BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- The Samford men's basketball team led from start to finish on its way to its sixth-straight win in an 88-65 victory over Louisiana Thursday night in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
With the win, Samford improved to 6-2 on the season. Louisiana fell to 5-3 with the loss. The win marked the first victory for Samford over Louisiana in 11 tries.
 
"It was a good game against a good team," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "The whole key to this game was, they have some outstanding shooters out there and our whole deal was we cannot let them get off from three and we held them to three threes in the game. That will probably be a season low for them. When you're able to guard the three and you're able to stop them from getting the ball out of the net, you're able to really run the floor. We really got going and used a lot of our depth in the first half, made it an up-and-down game, got wide, got loose and were able to attack the basket and you saw a very high two-point percentage because we didn't make many threes ourselves."
 
Samford was led in scoring and rebounding by Achor Achor with 25 points and eight rebounds. A.J. Staton-McCray had 22 points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs, while Jaden Campbell added 19 points. Rylan Jones dished out nine assists in the win for Samford.
 
As a team, Samford shot 54 percent from the floor, while holding Louisiana 40 percent. Samford distributed 17 assists, to just seven for Louisiana.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns were led in the game by Kobe Julien with 29 points and six rebounds. Joe Charles added 10 points for Louisiana.
 
Samford jumped out to an early 11-4 lead with 16:12 to go in the first half following a pair of free throws by Staton-McCray. Louisiana fought back to cut the lead to two points at 15-13 with 13:44 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Julien.
 
With Samford leading, 20-18, the Bulldogs scored the next five points to push their lead to 25-18 with 7:37 left after a three-pointer by Achor. With the score at 25-20, Samford went on an 11-0 run to take a 36-20 lead with 3:52 left before halftime after two free throws by Staton-McCray. Samford took a 42-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford pushed its lead to 22 points at 48-26 with 18:27 to go after a layup by Achor. Louisiana cut the lead to 12 points at 58-46 with 12:21 left following a layup by Julien. The Bulldogs then went on a 10-0 run to push their lead to 68-46 with 9:05 to go after a free throw by Josh Holloway.
 
Samford led by as many as 27 points at 88-61 with 1:39 to play after a jumper by Campbell. Louisiana scored the final two baskets of the game to make the final score 88-65.
 
Samford will next host LaGrange College on Sunday, Dec. 3. The game is set for a 3:30 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.




 
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