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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team earned a hard-fought victory, giving head coach Mike Morris his 250^th career win, in a 57-54 Southern Conference victory over Wofford Thursday night in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"I was really proud of the way our team started the game," Morris said. "And then when Wofford took the lead in the fourth quarter, we pushed it back out to eight or 10 points. This was really good for our team. I thought we did a lot of good things against a well-coached, tough Wofford team."
 
Morris is in his 15^th season at the helm of the women's program, after spending eight seasons as an assistant coach with the Samford men's basketball program. He is the winningest coach in the women's basketball program's history with a career record of 250-194.
 
Samford was led in the game by junior guard Hannah Nichols with 20 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots. Senior Lydia McGee scored eight points, while freshman Paige Serup followed with a career-high seven points for the Bulldogs.
 
For Wofford, Maria Corella led the way with 16 points. Chloe Wanink had 11 points and nine rebounds, while Sarah Traynor added 10 points for the Terriers.
 
Samford raced out to an early 7-2 lead with 7:18 left in the first quarter after a pair of free throws by Nichols. Wofford fought back to cut the lead to just one point at 12-11 with 2:20 left in the period after a three-pointer by Corella. Samford held a 16-14 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
 
In the second quarter, Samford pushed its lead out to as many as 10 points at 28-18 with 3:58 left in the quarter after a layup by Charity Brown. Wofford came back to cut the lead to six points at 28-22, but a late layup by Nichols gave Samford a 30-22 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
In the third quarter, Wofford tied the score at 34-34 with 4:47 left in the period after a layup by Kelsey Lambdin. Samford was able to take a 37-34 lead on a free throw by Serup and a layup by McGee with 2:53 left in the period. Wofford closed the quarter with an 8-1 run to take a 42-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
Samford scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to take a 45-42 lead with 7:00 left following a three-pointer by Nichols. The Bulldogs pushed their lead out to eight points at 52-44 with 1:47 left after another Nichols three-pointer.
 
Samford held a 56-48 lead with 39 seconds left in the contest. A pair of three-pointers by Corella brought Wofford back to within three points at 57-54 with 20 seconds left. Samford was able to get the stops it needed down the stretch to hold on for the three-point win.
 
In the win, Samford shot 42.0 percent overall and 31.6 percent from three-point range. Wofford made 40.0 percent of its shots, including a 53.8-percent effort from beyond the arc. Wofford made 11-of-15 free-throw attempts, while Samford made just 9-of-21 attempts from the charity stripe. Wofford won the rebounding battle, 36-29.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 8-11 overall and 2-3 in Southern Conference play. Wofford falls to 12-7 overall and 2-2 in league games.
 
Samford will host Furman Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center. To purchase tickets for the Furman game, click on the following link: FURMAN GAME TICKETS.