BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – To open the final homestand of the 2022-23 season, the Samford women's basketball team welcomes the ETSU Buccaneers to the Pete Hanna Center on Thursday for the Bulldogs' annual Pink Out game to support the fight against breast cancer.
  
The Southern Conference contest between the Bulldogs and Buccaneers is scheduled for 6 pm CT and the game can be streamed on ESPN+. Samford game notes can be found here. 
 
Thursday's game will count in the Samford Superfan Sweepstakes. Students who check in will earn 15 points toward the personal and group sweepstakes.
  
Samford returns to Birmingham with a 13-11 overall and a 7-2 march in SoCon play following the North Carolina sweep of UNCG and Western Carolina. ETSU enters the game with 4-4 league while being 17-4 overall.
  
The Bulldogs and Buccaneers are meeting for the 20th time in series history. Samford leads the all-time series 11-8. The Bulldogs have won the last two meetings and five of the last seven meetings. The last time the two squads met, Andrea Bailey scored 25 points to help Samford secure a 4-0 start to SoCon play on Jan. 14, 2023 in 68-58 game in Johnson City.
 
Sussy Ngulefac is playing her best basketball of the season after averaging 20 points per game against UNCG and WCU en route to being named SoCon Player of the Week on Tuesday. The Sophomore center scored a career-high 22 points in the 75-68 win at UNCG.
 
The Samford starting lineup has experienced a youth movement since the start of SoCon play with freshman Masyn Marchbanks and redshirt freshman Carly Heidger claiming starting roles. Since being named the starter, Marchbanks is averaging 16.7 points per game, while Heidger is averaging 15.7 over her first three starts.
 
Before being named to the starting lineup against Wofford, redshirt freshman Carly Heidger was the most impactful Bulldog off the bench this season appearing in in all but one game. Since the start of conference play, the forward is Samford's third-lead­ing scocer averaging 11.2 points per game with 4.7 rebounds. In her first career start, Heidger scored 23 points against Wofford, which which is the most by a freshman in the Kuhns era.
 
Bailey is once again playing at a SoCon Player of the Year level Bailey is averaging 18.1 points per game, which ranks first in the SoCon and 37th nationally. The second closest leading in the SoCon is averaging 15.9 points. The senior also ranks Top 30 nationally in field goal attempts (27th/345), steals (6th/73) and steals per game (9th/3.17).
 
Entering the ETSU game, Samford is 11-3 on the year when the Bulldogs score at least 65 points.
  
Since arriving on campus before the 2019-20 season, coach Kuhns and the Bulldogs are 35-15 in SoCon play overall and 18-4 against SoCon opponents at home. Samford has only lost back-to-back home SoCon games under Kuhns twice. Feb. 6/8, 2020 (Furman/Wofford) and Jan. 10/20, 2022 (ETSU/Wofford).
 
Samford is 3-1 on the season when sinking 10+ threes in a game. The only loss came to Wofford when the Bulldogs hit 11 threes in the defeat.
 
In the 2022 edition of the Pink Out game, Samford down Western Carolina by a score of 64-51.
 
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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).