BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford men's basketball team earned its ninth-straight win in a thrilling 99-93 win over Belmont Saturday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
The nine-game win streak marks the longest for Samford since the 1998-99 team won 13-straight contests. Samford improved to 9-2 with the win. Belmont fell to 8-4 with the setback.
 
Samford had six players score in double figures in the win. A.J. Staton-McCray led the way with 19 points. Riley Allenspach had a career-high 15 points, followed by Achor Achor with 14 points, Rylan Jones with 13 points, Garrett Hicks with 12 points and Nathan Johnson with 11 points. Jermaine Marshall led the team with 12 rebounds.
 
"This was a good win by our guys," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "We've got a lot of good players, so anyone is capable of going in double figures any night. I'm proud of our guys, we played our way, got up and down, won our way and that's always fun to do."
 
For Belmont, Cade Tyson led all players with 31 points, to go along with nine rebounds. Ja'Kobi Gillespie scored 18 points for Belmont, while Keishawn Davidson had 13 points and Malik Dia added 11 points.
 
Belmont jumped out to an early 9-4 lead with 16:31 left in the first half after two free throws by Tyson. Samford answered with an 11-0 run to take a 15-9 lead with 13:18 to go in the half following a jumper by Hicks. Samford extended its lead to 10 points at 24-14 with 9:06 left in the first half following a dunk by Achor.
 
The Bulldogs led by 12 points at 32-20 with 6:49 left in the half after a three-pointer by Johnson. Belmont scored the next four points to close to within eight points at 32-24 with 5:16 to play in the half after a layup by Brigham Roberts. Samford led by as many as 12 points down the stretch in the first half and the Bulldogs took a 44-36 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford opened up a 15-point lead at 51-36 with 18:09 left in the game after a layup by Allenspach. Belmont scored the next five points to close to within 10 points at 51-41 with 17:02 to play. Samford then went on a 12-4 run to push its lead to 63-45 with 14:32 to play following a three-pointer by Johnson. Belmont then went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead back to 10 points at 63-53 with 13:17 left after a three-pointer by Tyson.
 
The Bulldogs pushed the lead back to 15 points at 81-66 with 6:44 to go after a turnaround jumper by Hicks. Belmont fought back to cut the lead to eight points at 84-76 with 4:34 left after two free throws by Tyson. Samford pushed the lead back out to 12 points at 93-81 with 2:13 left following a layup by Staton-McCray. Belmont then went on a 12-4 run to cut the lead to four points at 97-93 with 11 seconds left after a three-pointer by Davidson. Two late Samford free throws by Hicks made the final score 99-93.
 
Samford will go back on the road next. The Bulldogs will play at Valparaiso on Tuesday, Dec. 19. The game is set for a 1 p.m. (CT) start from Valparaiso, Ind.




 
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