In a tight contest for most of the game the Presbyterian College men's basketball could not withstand a barrage of three-pointers by the Bulldogs as Samford came away with the 81-71 win over the Blue Hose in non-conference action Tuesday night at Templeton Center. Samford hit 14 of its 28 baskets from long range in the 10-point win.
PC drops to 4-7 overall, and heads on the road for its next game as it takes on UT-Martin Saturday, Dec. 20, in a 4 p.m., game. Samford improves to 4-8.
William Truss led the PC effort with 18 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double in as many game. Two players hit career marks with Ed Drew recording a career-high 13 points and Jaron Withers adding a best 10 points. Austin Anderson also finished with 10 points.
Tyler Hood, who was six-of-nine in three-pointers, led Samford with 22 points. Christen Cunningham and Brandon Roberts each had 11 points, while Darius Jones-Gibsonhad 10. Hood paced the team on the boards as well with five.
The Blue Hose shot 46.3% for the game, compared to 48.3% for Samford. PC out-rebounded the Bulldogs, 36-31, but had seven more turnovers, 12-5. The Blue Hose connected on 18-of-24 free throws, while Samford hit 11-of-18.
Down by three in a tight first half, 19-16 with 13:44 remaining, the Blue Hose used a three-pointer by Withers, the first of his career, to ignite a 13-4 run over the next nine and a half minutes, capped by a Downing three, to take a six-point, 29-23 lead with just over four to play.
Samford responded by outscoring the Blue Hose 10-5 to end the half. Seven of those points came from Roberts, who it out with back to back three pointers to cut PC's lead to just one, 34-33, at intermission.
The Bulldogs carried their momentum from the end of the first half to early in the second, using a 12-4 run, off three three-pointers, to coming from Hood, to take a nine-point, 46-37 lead with 15:50 to go. PC began to claw back with six unanswered over the next five and a half minutes, to cut the Samford lead to three, 48-45, with just 11:28 left.
Samford's scoring drought ended with a Michael Bradley basket at 10:54, while three-pointer by Marcus Johnson at 9:53 made it an eight point game again, 55-47.
Trailing by nine again with 8:33 to go, Truss slammed down an impressive dunk, while Anderson added a basket and free throw to help PC cut the margin to four, 57-53, with 7:35 remaining. It wouldn't last long as Roberts hit Samford's 13th three-pointer of the night to make it an eight-point game again, 63-55, 6:48 on the clock. Withers answered 25 seconds later with his second three of the nigh and PC found itself down by just five.
The Bulldogs used back to back baskets to quickly take back the nine point lead, 67-58, extending the lead to 10 until a Truss and Anderson lay-up put PC back to within single digits, 69-63, 4:14 to go.
Over the next couple of minutes PC was able to cut the lead to six or seven but Samford used timely baskets to keep the Blue Hose at bay, extending its lead to 11, before settling on the 81-71 win.
