BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team dropped a 55-39 decision to SoCon-leading Chattanooga Thursday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
In the loss, Samford shot just 22.8 percent from the floor and 15.8 percent from three-point range.
 
"It's tough to win games when the ball doesn't go in the hole," Samford head coach Carley Kuhns said. "We're throwing different people out there, searching for anything, searching for the ball to go into the basket. I thought we did a really good job of limiting them defensively. Our kids executed the game plan for the most part, they got a couple of easy looks here and there, but we held their best players to limited shots. We've just got to see the ball go in the hole."
 
The game was Samford's Pink Game, sponsored by Zeta Sorority, raising money for the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Foundation. The game was played in front of 723 fans.
 
"I thought we had an awesome crowd," Kuhns said. "We were repping breast cancer awareness today. This game was bigger than just a basketball game. So, I just want to thank the Zeta Sorority for coming out and sponsoring us on that."
 
With the loss, Samford fell to 11-12 overall and 3-5 in Southern Conference play. Chattanooga improved to 20-3 overall and 8-0 in league action.
 
Samford was led in the loss by Kennedy Langham with 12 points. Carly Heidger scored eight points for Samford. Emily Bowman grabbed 15 rebounds to go along with her six points.
 
For Chattanooga, Raven Thompson had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Jada Guinn had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Mocs.
 
Samford took an early 4-3 lead with 8:15 to go in the first quarter following a layup by Bowman. Chattanooga answered with a 10-0 run to take a 13-4 lead at the 2:54 mark in the first period after a layup by Thomspon. The Mocs held a 13-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
Chattanooga opened the second quarter with a 12-3 run to push its lead to 25-9 with 4:36 left in the period after a three-pointer by Karsen Murphy. Samford fought back to cut the lead to 11 points at 25-14 late the quarter, and Chattanooga took a 27-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford cut the lead back to 11 points at 30-19 with 5:44 to go in the third quarter after two Heidger free throws. Chattanooga scored the next seven points to push its lead to 37-19 with 44 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Mocs held a 37-21 lead at the end of the third quarter.
 
In the fourth quarter, Chattanooga led by 21 points at 47-26 with 4:56 left in the game after a layup by Thompson. Samford fought back to cut the lead to 13 points at 49-36, but the Bulldogs could get no closer as Chattanooga came away with the 55-39 win.
 
Samford will play host to ETSU Saturday afternoon. The game is set for a 2 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.




 
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