CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Samford men's basketball team started the second half of Southern Conference play today on the road at The Citadel. Samford completed the season sweep as they came away with an 83-58 win. The victory moves the Bulldog's record to 18-5 overall and 8-2 in SoCon play while The Citadel falls to 5-16.

The Samford Bulldogs jumped all over their hosts early on, getting out to a 10-2 lead with their pressure defense that forced two ten-second counts in the opening minutes. Offensively, the Dogs were efficient from the floor going 17-of-28 overall and 10-of-20 from deep as they feasted from behind the line in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Seven different players scored in the first half for Samford, led by Collin Holloway and Trey Fort. Holloway got going immediately as he scored 11 of his 14 points in the half while Fort scored all of his team-high 17 points in the first half as he was just needed for 17 minutes in the game.

Defensively, the Dogs held The Citadel to 37 percent shooting from the floor but the home side did shoot the ball well from deep early on as well, making 7-of-18 attempts. Samford's hot shooting didn't leave many rebound opportunities for The Citadel, but Samford controlled the boards 20-10 in the half and 37-24 for the game. The two sides went into the locker room with Samford leading 47-29.

The scoring slowed slightly for Samford in the second half as they cooled down from three but still managed to shoot 56 percent overall from the field in the half and finished over 58 percent for the game, tying their highest mark of the season. 

Riley Allenspach was a force in the second half as he dominated with his size and touch around the rim, scoring 11 of his 15 points. The Bulldog's best perimeter defender Isaiah West was able to get his offensive game going today as he cracked double-figures for the first time this season as he was 4-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-3 from deep. Josh Holloway provided his normal offensive spark off the bench as he finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Lukas Walls wasn't able to get into the scoring column off the bench, taking just one shot, but he did lead the team with six rebounds and five assists.

"I thought we played really well," said head coach Bucky McMillan. "We shared the ball well, had 20 assists, and got the tempo up and down. Everyone played hard and was locked in. Proud of the group and it's got to continue."

The Bulldogs return home to host a tough Mercer team on Wednesday at the Pete Hanna Center. Samford came out on top 75-74 when the two sides met in Macon earlier this year as the Dogs won on a late free throw. Mercer sits at 11-11 on the year with a game against Chattanooga today.



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