Samford Women’s Basketball Wrangles Western Carolina in Southern Conference Opener

Thursday, January 5

Birmingham, AL

6 PM

Samford University

7-9,1-0SoCon

Western Carolina

7-9,0-1SoCon

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Western Caro.	11	4	18	14	47
Samford	12	16	15	16	59

Samford Women’s Basketball Wrangles Western Carolina in Southern Conference Opener

1.5.23 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Birmingham, Ala. – To open Southern Conference play, the Samford Women's Basketball caged the Catamounts of Western Carolina in a 59-47 contest on Thursday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.

The victory moves the Bulldogs to 7-9 overall with a 1-0 record in SoCon Play. Western Carolina drops to 7-9 and 0-1 in the league.

With the win, Samford has topped the Catamounts in 19-straight matchups dating back to 2014 and has won three of the four SoCon openers in the Carley Kuhns era.

Also with the victory, the Bulldogs' home winning streak moves to six games since falling to Troy on opening night.

Despite only having five points at the break, Andrea Bailey put the Bulldogs on her back with a 17-point second half to finish the league opener with a game-high 22 points.

Bailey also finished the night with six boards and four steals to match WCU's four steals as a team.

Joining Bailey in double-figures, Sanaa Redmond score 11 points and had a trio of assists in 35 minutes of playing time.

Sussy Ngulefac and Carly Heidger, coming off the bench, each scored nine points in the victory.

Emily Bowman led the Bulldogs on the boards with seven rebounds.

After falling behind 4-0 to start the game, Samford stormed back to take a 12-11 lead on a Masyn Marchbanks jumper with seven seconds left in the opening frame.

The Bulldog offense came alive in the second quarter by outscoring Western Carolina 16-4. Samford concluded the first half on a 14-2 run to head into the break with a 28-15 advantage.

Samford's lead swelled to 15 points in the opening moments of the third frame before the Catamounts made a game of it in the fourth quarter.

Western Carolina cut the Samford lead to three with 3:15 remaining in regulation before the Bulldogs, facilitated by seven points from Bailey, sealed the 59-47 victory with a 9-0 run to end the game.

To close out the longest homestand of the season, Samford will host UNC Greensboro on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT and can be streamed on ESPN+. Tickets can be found here.

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For the latest news and information on Samford women's basketball, visit the official website for Samford Athletics at SamfordSports.com. Fans can also follow the Bulldogs on social media at /SamfordWomensBasketball (Facebook), @SamfordWBB (Instagram) and @SamfordWBB (Twitter).