GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG men's basketball team continues its regular season ending three-game home stretch Thursday night as the Spartans host Samford in a pivotal Southern Conference contest. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum. The game will be streamed in full HD for free on the SoCon Digital Network while also being broadcast on 1320 WCOG AM with Jack Condon and Darryl Kosciak providing the call.
The Spartans enter the final two games of the regular season with their Southern Conference Tournament seeding up in the air. UNCG can be seeded anywhere from No. 6-10 depending on the outcome of games this week. The Spartans will not know their seeding until after all games are played Saturday as UNCG is the final game on the docket with a 5 p.m. start Saturday.
If UNCG wins against Samford, it only eliminates the 10th seed from consideration, as seeds 6-9 would still be in play. If UNCG loses to Samford, seeds 6 and 7 would be eliminated from the conversation, as the Spartans would only qualify for seeds 8-10. The 2015 SoCon Tournament will be played in Asheville at the U.S. Cellular Center ... The top six teams will receive a bye into the quarterfinals Saturday, March 7 while seeds 7-10 will play in the first round Friday, March 6.
Thursday's game marks the 15th meeting all-time between UNCG and Samford, dating back to January 23, 1992. The Spartans are 5-9 all-time against the Bulldogs having dropped three straight games in the series but all three of those losses have come in Birmingham. The last time UNCG hosted the Bulldogs was Jan. 24, 2013 when it posted a 66-64 victory as Trevis Simpson scored 30 points. The Spartans' last three losses to Samford have come in 2013 (75-71), 2014 (88-78) and earlier this year with a 89-78 loss to the Bulldogs.
In that game, the Spartans finished the night shooting 51.8 percent (29-of-56) from the field and 40 percent (8-of-20) from long range in the loss. UNCG committed 16 turnovers against the Samford pressure, which the Bulldogs turned into 22 points off of turnovers. Samford finished the night shooting 52.5 percent (31-of-59) from the field and 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from long range while connecting on 21-of-25 (84%) from the free throw line.
Junior forward Kayel Locke (Baltimore, Md./McDonogh) led three Spartans in double figures scoring. Locke scored a team-high 19 points in 30 minutes as he was 8-of-12 from the field and 3-of-5 from the free throw line. Sophomore guard Tevon Saddler (Aberdeen, Md./St. Frances Academy) returned to the lineup after missing the last two games and finished with 18 points and six rebounds, despite fouling out after 26 minutes. Saddler scored 14 of his points in the first 11 minutes of the game, finishing 6-of-8 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line.
Darius Jones-Gibson led five Bulldogs in double figures in the victory with a game-high 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. Marcus Johnson added 18 points off the bench while Tyler Hood chipped in 15 points and Michael Bradley posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Saddler leads the team in scoring at 13.9 points per game while grabbing 4.6 rebounds per game. Saddler leads the team with 107 assists, which ranks fourth in the SoCon. Saddler has scored in double figures 19 times this year. Locke is second on the team in scoring at 12.7 points per game while ranking second on the team with 5.4 rebounds per game. Locke is shooting 46.7 percent (142-of-304) from the field this year and has gone to the free throw line 127 times, hitting 63 percent from the charity stripe.
Redshirt sophomore center R.J. White (Frisco, Texas/Frisco) is third on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game. White leads the team and ranks third in the SoCon on the glass grabbing 6.9 rebounds per game. He is fourth in the league shooting from the field at 55.6 percent (134-of-241) and has hit 39.5 percent (17-of-43) from 3-point land.
Senior guard Nicholas Paulos (Salt Lake City, Utah/New Hampton School) rounds out the Spartans in double figures scoring at 10.9 points per game while adding 4.0 rebounds per game. Paulos enters Thursday's game just six points shy of becoming the 21st player in UNCG basketball history to score 1,000 points as he has 994 points in his career. He is third in the league with 82 3-pointers made and is also third in 3-point percentage at 42.5 percent from distance. Sophomore guard Diante Baldwin (Greensboro, N.C./High Point Christian) adds 9.7 points per game, 4.4 rebounds and has dished out 78 assists.
Samford enters Thursday's game with a 12-17 overall record and a 5-11 mark in Southern Conference play. The Bulldogs opened lead play with eight straight losses before rolling off five straight wins but Samford has lost three straight entering Thursday's game. The Bulldogs are 2-5 in league play on the road and 3-10 on the road all year long with their victories coming at Presbyterian, Western Carolina and East Tennessee State. Samford is averaging 68.7 points per game and allowing 71.4 points per game. The Bulldogs use full court pressure and have forced 419 turnovers on the year and have posted 216 steals.
Jones-Gibson leads the Bulldogs in scoring at 12.3 points per game and leads the team with 40 steals. He is shooting 49 percent (118-of-241) from the field and has gone to the free throw line a SoCon high 184 times, hitting 63 percent. Hood is second on the team in scoring at 10.7 points per game but has hit a team-high 61 3-pointers, connecting on 39.1 percent.
Christen Cunningham is third on the team in scoring at 9.6 points per game while leading the team with 117 assists. Cunningham is shooting 93-of-118 (78.8%) from the free throw line. Bradley leads the team on the glass with 5.6 rebounds per game while adding 6.4 points per game.
-UNCG-
