BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University men's basketball team shot 54 percent overall and 60 percent from three-point range on its way to a 118-91 win over Alabama A&M Monday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
With the win, Samford improved to 8-2 on the season, marking the Bulldogs' eighth-straight win. The game marked the first time a Samford team has scored 100 or more points in back-to-back games since 1970. Alabama A&M fell to 1-8 with the loss.
 
"It's good when you feel like there are a lot of things you can do a lot better and you have a big win in terms of the differential of the score," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "Whenever you win by nearly 30 points and there are a lot of things you feel like you could do better, that's probably a good thing. We weren't as locked in as we needed to be tonight, and I think you saw that in the way we turned the ball over. I thought that we shot the ball really well. That was pretty phenomenal, skill-wise."
 
Seven Samford players scored in double figures in the win. A.J. Staton-McCray led the way with 18 points and six rebounds. Jermaine Marshall, in his first game back after missing four games with an injury, had 16 points and five rebounds. Dallas Graziani, Lukas Walls and Josh Holloway had 11 points each, while Nathan Johnson and Chandler Leopard added 10 points apiece.
 
For Alabama A&M, Dailin Smith had 18 points and four rebounds. Jayland Randall added 16 points and six rebounds for the visiting Bulldogs.
 
Samford started the game off hot, jumping out to a 22-10 lead with 15:05 to go in the first half following a three-pointer by Johnson. Samford stretched its lead to 20 points at 33-13 with 12:00 left in the half after a layup by Holloway.
 
Alabama A&M cut the lead to 15 points at 39-24 with 8:11 left in the first half following a pair of free throws by Randall. Samford then went on a 9-2 run to push its lead to 48-26 with 6:28 to go in the half after a three-point play by Marshall. Samford held a 64-45 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
Early in the second half, Alabama A&M cut the Samford lead to 13 points at 66-53 with 17:42 left after a layup by Caleb Blackwell. Samford pushed its lead back out to 22 points at 80-58 with 13:08 to go after a three-pointer by Marshall. With Samford leading, 80-60, the home Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run to make the score 89-62 with 9:32 left after a free throw by Riley Allenspach.
 
Samford extended its lead to 30 points at 93-63 with 8:27 to go after two free throws by Holloway. The home Bulldogs led by as many as 36 points down the stretch and Samford finished with the 118-91 victory.
 
Samford will play host to Belmont on Saturday, Dec. 16. The game is set for a 2 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.




 
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