BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team earned its first Southern Conference win of the season in a 77-62 victory over Furman Thursday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"Man, I thought this team showed up to play from the jump, on both ends of the floor," Samford head coach Carley Kuhns said. "I thought our defense fueled our offense. I thought we were active getting deflections, buying into our game plan and it really set the tone for us. When we play that way, with energy, usually our offense follows, and it did. We made shots and it becomes contagious, and it becomes really fun basketball."
 
With the win, Samford improved its season record to 6-14 overall and 1-3 in Southern Conference play. Furman fell to 11-9 overall and 1-3 in league action.
 
"I'm really proud of this team," Kuhns said. "Obviously, we've gotten off to kind of a slow start in conference play, opening up with three on the road, but we've played well and we're continuing to play better. That's our goal, we want to continue to get better over conference play and learn from our mistakes. We start two freshmen and two sophomore, we're going to have some growing pains, and we want to be playing our best basketball towards the end of the February."
 
Samford was led in the win by sophomore Kennedy Langham with 16 points. Redshirt freshman Aubrey Blankenship had 15 points and six rebounds. Freshman Claire Johnson followed with 14 points for the Bulldogs.
 
For Furman, Tate Walters led the way with 21 points. Jada Session had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Clare Coyle added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Paladins.
 
Samford jumped out to an early 8-3 lead after a layup by Blankenship with 8:03 to go in the first quarter. The Bulldogs stretched their lead to eight points at 13-5 with 5:27 left in the opening period following another Blankenship layup. Samford extended its lead to 19-10, but Furman closed the lead to 21-16 at the end of the first quarter.
 
Samford opened the second quarter with a 13-0 run to push the lead to 18 points at 34-16 with 4:29 to go in the period after a three-pointer by Langham. Furman answered with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 34-24 with 2:18 left in the second quarter after a layup by Session. Samford scored the final six points of the second quarter to push its lead to 40-24 heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
In the third quarter, Samford pushed its lead to 19 points at 50-31 with 4:12 to go in the quarter following a three-pointer by Johnson. The lead got to 25 points at 64-39 after a three-point play by Langham with 34 seconds to go in the third period. Samford held a 64-41 lead at the end of the third quarter.
 
In the fourth quarter, Furman closed to within 18 points at 64-46 with 8:12 to go after a three-point play by Coyle. Samford scored the next five points to push the lead back out to 23 at 69-46 with 7:24 to play after a layup by Johnson. Furman fought back to cut the lead to 13 points at 75-62 late, but the Paladins could get no closer as Samford closed out the 77-62 win.
 
Samford will remain at home to play host to the Wofford Terriers on Saturday, Jan. 25. The game is set for a 2 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.




 
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