ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Samford men's basketball team reached the Southern Conference Tournament championship game for the first time since joining the league in 2008 with an 84-77 win over Furman in the semifinal round Sunday afternoon at Harrah's Cherokee Center.
 
"We're elated, but now it is time to focus our efforts on recovering and getting ready for this next game," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "We told our team before the game, we wanted to be a calm team. I thought our guys played calm, even when we got down. I'm very proud of them. It's time to recover, it's time to gear up for the championship game."
 
Samford will now take on the winner of tonight's second semifinal game between Chattanooga and ETSU in Monday evening's championship game, set for a 6 p.m. (CT) start on ESPN. The is the first time Samford men's basketball has appeared in the championship game of a conference tournament since the Bulldogs reached the finals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in 2006. Samford now has a record of 28-5 on the season. The 28 wins are the most in program history. Furman ends its season with a record of 17-16.
 
Samford was led in the win by Achor Achor with 28 points and 14 rebounds. The 14 rebounds tied Achor's career high. Jaden Campbell scored 14 points for the Bulldogs, while Rylan Jones had 11 points and six assists.
 
For Furman, J.P. Pegues led the way with 22 points and five assists. Carter Whitt tallied 20 points, while Marcus Foster contributed 12 points for the Paladins.
 
Furman raced out to an 8-0 lead with 18:21 to go in the first half following a layup by Foster. Samford then scored the next seven points to cut the lead to one point at 8-7 with 16:47 left in the half after a layup by Achor. The Paladins pushed their lead to seven points at 18-11 with 13:07 to go in the opening half after a layup by Alex Williams.
 
Furman led by nine points at 23-14 at the 10:44 mark in the first half after a layup by Ben Vanderwal. The Bulldogs fought back to cut the lead to two points at 27-25 with 6:28 to go in the first half after a free throw by Josh Holloway. Samford took the lead for the first time in the game at 30-28 on a three-pointer by Holloway with 3:24 left before halftime. Samford held a 34-28 lead going into halftime, with the Bulldogs having closed the half with a 9-0 run.
 
Samford pushed its lead to 11 points at 43-32 with 17:06 to go after a three-pointer by Campbell. The Bulldogs pushed the lead to 14 points at 53-39 with 12:08 left following a three-pointer by Jones. Furman fought back to cut the lead to eight points at 53-45 with 10:21 to go after a free throw by Vanderwal.
 
The Bulldogs pushed their lead out to 16 points at 66-50 with 5:40 to go following a dunk by Achor. Furman cut the lead to eight points at 76-68 with 1:26 to go on a jumper by Whitt. The Paladins closed to within five points at 82-77 with 38 seconds to go, but the Paladins could get no closer as Samford came away with the 84-77 win.




 
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