Spartanburg, SC – The Wofford women's basketball team was unable to start conference play with a win as they fell to Samford, 74-58. The loss brings Wofford's record to 7-9 (0-1) and Samford moves to 6-10 (1-0).

It was a tough 1^st quarter for the Terriers as they would be down early due to a Bulldogs 10-2 run. Lilly Hatton scored Wofford's first points followed by a Chloe Wanink jump shot. Wofford would go cold for the next three minutes, but Lawren Cook found herself open twice in the paint and made two easy layups. Cook then made a pair of free-throws to end the quarter with Samford leading 23-11.

The 2^nd quarter had very little offense for the first four minutes until Jamari McDavid put up a layup after an offensive rebound from Hatton. Samford responded with a 9-0 run as they extended their already sizable lead. After an Alexis Tomlin free-throw and a Wanink running jumper, Lawren Cook was found once again in the paint as Tomlin set her up perfectly. Cook added a free-throw to end the quarter as Wofford trailed at halftime, 32-19.

The Terriers started to chip away as they made the deficit 10 after McDavid and Wanink combined for five straight points. Da'Ja Green also made two out of three free-throws to make the score 36-26, however, Samford would go on another 9-0 run and force Wofford into a timeout. Alea Harris came off the bench to convert a contested layup, and Jamari McDavid scored six points in the final 2:39 of the quarter, but Wofford still trailed 56-39.

Wofford knew they had to be aggressive in the 4^th quarter and try to turn the ship around. Lilly Hatton made a good jumper from outside the paint, and Chloe Wanink was sent to the line after three offensive rebounds from Jamari McDavid. McDavid made her way to the stripe and sank both free-throws as that put Wofford within 13 with 5:06 to go. McDavid scored four more as she was the driving force behind the offense in the 4^th quarter, but the Terriers were unable to climb the mountain that was put in front of them early in the game and lost 74-58.

Jamari McDavid led the Terriers with 17 points, was a perfect 5-5 from the free-throw line, and collected seven rebounds. Chloe Wanink added 16 points, Lilly Hatton had a team-high nine rebounds, and Cairo Booker had a game-high three steals.

"We knew they (Samford) were going to make it tough on us and we went down early in the 1^st quarter. I think we uncharacteristically started to panic and took some quick shots and at the end of the day, we just didn't shoot well", said Coach Garrity. "It's hard to beat good teams when you only shoot 29%, but we have another opportunity to play on Saturday and I expect us to learn from this and have a quick memory for Mercer."