It has been a historic week for Samford basketball. Both the men’s and women’s teams are making the push towards March, with the men in pole position in the SoCon, while the Lady Bulldogs are looking to find some momentum after an up-and-down season.
Samford men’s basketball’s week began on Wednesday, Feb. 21, where they stole a win from the rival Furman Paladins in a 74-72 thriller. The Bulldogs trailed by five points with 45 seconds left, yet found a way to win in one of the more memorable games played in the Pete Hanna Center. Down 72-67, Jaden Campbell hit a clutch three to get the lead down to two. Jermaine Marshall then completely took over the game, stealing the inbounds pass and making two free throws to tie the game. After J.P. Pegues, who had 33 points in a losing effort, missed a three with eight seconds left, Marshall snagged the rebound and went 94 feet for a layup to win the game. With all of the discussion around court stormings this past week, it was surprising to see the Samford faithful not rush the court after a tremendous home win.
Marshall’s 15 points in the game put him over the 1,000 career point mark. Head Coach Bucky McMillan gave all credit to his players after the thrilling victory.
“We won this game for one reason and one reason only, because of how competitive our players are,” McMillan said. “Most importantly, the most competitive player I’ve ever coached (Marshall) said not today.”
The Bulldogs following game, an 87-71 home victory over ETSU, was arguably more impactful for the program. The win sealed an outright regular-season SoCon title, clinching the 1-seed in the SoCon Tournament for the first time in program history. This is the team’s second-straight SoCon title.
“What an accomplishment for our guys, for our program and for all of the people associated with the program, to win the SoCon this year and be the one seed going into the tournament,” McMillan said postgame. “To be able to go back-to-back and bring home two SoCon championships, the first two Samford has had in back-to-back seasons, I’m so excited for our university and all of the people, not just our players and coaches, but everybody associated with the university and our fans, I’m so happy for them.”
Jaden Campbell had a career-high 28 points in the win. The Bulldogs played in front of the second-largest home crowd in Samford basketball history, with 4,523 fans in attendance. The team sits at 25-4 headed into their Wednesday night matchup at Wofford.
On the women’s side, the Lady Bulldogs have won three in a row after Saturday’s win over Furman. The team is still near the bottom in the SoCon standings, but three straight wins has the team poised for a run in March. Emily Bowman has been a key player for the Bulldogs this season, and her performance on Saturday broke two records and tied a third one. Bowman had 19 rebounds and seven blocks in a dominant defensive performance. The 19 rebounds are a school single-game record, and she tied the single-game blocks record. With 72 blocks on the year, Bowman is the single-season record holder in that statistic.
“Just an unbelievable stat line for Emily,” women’s head coach Carley Kuhns said. “To set two school records and tie a third in one game is pretty awesome.”
The ladies will next play at Mercer on Saturday, March 2, concluding their regular season. Both the men’s and women’s programs are looking to end their March Madness droughts, with the men’s SoCon Tournament tipping off on March 8th and the women’s tournament beginning a day earlier.
Sports Editor
