Box Score (.pdf)

SPARTANBURG, S.C.- The Wofford women’s basketball team was defeated by Samford on Thursday night in a tightly contested matchup that went down to the wire. In the end, the Bulldogs upended the Terriers by a 67-62 margin to improve their season record to 6-2, 1-1 while the Terriers fall to 1-5, and 0-1 in the Southern Conference.

Wofford took its only lead of the first half right out of the gate on a layup by Kathlyn Varno. After the Varno bucket, the Terriers would fall behind by as many as six but continued to hang around with the Bulldogs. Trailing by 6, 20-14, Kelly Dwyer pulled the Terriers within three on a long three pointer from just left of the top of the key with less than ten to play in the opening period. Following a made free throw by Mahagony Williams, Natalie Gramblin leveled the score at 20 with a layup from the right baseline.

Samford would then go on a five point run to extend the lead back out to five. However, Wofford scored the next eight of eleven points to pull even with the Bulldogs at 28 going into the halftime break. The Terriers shot lights out from the floor in the opening half shooting 50 percent while its defense held the Bulldogs to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor. In the mean time, Samford evened the playing field by shooting 50 percent from behind the arc to keep pace with the Terriers. Kate Dempsey led the Terriers in the half with eight points and seven rebounds.

Wofford took control of the paint early on in the second half while Dempsey continued her stellar play. Williams started the scoring for the Terriers with back-to-back buckets to give the Terriers their first lead since the 18:10 mark in the first half. Samford did not back away however and scored 11 of the next 13 points to take a 40-34 lead with 14 minutes left to play. The Terriers continued to battle and evened the score at 422 on a Dwyer basket and retook the lead on another bucket in the paint by Dempsey.

The Terriers would continue to lead by as many as three until the latter stages of the half. Samford tied the score at 57 with 3:29 left to play and followed it up with their ninth made three pointer of the game to take a three point lead. The Bulldogs then made a pair of free throws to extend the lead out to five. A Maddie Helms triple cut the lead to two for the Terriers but the Solid free throw shooting by Samford down the stretch wrapped up the win.

Wofford had its best shooting night of the season shooting 49.1 percent from the field. However, the Terriers only shot 25 percent behind the arc and 63.6 percent from the charity stripe. Samford on the night shot 32.8 percent from the floor, 36 percent from three and 75 percent from the foul line; including going 16-20 in the second half and six of seven inside the last two minutes of the game.

Dempsey paced the Terriers having a career night on the glass with 13 rebounds, which passes her previous career high of 11, to go along with 11 points for her first double-double of the season. Williams led Wofford in scoring with 13 points while freshman April Moorehouse also reached double figures for the terriers tallying 11 points as did Dwyer with ten.

Samford was led by Savannah Hill who had a game high 23 points and Emily London who totaled 18. London also led the team in rebounding with five.

Wofford returns to action on Saturday at 1 p.m. as they travel to take on the Fordham Rams in Bronx, N.Y.