BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford men's basketball team closed out its historic regular season with a 92-80 win over The Citadel Saturday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford now has a record of 26-5 overall and 15-3 in Southern Conference play. The 26 overall wins are the most in a single season in Samford basketball history. Samford will be the No. 1 seed for next week's SoCon Tournament. The Bulldogs will open play in the event next Saturday, March 9 at 11 a.m. (CT) against either Mercer or The Citadel in Asheville, N.C. The Citadel now has a record of 11-20 overall and 3-15 in league play.
 
"I thought Citadel played really hard," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "You can see why they are dangerous. We needed this game, with Achor having been out, Jaden having been out. Achor hasn't really gotten to practice at all, Jermaine's kind of been in and out of practice. This was really good for us to get a rhythm. You could tell we were out of rhythm in the first half. I thought about the 14-minute mark of the second half we found that rhythm offensively."
 
Achor Achor led Samford in scoring with 21 points. Nathan Johnson tallied 18 points, while Dallas Graziani and Lukas Walls finished with 11 points each.
 
"The story of our team all year long has been different guys stepping up, over and over," McMillan said. "When you have depth, you're not married to one guy to do it and great things happen. It was Dallas Graziani in the first half, I thought he played one of his best games. And then Nathan Johnson, on Senior Day, maybe played one of his best games."
 
For The Citadel, Quintin Millora-Brown had 16 points and 11 rebounds. A.J. Smith scored 15 points for The Citadel, while Colby McAllister had 14 points, Madison Durr had 13 points and Elijah Morgan added 10 points.
 
Samford jumped out to an early 13-4 lead with 13:39 to go in the first half following a layup by Rylan Jones. The Citadel fought back to cut the lead to three points at 13-10 with 11:31 left in the first half after a layup by Marcus Pigram. The Citadel tied the game at 17-17 with 9:03 remaining in the first half after a free throw by Smith.
 
Samford extended its lead back to seven points at 28-21 with 6:54 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Johnson. The Citadel closed to within two points late in the first half at 37-35 with 2:40 left before halftime after a three-pointer by Morgan. Samford held a 39-37 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford pushed its lead out to 11 points at 53-42 with 15:46 to go after a layup by Achor. The Citadel answered with a 10-1 run to cut the lead to two points at 54-52 with 12:42 remaining after a free throw by McAllister. The Citadel tied the game at 57-57 with 11:00 to go after a layup by Smith.
 
With the game tied at 59-59, Samford went on an 18-4 run to take a 77-63 lead with 4:38 to play after a jumper by Johnson. Samford extended its lead to 16 points at 82-66 with 3:25 to go after a layup by Achor. The Citadel could get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way as Samford came away with the 92-80 win.




 
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