BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Samford's Achor Achor had 17 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and a career-high five blocked shots as the Bulldog men's basketball team earned an 89-72 win over South Carolina State Friday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
With the win, Samford improved to 2-2 on the season. South Carolina State fell to 2-2 with the loss.
 
"It's always good to win," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "They are a very well coached team and they know what they're doing, so it was good to get off to a good start. Positives in the game were, offensively, we got to the free throw line a ton. We shot 41 free throws, you're not going to lose many games when you do that as long as you shoot a reasonable percentage. Another positive was, we held them to 32 percent shooting, you're not going to lose many games when you do that. But you are going to lose a lot of games when the other team shoots 33 free throws. The game was called very tight, both ways. We took advantage of it on offense, but we have to be a little smarter on the defensive end."
 
Samford made 32-of-41 free throws as a team in the game, while South Carolina State made 26-of-33 from the charity stripe. Each team had 42 rebounds, while Samford had 13 assists, to 10 for the visitors.
 
Jermaine Marshall led Samford in scoring with 20 points, including shooting 12-of-16 from the free-throw line. Rylan Jones scored 16 points, shooting 5-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-4 from three-point range. A.J. Staton-McCray added 11 points for Samford.
 
South Carolina State was led by Omar Croskey with 15 points. Mitchel Taylor added eight points and four assists for SCSU.
 
Samford got the game off to a hot start, racing out to a 15-3 lead with 12:29 left in the first half following a layup by Riley Allenspach. South Carolina State cut the lead to eight points at 15-7 with 11:39 to go in the half after a pair of free throws by Croskey.
 
Samford pushed its lead out to 15 points at 28-13 at the 7:35 mark in the first half following a pair of free throws by Dallas Graziani. South Carolina State cut the lead to 10 points at 33-23 with 4:31 to go in the opening half after a free throw by James Marrow. Samford answered with a 12-0 run to push its lead to 45-23 with 2:28 left in the half after a three-point play by Marshall. Samford took a 48-32 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
In the second half, Samford pushed its lead back out to 20 points at 55-35 with 17:32 to go on a layup by Staton-McCray. Samford led by 22 points at 62-40 at the 16:15 mark after a layup by Staton-McCray.
 
South Carolina State closed to within 12 points at 71-59 with 7:07 to go following a jumper by Jordan Simpson. Samford made a run to push its lead back out to 22 points at 89-67 with 49 seconds left after a layup by Achor. Samford finished with the 89-72 win.
 
Samford will next play host to Alabama State on Wednesday, Nov. 22. The game is set for a 6:30 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.


 
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