ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The Samford men's basketball team went into postseason play today as they faced Furman in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament. The Bulldogs came up short 86-81 as their season came to an end at the hands of the Paladins for the second-straight year. Samford finishes with an 18-14 record after entering as the No. 3 seed in the tournament.

The Bulldogs and the Paladins met for the third time this season, with Furman winning the previous two games narrowly, by a combined nine points. The two sides played a stellar first 20 minutes of play, with high-level shot-making. Furman shot 8-of-12 from three in the opening half and 55 percent from the field. Samford answered by hitting six threes on 50 percent shooting from deep and was 60 percent from the floor overall.

Jadin Booth led the way for the Bulldogs as he had 23 points in the first half, and set the Samford single-season mark for threes in a single season after he hit his 121st early in the game. Both teams traded buckets and leads, and with seven lead changes and three ties in the half, it was fitting that the teams went to the locker room deadlocked at 46.

The scoring cooled down in the second half, as both teams' shooting came back to earth. Furman was selling out to take away Booth in the second half, so Dylan Faulkner, Cade Norris, and Keaton Norris stepped up in the second 20 minutes. Faulkner finished with 12 points and nine boards while the Norris brothers each added 11 points. 

The difference in the game was the production that the Paladins got from their second unit, outscoring Samford's bench 48-6. Furman led by as many as ten in the second half, but the Bulldogs continued to battle down the stretch with both Norris brothers and Booth knocking down four threes late. Furman was good from the line late as Samford dug itself too big of a hole to overcome as they fell 86-81.

Samford finishes its season with an 18-14 mark under the first year of head coach Lennie Acuff. Samford returned just .9 points per game from last season's campaign and finished with two All-SoCon Players and the Player of the Year in Jadin Booth and Dylan Faulkner.

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