The Blue Hose led by as much as 10 points in the first half but could not withstand a furious second half rally by the Bulldogs, as Samford earned the 71-59 win over the Presbyterian College men's basketball team in action tonight at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Ala.
The Blue Hose, who are back in action at Marshall Jan. 5 in a 2 p.m., contest, fall to 4-10, while the Bulldogs improve to 6-9 on the season.
Reggie Dillard led the team with a career-high 23 points, followed by Jordan Downing with his 18. Downing and William Truss paced the Blue Hose on the boards with six rebounds apiece.
After shooting 60.0% in the first half, PC was just 29.6% in the second to finish with 42.6%. The Blue Hose were eight-of-20 from the perimeter and 11-of-13 from the charity stripe. PC held the rebounding edge 27-26, but had five more turnovers, 13-8.
Leading Samford with a career-high 31 points and seven rebounds was Time Williams, followed by Connor Miller with his 11 points. The Bulldogs shot 57.1% for the game and were13-of-17 from the charity stripe.
The Bulldogs outscored the Blue Hose, 37-22, in the second half to erase the three-point halftime deficit.
Points in the paint played a tremendous role in the game with Samford holding the 46-16 advantage.
PC never trailed in the first half and held a 10-point led on several occasions, including 20-10 off an Austin Anderson three-pointer at 11:34.
A basket by Dillard, who led the Blue Hose in the first stanza with 15 points, made it 27-17 with 7:54 to go before the Samford offense began clicking. A 13-3 run by the Bulldogs, highlighted by 10 points from Williams, knotted the game at 30-30, with just over three minutes before intermission.
The Blue Hose scored five unanswered to go up by five, 35-30, with under a minute remaining. Both teams traded baskets as PC headed into the locker room with the 37-34 lead.
Samford scored the first seven points to open the second half en route to a 9-2 run that saw the Bulldogs take their first lead of the game, 43-39, with 15:38 remaining.
PC answered with a 7-2 run to retake the 46-45 lead off a Downing three-pointer at 13:52. Both teams traded baskets and the lead six times over the next two minutes with Samford using a 5-0 run to finally extend the lead past one at 54-50 with 10:39 to go.
The Bulldogs took their largest lead of the game to that point, 59-53, with 9:33 to go in the game, with Dillard's basket at 7:58 cutting the margin back to four.
Samford made it a 10-point game, 69-59, at 1:56 with a three-pointer by Miller, and connected on its free throws down the stretch to take the 71-59 come-from-behind win.
