SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Chevez Goodwin record his third double-double of the season and Isaiah Bigelow scored 14 second-half points as Wofford defeated Samford 80-56 at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on Saturday night.
Goodwin, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, went 8-for-13 from the floor, as Isaiah Bigelow, (14), Messiah Jones (13) and Nathan Hoover (11) all reached double-figures in the win. As a team, Wofford shot 49.2 percent from the floor, holding Samford to just 36.8 percent shooting from the field and 22.7 percent shooting from 3-point range. The Terriers, who dished out 15 assists, also fared well on the boards, grabbing 37 rebounds to Samford's 28 while holding Josh Sharkey to 14 points with seven turnovers.
"I think the guys are buying into that," Wofford head coach Jay McAuley said of the mindset to rebound and play good defense. "It's a blueprint that was set before we got here and we have to continue to get sharper at it, but I think we are off to a pretty good start. Containing Sharkey and a couple of their guys is not an easy thing to do, and our guys did a good job of that tonight."
Wofford moves to 15-8 for the season and 7-3 in conference play after the win, while Samford drops to 8-16 and 2-8 in the SoCon. Wofford will hit the road for its next matchup, traveling to Lexington for a matchup with VMI on Wednesday.
The Terriers moved the ball right out of the gate, with four different players scoring as Wofford went into the first media timeout ahead 14-12. The Terriers scored the next 10 points to double up the Bulldogs, pushing the lead to 16 after Ryan Larson created a steal that led to an alley-oop from Storm Murphy to Goodwin.
"Ryan is the anchor of our defense," McAuley said. "It looked like his feet were on fire in the first two minutes of the game guarding Sharkey, and I thought that set the tone for us. How many deflections and steals he got that led to breaks? People don't understand how important that is and I'm glad he's on our team."
Larson would continue to make plays, finding Hoover in the corner for a three, followed up by a trey from Murphy moments later that made the score 38-19. Goodwin would cap off the half in emphatic fashion, sending home another tip-slam to make the score 40-23 and go into the break with a dozen points.
"Chevez is one of the hardest workers we've had in a while," McAuley said. "He's always buying into the weight room. He's always getting extra shots. They are out there playing really hard and the success is a byproduct of all the work they are putting in."
Goodwin led off the second just as he ended the first, getting a feed from Hoover and slamming it home just before the shot clock expired. Samford tried to cut into the lead, scoring the next five but a Hoover 3-pointer and bucket from Jones pushed the lead back to 15.
Bigelow, who tied his career-high of eight rebounds, got in the groove early in the second, converting a three-point play, knocking down a trey and scoring a pair of layups ad Wofford took firm control 58-33. From here, Wofford would salt the game away, with Bigelow scoring the last bucket of the game to finish with 14 points.
"I've gotten more comfortable in my role," Bigelow said. "I'm finding my teammates and getting others involved. Samford is a team that always plays us tough, but we took it four minutes at a time and it led us to victory tonight."
