crowd of 2,549 rowdy fans at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"If you look at it, Chattanooga is one of the most efficient offensive teams in the SoCon, as well as in the country, and we were able to hold them to 35-percent shooting from the field and 16 percent from the 3-point line," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "When they are playing at their best, they are turning people over a lot and we only committed 11 turnovers, so I thought we did a good job in a lot of those areas.
 
"The crowd and the atmosphere here tonight was awesome. I think it was the best crowd that we've had since I've been here and not just the numbers, but how they were into the game. The group of students over there with the big dog bone was great and it'd be awesome to continue to have crowds like this for the remainder of our home season. We're going to reward them. This team is going to come out here and win some games. Our effort was really good, but the crowd was awesome."
 
Samford (11-11, 2-7 Southern Conference) finished 3-of-14 from 3-point range and 9-of-20 from the free-throw line, but the Bulldogs played intense defense throughout the contest and limited Chattanooga (18-3, 7-1 SoCon) to its lowest scoring output since Jan. 9, when the Mocs suffered a 70-55 loss at Furman.
 
Samford also forced Chattanooga to shoot just 35.6 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range. The Mocs outscored the Bulldogs, 24-13, in bench scoring and 12-6 in fast-break points.
 
Chattanooga, which is currently the first-place team in the SoCon standings, extended its winning streak to five-consecutive games and moved to 13-1 since Nov. 30.
 
The teams traded baskets in the opening minute of play, but following Duke Ethridge's jumper at 18:20 in the first half, the Mocs led for the remaining 38:50 of the game.
 
Chattanooga never led by more than nine points in the first half and took a 35-28 advantage into the locker room. In the second stanza, Samford quickly used consecutive layups from Darius Jones-Gibson, Christen Cunningham and Wyatt Walker, as well as a free throw from Jones-Gibson to trim the Mocs' lead to 37-35 at the 15:10 mark.
 
In the next five minutes of action, Chattanooga answered with an 11-2 run of its own to build its largest lead of the night, 48-37, with 10 minutes left to play.
 
During their run, the Mocs' Dee Oldham drained a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers.
 
Late in the final period, Samford true freshman Wyatt Walker slammed home a dunk to trim Chattanooga's advantage to 54-51 with 3:02 left in the game. Walker turned in his third double-double of the season Saturday with 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. He also added two blocked shots.
 
Following Walker's dunk, the Bulldogs went through a cold shooting spell and the Mocs' advantage grew back nine points, 62-53, thanks to nine made free throws in the final 2:27 of action. Chattanooga finished Saturday's contest shooting 18-of-25 from the charity stripe and used that performance to garner its 63-56 win.
 
"We played well enough offensively in the second half to win," said Padgett. "There were just two categories that killed us tonight. One was shooting 9-for-20 from the free-throw line and the other was allowing them to get 17 offensive rebounds. If we would have held them to 12 or less offensive rebounds and made our free throws, then I think we would have had a good chance of winning."
 
Samford's Cunningham scored a team-high 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and added three assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals. Jones-Gibson added 14 points, four rebounds in 32 minutes of playing time.
 
"From here on out, our guys need to play with this same kind of mental toughness and being locked in defensively," Padgett said. "If we play like we did tonight, but obviously do a much better job in our free-throw shooting, then we'll win a lot of games from here on out, but this has got to be our mindset for the rest of the season, not just when we're playing the first-place team in the conference at home."
 
Chattanooga finished Saturday's matchup with three players scoring in double figures. Junior All-SoCon performer Justin Tuoyo came off the bench to notch a team-high 15 points, while Tre' McLean added 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Ethridge rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11 points.
 
The Mocs won the battle of the boards, 43-32, including a 17-7 disparity on the offensive end of the court. The teams played even in the second half, 28-28.
 
"We have some work to do tomorrow in order to get ready for Mercer, but I'm pleased with a lot of things from this game," Padgett said. "Two things just killed us tonight, rebounding and free throws."
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Monday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs continue play in their four-game SoCon homestand against the Mercer Bears. The contest will be held at the Pete Hanna Center and will be broadcast live by the American Sports Network.
 
Monday is "Military Appreciation and Local Hero Night" for Samford basketball. Show military ID or your first responders badge for FREE admission. We are also encouraging fans to wear gray shirts as our team will be in their gray uniforms against Mercer.
 
Remember, kids 12 and under receive free general admission to all home Samford Athletics events, courtesy of Alabama Power. For additional ticket information, call 205-726-DOGS or visit samfordsports.com/tickets.
 
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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