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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought Southern Conference game to the Furman Paladins, 54-50 Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford was led in the loss by Hannah Nichols with 15 points. Katie Allen scored 10 points for the Bulldogs. Charity Brown scored eight points, while Brittany Stevens added six points, seven rebounds and six assists. Samantha Fitzgerald also contributed six points for the Bulldogs.
 
Furman was led by Whitney Bunn with 14 points. Allison Beasley added nine points in the win for the Paladins.
 
Furman jumped out to an early five-point lead at 9-4 with 4:31 left in the first quarter after a layup by Tierra Hodges. Furman pushed its lead out to seven points at 13-6 with 1:07 to go in the quarter after a jumper by DeAnneisha Jackson. Samford scored the next five points to cut the lead to 13-11 with eight seconds left in the quarter after a layup by Stevens. Furman held a 15-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
 
The Paladins increased their lead to nine points at 26-17 with 5:31 left in the second quarter after a three-pointer by Bunn. Samford went on a 6-0 run to close to within three points at 26-23 with 4:15 left in the period after a three-pointer by Nichols. With Samford trailing, 28-25 late in the quarter, Furman scored the final five points of the period to take a 33-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
In the third quarter, Furman led by 10 points at 38-28 with 4:12 to go in the period after a three-pointer by Le'Jzae Davidson. With Furman leading, 43-33, Samford's Allen hit a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to cut the lead to 43-36 heading into the final period.
 
Samford opened the fourth quarter with an 8-3 run to cut the lead to just two points at 46-44 with 4:23 to go following a layup by Lydia McGee. With Furman leading, 51-46, Brown hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to two points again at 51-49 with 2:03 to go.
 
On Samford's next possession, Brown got a good look at a three-pointer to take the lead, but just missed. With 34 seconds left, Nichols hit one-of-two free-throw attempts to cut the lead to one point at 51-50. Bunn then hit two free throws to make the score 53-50 with 23 seconds left. On Samford's last possession, the Bulldogs had two chances to tie the game, but could not get either three-point attempt to fall, and a late Bunn free throw made the final score 54-50.
 
As a team, Samford shot 40.4 percent overall and 30.0 percent from three-point range. Furman made 43.2 percent of its attempts overall and 36.8 percent from beyond the arc. Samford won the rebounding battle, 30-26.
 
With the loss, Samford falls to 8-12 overall and 2-4 in Southern Conference games. Furman improves to 11-10 overall and 4-1 in league games.
 
Samford will return to action on Tuesday, Jan. 24, when the Bulldogs host Auburn-Montgomery. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.