The Paladins tipped off against the Samford Bulldogs on Jan. 25, being the first team in the Southern Conference to defeat the Bulldogs in the 2022-2023 college basketball season. Prior to the match, the Samford Bulldogs enjoyed an 8-0 record and faced off against Furman who entered Timmons Arena with a 6-2 record.
The match started extremely slow for both teams, with two minutes and 20 seconds elapsing before Furman scored first with a successful lay-up made by Jalen Slawson. The two teams continued the exchange, with numerous points via successful three-pointers and lay-ups in succession. Samford players accumulated several fouls during the first half, which would come back to haunt them. As the two teams entered the second half, the threat of being fouled out of the game would loom over numerous Samford starters for the remainder of the game. The first half ended roughly even with the Paladins leading by 38-34 over the Bulldogs.
Samford started the second half with momentum completely on their side, scoring 11 unanswered points, but that streak was broken with a clean three-point shot made by Alex Williams. Throughout the second half, Slawson, Williams, Mike Bothwell, JP Pegues and Marcus Foster would all contribute heavily to the scoreboard to even out the game. In the last few minutes, Samford steadily held a slight lead of 76-73, and with thirty seconds to go, every Paladin fan in Timmons Arena was on their feet. With 17.4 seconds left in the game, Jalen Slawson threw a successful three-pointer that the Bulldogs were unable to respond to and took the game into overtime. The fouls that Samford racked up throughout the game now finally took consequence as two of Samford’s starter players would receive their fifth foul and be benched for the remainder of the game in the first two minutes of overtime play. The five minutes added to the clock for overtime play resulted in the Dins outscoring the Bulldogs 15-8, handing the Paladins the win of 91-84 and the Bulldogs their first SoCon loss of the season thus snapping their winning streak of eight.
