BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Junior guard Lucy Mason (Stone Mountain, Ga./Chamblee Charter) scored a season-high 25 points but the UNCG women's basketball team fell on the road at Samford, 88-66, Monday night at the Pete Hanna Center.

The Spartans fall to 5-19 and are 0-9 in the SoCon. Samford continues its winning ways at home with a 10-1 record sitting at 13-11, 6-3 in league play.

In a physical game that saw a combined 43 fouls between the two teams, the Blue and Gold were able to hit 16-of-18 from the free throw line for a solid 89 percent. UNCG and Samford each grabbed 31 rebounds in the contest. 

UNCG finished the game shooting 24-of-58 from the field to shoot 41.4 percent. Samford shot 58 percent off 29-of-50 from the field and hit eight three-points against the Spartans.

Mason led the team with her fifth 20-plus scoring performance off 9-of-19 from the field, including a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. Mason had a spectacular second half pouring in 17 points en route to her second best performance in her career.

Sophomore Jade Scaife (Fort Washington, Md./Archbishop Spalding) added 12 points off 4-of-8 from the field and had four rebounds.

Hannah Nichols led the Bulldogs with 22 points (8-of-12) and Destiney Elliott chipped in with 15 points (5-of-8) in the victory.

In the first half, Samford used a strong run to open up a 20-point lead against UNCG 47-27 at intermission. Mason led the team in scoring with eight points and Scaife added six points. 

The Spartans took a 7-4 lead early on after a three-pointer from freshman Keli Foster (Hampton, Va./Bethel) with 17:12 left in the half.

Samford answered with a 11-6 run to take a 15-13 lead off a made free throw from Krista Stricklin with 11:40 remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs extended their lead to 26-17 after a made three-pointer from Taylor Reece with 7:36 on the clock. Samford would continue to push the pace taking a 16-point lead after a conventional three-point play from Destiney Elliottt to make the score 37-21.

In the final four minutes of the period, Samford outscored the Spartans 10-6 to build a 20-point halftime lead at 47-27.

In the second half, the Spartans made quick surge to cut the lead to 13-points after a 13-6 run capped by a Mason jumper to make the score 53-40 with 15:37 remaining in the game. Mason scored 10-straight points off jumpers and driving layups to spark the run.

The Bulldogs would respond with a 10-0 spurt to push the advantage back to 23 points at 63-40 off a jumper from Nichols at the 13:11 mark. Samford would push the lead to 29-points off a three-pointer from Krista Stricklin to make the score 74-47 with 9:44 left.

The Spartans would battled back to a 75-51 lead for Samford off a layup from Scaife with just over eight minutes left in the contest. With 3:47 left, junior Medena Bartley (Savannah, Ga./Beach) finished a layup in the paint to make the score 83-61 Samford. 

Each team would score five points down the stretch to make the final 88-66 in favor of Samford.

Freshman Keli Foster (Hampton, Va./Bethel) earned her first collegiate start of the season and scored three points in a career-high 23 minutes.

UNCG heads back out on the road to Chattanooga, Tenn. to face No. 21 Chattanooga Saturday, Feb. 14 at 3 p.m.