ORLANDO, Fla. – The Samford Men's Basketball team (6-4) fell 80-77 in overtime at UCF on Sunday, marking the second-straight contest decided in OT for the Bulldogs.
Jaden Campbell and Jermaine Marshall each logged a team-high 15 points, with Marshall going 13-16 from the free throw line and Campbell knocking down six of 14 shots from the field.
Logan Dye and Bubba Parham both notched 11 points, with Parham dishing out a team-high five assists and Dye grabbing a Bulldog-best seven rebounds. Jaron Rillie added seven points and a team-high five assists while A.J. Staton-McCray registered seven points and five boards.
The Bulldogs outscored the Knights 10-9 over the first six minutes of play, with Staton-McCray's three-point play at the 13:38 mark giving Samford a one-point advantage.
UCF climbed out to a 20-14 lead at the 9:55 mark, but the Bulldogs came storming back with a 10-4 run to tie the score at 24-all. A pair of Knight free throws with 42 seconds left put them up by two possessions at 33-28 but Parham splashed in a trey with 20 seconds left to give way to the 33-31 halftime score.
The first 10 minutes of half number two saw neither team lead by more than one possession until a 4-0 run by the Knights put them up 56-50 at the 10:01 mark.
The Bulldogs used two key three-point shots by Dye with under five to tie the game, with the first coming at the 4:37 mark (61-61) and the second at 2:58 (66-66) to play in regulation.
After a 1-2 trip at the charity stripe from Marshall tied the game at 70 with 44 seconds to play, a UCF missed three gave Samford the ball with 12 seconds left. An open look from downtown by Parham rattled off the rim, however, keeping the score tied at 70 to force overtime.
The Bulldogs went up 74-71 following a pair of free throws from Marshall and then went back up 76-64 following a layup by Marshall at the 2:00 mark in OT. Samford had two chances to add to its lead, but a missed layup and a turnover on the next two Bulldog possessions left the door open for UCF to retake the lead 78-77 on a pair of free throws.
Samford's next possession saw a missed trey from Parham that was knocked out of bounds by the Knights. UCF forced a contested jumper in the paint by Nathan Johnson on the ensuing inbound that missed and led to a 2-2 free throw line trip by the Knights, giving them an 80-77 lead with five seconds left. The Bulldogs went the length of the floor in the final seconds, but Parham's last-second heave rattled off the backboard to give way to the 80-77 final score.
The Bulldog's finished the game shooting 37 percent (22-59) from the field, 32 percent (9-28) from three, and 83 percent (24-29) from the free throw line. Samford tallied 26 points in the paint while also compiling 18 bench points.
Sunday's game featured 11 lead changes and 16 tied scores.
The Bulldogs will take a six-day hiatus from action before returning to nonconference play on Saturday, Dec. 10 for another road test against the Louisiana Rajun Cajuns. Tip-off from Lafayette, La. is set for 7:00 p.m. (CST).
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