GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNCG women's basketball returns to the court Saturday afternoon with a road matchup against the Samford Bulldogs at Pete Hanna Arena. The Spartans fell at Mercer 80-57 on Thursday night that snapped a two-game Southern Conference winning streak.

UNCG enters the game with an 8-12, 2-3 record in a tie for fourth-place in the SoCon standings. Samford is 9-10, 1-3 at seventh place.

Live stats and a video stream will be available for Saturday's game. Live stats are available via uncgstats.com. The video stream will be aired on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.

UNCG played Mercer tough on Thursday for a majority of the game. The Spartans opened the game on an 11-0 run and were tied at halftime 30-30. Aneka Yelverton (Suffolk, Va./Naval Academy Preparatory) gave UNCG a 46-42 on a layup late in the third quarter, but Mercer outscored UNCG 38-11 to end the game.

Ije Ajemba's (Lanham, Md./Old Dominion) early presence played a big factor in the Spartans battling the first-place Bears in the first half. Ajemba extended her school record for double-doubles to 11 with 11 points and 20 rebounds, just one shy of her school-record set last Thursday against Wofford. 17 of her boards and nine points came in the first half.

Te'ja Twitty (Rutherfordton, N.C./Rutherfordton-Spindale Central) was the only other Spartan to score in double-digits as she also had 11 points. Alexus Willey (Waldorf, Md./Riverdale Baptist) produced nine points, and Mangela Ngandjui (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) and Aneka Yelverton (Suffolk, Va./Naval Academy Preparatory) both contributed seven points off the bench.

This is the 20th meeting all-time between UNCG and Samford with the Bulldogs owning a 13-6 advantage. After three-straight seasons of losses to the Bulldogs, the Spartans swept the season-series for the first time ever with a 64-40 win at home and a 55-47 road victory.

The Spartans are the top rebounding team in the SoCon, out-rebounding their opponents by an average of 4.6 per game. Second chance opportunities have been a been a big part of UNCG's games as the Spartans outscore opponents by 98 points on the season.

Nadine Soliman (Cairo, Egypt/Mokattam Language School) leads the Spartan offense with a 12.9 points per game average and is shooting 38.7% from the floor. Ajemba is second on the team (12.0 ppg) and leads the SoCon and ranks sixth nationally with 12.7 rebounds per game. Nationally Ajemba ranks 18th with 4.0 offensive rebounds per game, seventh with 9.0 defensive rebounds per game and second with 254 total total rebounds.

Willey adds 10.3 points per game and has been UNCG's biggest threat from three-point range. She has hit 30 three's on the year and is second on the team with 16 blocks. Twitty averages 8.9 ppg to go with 5.8 rebounds per contest.

Brandi Fier (South Beloit, Ill./Illinois Central) and Alexis Pitchford (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park) have traded time at the point guard position. Fier leads the team with 69 assists in 18 games. Pitchford adds 41 assists and grabs 1.2 rebounds per game.

Samford has won eight of 10 games in Pete Hanna Center. The only home losses have come to Mercer (73-59) last Saturday and Colorado (71-60) in the season-opener on Nov. 10. The Bulldogs dropped their first two SoCon games on the road to Furman (45-41) and Wofford (58-46).

Samford ranks in the SoCon second in assists (14.6 assists per game) and third in assist/turnover ratio (0.9). Averaging 6.1 made three's per game, they rank second in the category by making 30.1% of their attempts. The Bulldogs are the worst in several categories on the offensive glass( offensive rebounds per game (7.2) and offensive rebounding percentage (20.6%)) to rank last in rebounding margin (-6.2), but are fourth in defensive rebounds per game (25.6) and third in defensive rebound percentage (69.1%).

Preseason all-conference selection senior guard Hannah Nichols has lived up to the billing as one of the top players in the league. She ranks in the league third in rebounding (7.2 rebounds per game), defensive rebounds (6.5 defensive rebounds per game), and blocks (1.2 blocks per game), fifth in three-point percentage (34.0%) and three's made (1.9 three's per game), sixth in scoring (14.4 ppg), 11th in free throw percentage (73.4%) and 14th in field goal percentage (42.4%). Sophomore guard Charity Brown is 15th in the nation in assists (6.4 assists per game) and ranks in the conference second in assist/turnover ratio (1.9) and fifth in steals (1.6 steals per game). Redshirt-sophomore forward Olivia Crozier is the only other Bulldog to average double-digits in scoring (10.3 ppg) and ranks in the league third in field goal percentage (56.3%).

-- UNCG --