ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The Samford men's basketball team built a 22-point halftime lead, saw the lead dwindle to one point late in the second half and held on to earn a 66-64 win over the UNC Greensboro Spartans in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament Saturday evening at the Harrah's Cherokee Center.
 
"Great win by our guys," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "Some people would look at it and be like, 'it wasn't the best second half,' but that doesn't matter. That's two teams that play extremely hard. You got to see that there at the end of the game when everybody's fighting for that ball. I love games like that when teams are playing so hard. It wasn't a dirty game, it was just two teams fighting. But, in those types of games, we have been very successful this year. Hats off to Greensboro. They show a lot of grit. There's a reason why they've had a good season."
 
With the win, Samford improves to 21-10. The Bulldogs advance to Sunday's semifinal round where they will take on Furman. UNC Greensboro falls to 17-14 with the loss.
 
The Bulldogs were led in the win by Logan Dye with 19 points and eight rebounds. Ques Glover scored 19 points and dished out seven assists for Samford. Jermaine Marshall had 10 points and five rebounds for Samford.
 
UNCG was led by Dante Treacy with 16 points and five assists. Bas Leyte tallied 14 points and six rebounds. Mohammed Abdulsalam and De'Monte Buckingham had 13 points each for the Spartans.
 
Samford started the game off hot, racing out to a 10-2 lead with 17:22 to go in the first half after two free throws by Marshall. After UNCG cut the lead to 10-6, a Marshall three-pointer pushed the lead to 13-6 with 16:23 left in the first half. The Bulldogs built an 18-8 lead, but UNCG scored the next four points to cut the lead to 18-12 with 12:42 left in the opening half after a layup by Treacy.
 
The Bulldogs pushed their lead to 15 points at 29-14 with 7:54 left in the first half after a layup by Jaden Campbell. Samford led by as many as 22 points down the stretch in the first half and the Bulldogs took a commanding 44-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
UNCG opened the second half on a 15-0 run to cut the lead to seven points at 44-37 with 14:55 to go on a three-pointer by Treacy. The Spartans cut the lead to three points at 47-44 on a three-pointer by Treacy with 12:51 to go. Samford stretched its lead back out to 10 at 56-46 on a three-pointer by Cooper Kaifes with 9:37 remaining.
 
The Spartans cut the lead back to three at 62-59 with 2:42 to go after another three-pointer by Treacy. After Samford pushed the lead to 65-59, a three-pointer by UNCG's Kobe Langley cut the lead back to three at 65-62 with 1:09 to go. The Spartans' Bas Leyte made two free throws with 8.3 seconds left to cut the lead to 65-64. Samford's Glover made one of two free throws to make the score 66-64 with 4.9 seconds to go. A three-pointer by UNCG's Langley at the buzzer just missed and Samford held on for the two-point victory.
 
Samford and Furman will meet in Sunday's second semifinal game at 5:30 p.m. (CT). The game can be seen live on ESPNU.      





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