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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team will play host to The Citadel Bulldogs in its 2015-16 Southern Conference home opener Tuesday as the teams are slated to square off at 7 p.m. (CST) in the Pete Hanna Center. The game will be broadcast worldwide on ESPN3 with Mike Grace (Play-by-play) and Marc Salyers (Commentator) calling the action.

FREE PAPA JOHN'S PIZZA
Fans, at Tuesday's game between your Samford Bulldogs and The Citadel, we will be handing out free Papa John's Pizza to the first 100 fans starting at 6:30 p.m. You can pick up your pizza slices on top of Section Q.
 
Samford (9-5, 0-1 SoCon) heads into the matchup with much to prove after suffering a disappointing 69-50 road loss at Mercer on Saturday. The Bulldogs only shot 32.7 percent from the field and 21.7 from 3-point range after opening 0-for-11 from beyond the arc. Last year, Samford's Darius Jones-Gibson averaged 18.0 points and 4.5 rebounds against the Cadets.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Citadel (7-7, 0-1 SoCon) enters Tuesday's key league contest with hopes of ending its three-game losing streak. Since winning at Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 16, 99-87, the Cadets have dropped consecutive matchups against Campbell, 101-82, Charlotte, 111-93, and Chattanooga, 84-78.
 
The Citadel heads into the game ranked as the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation. First-year head coach Duggar Baucom has brought his up-tempo, run-and-gun style to Charleston, South Carolina, from VMI and the Bulldogs are currently ranked first in the country in both scoring offense (92.0 ppg) and 3-point field goal attempts (501).
 
Additionally, The Citadel is ranked second in 3-point field goals per game (11.9) and fourth in the nation in both turnovers forced (18.9 pg) and total 3-point field goals made (166).
 
Individually, the Cadets have four players averaging double figures in scoring this season. The Citadel's top gunslinger proves to be senior Derrick Henry, who is averaging 18.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He is also ranked third on the team with 28 three-point field goals this year.
 
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
Samford and The Citadel will be meeting for the 15th time in history Tuesday. The series between the teams opened with a Citadel home victory, 73-67, on Feb. 19, 1992. The Cadets boast a 10-4 advantage in the all-time series and have won the last three meetings of the rivalry. The Bulldogs are 1-4 versus The Citadel when playing in Birmingham.
 
WHAT'S TRENDING . . .
• Samford owns a perfect 4-0 record in games following a loss this season (Auburn-Montgomery, Jacksonville State, Florida A&M and Nebraska).
• The Bulldogs are 3-1 at home this season, but haven't defeated The Citadel in the Pete Hanna Center since Feb. 9, 2013. The win marked Samford's only home victory in the series.
• The Citadel is ranked first in the nation in points per game (92.0) and 3-point field goals (501).
• Samford boasts an unblemished 8-0 record this season when leading at the half.
 
BOASTING A BIG-TIME BACKCOURT
Samford continues play in the 2015-16 campaign with a pair of returning starters at the guard position in Christen Cunningham and Jones-Gibson. Cunningham, the Bulldogs' talented sophomore point guard from Georgetown, Kentucky, has never missed a start in his young up-and-coming college career.                 
As a true freshman last year, Cunningham started at the point guard position in all 32 of the team's games and averaged 10.3 points, 3.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds per contest. He also logged a team-high average of 30.1 minutes per outing and finished second on the squad with a 79.1 free-throw percentage.
 
Jones-Gibson, Samford's senior guard from Lexington, Kentucky, returned this season as the Bulldogs' top returning scorer. Last year, Jones-Gibson paced the squad with 12.2 points per game and also pulled down an average of 3.1 rebounds per contest.
 
Since transferring to Samford from Barton County Community College prior to the 2014-15 campaign, Jones-Gibson has started in every outing as a Bulldog, and has shared backcourt duties with Cunningham in all 46 games of Head Coach Scott Padgett's tenure.
 
736-STRAIGHT AND STILL COUNTING
The Bulldogs have made at least one 3-point field goal in 736-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 953-straight games dating back to the 1986-87 season. Kentucky (949) and Vanderbilt (943) 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 BLUEGRASS STATE CONNECTIONS
Many members of the Samford basketball program have key ties to the state of Kentucky. Starting at the top of the Athletic Department, Director of Athletics Martin Newton worked with Head Coach John Calipari and the University of Kentucky basketball team for two seasons, while his father, C.M. Newton, was the Director of Athletics at Kentucky from 1989-2000 and hired current Louisville head coach Rick Pitino at Kentucky in 1989.
 
Padgett, who was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and starred at St. Xavier High School, played for Pitino at Kentucky for three seasons and later spent the 2009-10 campaign as an assistant coach with the program.
 
With Padgett's connections in the area, the Bulldogs also boast many Kentucky natives on their roster, including Assistant Coach Charles Newton (Lexington), Cunningham (Georgetown), freshman forward Matt Rose (Lexington) and Jones-Gibson (Lexington).
 
TRANSITIONING OFFENSE - 'DOGS TAKE IT TO HYPERDRIVE
Samford fans will continue to enjoy a much faster paced offense this season. With plenty of depth and a roster chalk-full of young talent, the Bulldogs are getting up and down the court in 2015-16 and creating easy buckets in transition. Last season, Padgett implemented his full-court, fast-paced offensive attack and Samford averaged 69.2 points per game.
 
#FOE = FAMILY OVER EVERYTHING
Since taking over as head coach in 2014, Samford's 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 - - COLD SHOOTING HAMPERS 'DOGS IN LOSS AT MERCER
In its 2015-16 SoCon opener Saturday, Samford turned in a subpar 32.7 percent shooting mark from the field and a 21.7-percent performance from 3-point range in a 69-50 road loss against the Mercer Bears held at Hawkins Arena.
 
With the loss, Samford moved to 4-4 in true road games this season and suffered its fifth-consecutive setback against Mercer. Saturday's contest marked the 107th all-time meeting between the teams as the Bears increased their advantage to 61-46.
 
Mercer has been victorious in eight of its last 10 outings and has not lost at home this season. The Bears own a 6-0 record at Hawkins Arena in 2015-16 and boast an incredible 65-9 mark at home dating back to the 2011-12 campaign.
 
On Saturday, Mercer used a 17-0 run midway through the first half to take control of its SoCon-opening contest held in front of 3,715 orange-clad fans.
 
The Bears closed out the opening period with a 24-4 run and garnered a 36-15 advantage at halftime. Mercer shot 46.9 percent from the field in the first half and registered a 40-percent mark from 3-point range. Conversely, Samford turned in a 22.7 shooting percentage from the field and went 0-for-11 from 3-point range.
 
The Bulldogs outscored Mercer, 35-33, in the second half of action, but could get no closer than 15 points from their SoCon counterparts in the final period.
 
Samford's Cunningham and Jamal Shabazz both scored 15 points Saturday, but proved to be the only Bulldogs in double figures. True freshman center Wyatt Walker added eight points and four rebounds, while Jones-Gibson notched six points and a pair of assists. Rounding out Samford's scoring were Rose and Marcus Johnson with four and two points, respectively.
 
Mercer outscored the Bulldogs, 28-12, in the paint and 17-8 off of turnovers. The Bears also outrebounded Samford, 39-25, and tallied a 14-3 advantage in second-chance points.
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Following Tuesday's SoCon home opener against The Citadel, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 1 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin a two-game, four-day road trip against the Wofford Terriers. The contest will be held at Wofford's Johnson Arena located in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
 
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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