BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford men's basketball team opened up Southern Conference play tonight as they hosted The Citadel at the Pete Hanna Center. Samford led wire-to-wire in root to an 86-56 victory to take their record to 11-3 overall and 1-0 in SoCon play on the season while the visiting Bulldogs drop to 5-7.

Once again the Samford offense was led by Trey Fort early on in a game. The senior guard from Mississippi hit on his first five shots of the night as he came out aggressive and scored the team's first 14 points. Eight different players scored in the half, including nine from Rylan Jones, for the Dogs as they led by as much as 19 in the opening 20 minutes. Tonight was one of the better defensive performances of the season for Samford as they limited the visitors to under 40 percent shooting on the night, forced 17 turnovers, and held them below 30 in each half. Samford cooled off from the floor in the final five minutes of the opening half but still led 41-27 at the break. 

Samford quickly put behind them the cold stretch before the half, as they knocked down four quick shots from deep in a three-minute period out of the locker room. The Bulldogs went on to make 10-of-18 threes in the second half and 18 total on the night as they built up their second-half margin. 

After scoring just two points in the first half, Jaden Brownell scored 11 in the second, doing the majority of his work in the paint tonight. Fort and Jones continued to headline the scoring effort for the Dogs as they finished with 19 and 18 points respectively. Collin Holloway did a little bit of everything for Samford tonight as he scored just five points but added nine rebounds and six assists. 

The Bulldogs continue to share the ball well, being one of the top assist teams in the nation, as they assisted on 21 of their 29 makes tonight. Zion Wilburn and Julian Brown each added seven points off the bench while Brody Boyer came in and knocked down two triples as Samford's bench outscored The Citadel's 27-19.

"I think we improved over the break with some really good practices," said head coach Bucky McMillan. "We did a good job in transition defense and guarding our man one-on-one so we weren't in rotations all night and giving up threes. I was really pleased and I feel like that performance will translate in the league."

The Bulldogs outmatched their conference visitors tonight, but the defense was the difference for Samford as they held The Citadel to the second-lowest amount of points for a DI opponent this season.

Samford hits the road in SoCon play for the first time this weekend as they take on Western Carolina on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Catamounts are 4-8 on the season and coming off a 90-61 defeat to Furman in their conference opener today.

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