Samford suffered consecutive road defeats last week, opening the door at the top of the Southern Conference men's basketball standings for other teams to catch the Bulldogs. But when Samford returned to the friendly confines of Pete Hanna Center for Saturday's game against East Tennessee State, the team seemingly had things moving in the right direction again.
The hosts dominated the first half, opening up a double-digit lead less than 10 minutes into the game, and held off any rally from ETSU before finishing off the 73-62 victory. The win pushed the Bulldogs back to a tie for first in the SoCon standings.
Samford (16-9, 10-2) scored the game's first eight points and quickly followed it up with a 14-0 run to push the lead to 19 points with just over eight minutes to go in the first half. ETSU trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half but it had the deficit back to just eight points after scoring the first points of the second half.
But the Bulldogs had another response, using an 18-3 run to build the largest lead of the day at 24 points with 10 minutes to go in the game. Samford only made one more field goal for the remainder of the game but made 11 free throws during that stretch to hold off the Buccaneers.
Samford shot just 38.2 percent from the floor, its lowest mark during a win this season. The hosts also made just 5-of-20 shots from beyond the arc, its second lowest number of made 3-pointers this season. The Bulldogs finished 26-33 from the free throw line, including making 15-of-17 during the second half.
AJ Staton-McCray led all players with 16 points to go with six rebounds and five steals. Bubba Parham and Jermaine Marshall each contributed 10 points. All nine Samford players scored at least four points in the game.
Logan Dye, Samford's leading scorer this season, was held without a made field goal for the first time this season but he still finished with eight points, all coming from the stripe.
Samford finished with 25 points off 19 ETSU turnovers.
Saturday marked Samford's seventh consecutive win at home. The Bulldogs will hit the road Wednesday to play Mercer before returning home for the following two games.