GAME NOTES -- SAMFORD vs. The Citadel (PDF)

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - The Samford men's basketball team hits the road in Southern Conference play for the first time this season as they face the Catamounts on Saturday at 2 p.m. Samford enters the contest with an 11-3 record and a 1-0 mark in league play while Western Carolina sits at 4-8 and 0-1 in SoCon play.

The Samford Bulldogs started Southern Conference play with an 86-56 victory over The Citadel on Jan. 1. This game marks the 34th all-time meeting between the Bulldogs and the Catamounts with Samford winning the last seven meetings. 

Trey Fort has been on a roll offensively, leading the team in scoring in the past two games, and now leads the team in scoring at 15 ppg. The Bulldogs were on fire from deep, knocking down 18 three-pointers in their win over The Citadel. At 12.1 three-pointers made per game, the Dogs are ranked third in the nation. Samford is fourth in the nation in offense, scoring 88.8 points per game. Josh Holloway made his first career start against The Citadel.

Defensively, Samford is coming off one of their best performances of the season holding a DI opponent to the second-fewest amount of points this season. The Dogs continue to apply the full-court press, forcing 17.64 turnovers per game which is third-best in the country. Point guard Rylan Jones runs the show for the Bulldogs and is top-15 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.5. Samford is coming off a 21-assist game and shares the ball as well as any team in the nation, averaging 19 assists per game which is 9th in the nation. Collin Holloway is 20 points away from reaching the 1,000 career point mark.

Western Carolina enters the game with a 4-8 record on the season and is 0-1 in SoCon play.  The Catamounts fell at home to Furman 90-61 in their last game on Jan. 1.  Western Carolina hasn't defeated Samford since the 2019-2020 season. Head coach Tim Craft is in his first season with the Catamounts after spending 11 seasons as the head coach at Gardner-Webb.  They were picked 8th out of 10 teams in the Southern Conference Preseason Poll and have three players scoring in double-figures, led by Bernard Pelote who scored 11.4 points per game.

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