Samford Leaves No Doubt, Crushes Chattanooga
Fresh off needing a near buzzer beater to finish off Wofford, one could wonder how this team would respond. Well this is how. Samford goes on the road to Chattanooga to dominate the red-hot Mocs 78-56. That is officially a winning streak.
Also to add to the excitement, Jermaine Marshall made his long-awaited return who excelled in his eight minutes played. Marshall finished with eight points along with two rebounds as he eases his way back into this team.
Jaden Campbell led the way for the Bulldogs scoring 16 points and was instrumental on the offensive end extending Samford’s first half lead. The Mocs had no answer for Campbell one-on-one in the first half. Achor Achor found his groove back finishing with 12 points and six rebounds. Achor had 10 points in his last two games combined.
Garrett Hicks has been playing his best basketball of the season as of late. He has been great on the defensive end but his scoring has been a big boost. Hicks finished with 11 points and was perfect from the floor.
In our most recent story, Bucky Ball: By the Numbers (SoCon Play), we highlighted the two weaknesses with Samford so far, rebounding and defending the three-point line. After the win against Wofford, Samford head coach Bucky McMillan challenged his team on the defensive end. He was not happy at all with the effort and made it known in speaking to the media. Well today they answered the bell. Today the Bulldogs out-rebounded the Mocs 42-24. Samford also limited Chattanooga to shooting just 24% from behind the three–point line.
Samford held Chattanooga guard Trey Bonham to 1-7 shooting from three. Bonham came into tonight shooting 49.2% from deep and had 22 points Wednesday night at Western Carolina.
Chattanooga shot 35.2% from the floor and could not get things going offensively. Samford, on the other hand, finished shooting 50.9% from the floor. Chattanooga had a big win at Western Carolina (who has lost five of their last six). They have been playing their best basketball riding a five-game winning streak before today.
Other than the 12 turnovers, today was pretty much a perfect day. The weekend could be even better if Furman beats UNCG tomorrow afternoon. Today also could have been a let down. As previously mentioned, Chattanooga was playing their best as of late. Samford made sure that was not the case, jumping out to a 10-2 early lead. The Bulldogs never looked back after that and that is a great sign, especially on the road.
Jermaine Marshall’s return is a dangerous sign for the rest of the Southern Conference. The energy and the competitive nature he brings to this team is unmatched. Once he gets back up to speed, everybody look out.
Samford starts off this round two of conference play with a convincing road win. Enjoy this one and let us all do it again when Samford travels to UNCG on Thursday night.
