ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The Samford men's basketball opened Southern Conference Tournament play tonight against Furman. The Bulldogs hung around with the hot-shooting Paladins before Furman went on a late run to pull away as the Dogs fell 95-78. Samford's season ends with a 22-10 record, the second-highest win mark in program history behind last season's 29-win team.

The Bulldogs went back and forth with Furman in the opening half as the two sides played an even opening 20 minutes. After a four-minute scoring drought, the Paladins got the lead up to as much as 11 behind hot shooting from three but the Bulldogs worked their way back into the game in the final eight minutes of the half. Eight different Bulldogs hit the 13 field goals scored by Samford in the half, led by Josh Holloway who scored 10 in the half highlighted by a personal 6-0 run in 10 seconds. 

Samford hit one more field goal in the first half, but what would be a theme throughout the night, Furman dominated the game from three and the free-throw line. The Bulldogs did well to trail by just two, 38-36 at the half after a strong Furman opening.

If you thought Furman's 7-of-14 shooting from three in the first half was impressive, they took it up a notch in the second half as they went 10-of-15. "I don't think we played that poorly tonight," said head coach Bucky McMillan. "Furman would have beaten anyone in the league tonight and it was just their night. They shot nearly 60 percent from three for the game and in spots where I thought our guys played pretty good defense at times so have to give them credit."

Despite Furman's 70 percent shooting in the second half, the Dogs were able to hang around with the Paladins. The Bulldogs would go down by five or seven points and claw back to tie the game on multiple occasions in the second half but could just never quite get over the hump as they never led on the night.

Jaden Brownell scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half while Trey Fort scored seven of his 11 points. Josh Holloway finished with a team-high 21 points, two off his career-high he scored in the previous game at UNCG. In his final game as a Bulldog, Rylan Jones finished with an efficient eight points while adding a game-high nine assists. 

Samford shot 49 percent in the second half but was just 3-of-10 from deep, minus 21 compared to Furman's shooting. The Paladins finish off the season sweep of the Bulldogs as they narrowly won by two points in Greenville before winning by eight later in the year at Samford. 



FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS
For the latest news and information on Samford men's basketball, visit the official website for Samford Athletics at SamfordSports.com. Fans can also follow the Bulldogs on social media at /SamfordSports (Facebook), @SamfordMBB (Twitter), and @SamfordMBB (Instagram).