BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – In its best defensive performance of
the 2012-13 campaign, the Samford University basketball team ground out
a 40-33 home victory against the Wofford Terriers on Thursday in a key
Southern Conference cross-divisional contest held at the Pete Hanna
Center.
"I really loved the way we played tonight on one end of the court," said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer.
"I enjoyed the way our guys played defensively and I thought they
really played well in that aspect of the game. Wofford is a very good
team and this was a big win for us."
Samford (9-17, 7-6 SoCon) limited Wofford (10-17, 4-10 SoCon) to
a season-low 27.1-percent shooting performance from the field Thursday,
and a similarly-dismal 13.3-percent outing from 3-point range.
Including the Bulldogs' game at Chattanooga on Monday, Samford's
perimeter defense has held its opponents to 10.3 percent (3-of-29)
shooting from beyond the arc.
Despite trailing 11-2 early in the first half, the Bulldogs' defense
stepped up throughout the period and Samford took a 17-16 advantage into
the locker room.
Raijon Kelly,
the Bulldogs' All-SoCon Freshman Team member from a year ago, paced his
squad offensively in the first half and scored all eight of his points
in the opening 20 minutes of play. Samford only shot 31.8 percent from
the field in the first period, but held Wofford to a 26.1-percent
outing.
The Terriers' Lee Skinner scored a team-high 10 points Thursday and
finished the first-half with eight. Wofford's Karl Cochran entered the
night averaging 15.3 points per game, but tallied eight points against
Samford. Spencer Collins finished 2-of-15 from the field for five points
Thursday after coming into the contest scoring 13.1 points per outing.
"Wofford has two very good players that can really score the
basketball," said Seltzer. "Tonight, we held (Karl) Cochran to eight
points and (Spencer) Collins to five, and both of those guys came into
the game averaging double figures. So, to hold those guys under their
averages was a really good job by our team."
Samford's 40 points scored was its lowest total of the season.
Defensively, the Bulldogs also held Wofford to its lowest scoring output
of the 2012-13 campaign. Samford's previous low was a 42-point
performance at Bowling Green, while the Terriers' was a 37-point outing
at UNC-Wilmington on Nov. 24.
The Bulldogs opened the second half with a momentous 7-0 run to extend
their one-point halftime lead to 23-16 at the 16:32 mark in the period.
Wofford later trimmed Samford's advantage to 26-24 with 10:57 left in
the half before Tim Williams
drained a pair of free throws and Clide Geffrard, Jr., nailed a key
3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a seven-point lead with 9:41 remaining.
"Clide hit a couple of 3-pointers for us that were big, especially the
one from the right corner where the pass was low and hit him on his
feet," Seltzer said. "He was still able to catch the ball and knock down
the shot as the clock was running down and Tim got fouled and made a
couple of really big free throws late as well."
Geffrard, Jr., Samford's explosive true freshman from Pompano Beach,
Fla., scored a game-high 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field
and knocked down a trio of 3-point baskets. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-5
forward also pulled down five rebounds and went 4-of-5 from the
free-throw line.
Down the stretch, Wofford wasn't able to cut Samford's lead to anything less than six points as the Bulldogs' Brandon Hayman, Geffrard, Jr., and Tyler Hood all scored crucial buckets in the final minutes of play.
Hayman, Samford's 6-foot-3 athletic sophomore from Braselton, Ga., came
off the bench to tally five points, three steals, two rebounds and a
pair of blocked shots Thursday, while Hood added four points in a foul
trouble-plagued 19 minutes of action.
"Brandon made some really nice hustle plays for us at the end of the
game," said Seltzer. "Even with those performances, it wasn't just one
person or thing that helped us to win this game. There were points when
we were only up five or only up six and you never feel confident about
those situations. I never felt like we had the game won until there were
seven seconds left on the clock."
Williams, the Bulldogs' true freshman forward from Chicago, Ill.,
finished with six points, a game-high eight rebounds, two assists and a
pair of steals Thursday, but failed to reach double digits in scoring
for only the second time this season. Williams and Kelly are both
averaging 14.2 points per game in 2012-13, but Samford's freshman has
outscored the Bulldog sophomore by one point so far this season, 370 to
369, respectively.
"I thought that this was a big win for us because we were able to
overcome a bad start," Seltzer said. "Our guys followed the game plan
and followed the scouting report, and when you do that, you have a good
chance to win."
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday
at 3 p.m. as the Bulldogs travel to Greenville, S.C., for another
important cross-divisional contest versus the Furman Paladins.
Saturday's game will be held at Furman's Timmons Arena (3,000).
Source: www.samfordsports.com
