BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women's basketball team used a strong second half to pull away for a 61-50 win over Alabama A&M Friday night in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
"I'm very pleased with this win," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "Alabama A&M is a very good team, they were prepared and they played hard. I was pleased with the way our team responded, defensively, halfway through the first half, and then how we responded from an offensive standpoint in the second half to separate. We needed a few shots to go in and when that happened we were able to create some separation."
 
Samford was led in the game by Hannah Nichols with 13 points. Taylor Reece scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds. Kassidy Blevins added 11 points for the Bulldogs in the win. Destiney Elliott scored eight points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds for Samford.
 
"I was very pleased with how Hannah and Kassidy responded after not giving us too much in the first game," Morris said. "They played well and did a lot of good things, and Taylor played well and did her normal stuff, which is very important."
 
For Alabama A&M, Brittney Strickland led the way with 24 points. Brooke Dixon scored 10 points in the loss for the Lady Bulldogs.
 
In the first half, Alabama A&M jumped out to an early lead at 10-5 with 14:26 left in the half after a layup by Dixon. Samford fought back to cut the lead to one point at 14-13 with 9:02 remaining in the first half following a layup by Elliott.
 
Samford took its first lead of the game at 18-16 with 5:31 left before halftime on a layup by Reece. Alabama A&M scored the next six points to take a 22-18 lead with 34 seconds left in the first half after a jumper by Taylor Sippial. Blevins then hit a three-pointer for Samford with 11 seconds left to cut the Alabama A&M lead to 22-21 heading into halftime.
 
Samford took the lead again on the first possession of the second half, taking a 24-22 lead on a three-pointer by Krista Stricklin with 19:43 left in the game. With Samford leading, 29-28, the Bulldogs went on a 10-0 run to push their lead to 11 points at 39-28 with 9:56 left in the game after a layup by Reece.
 
Samford pushed its lead out to as much as 15 points at 50-35 with 6:50 to go following a three-point play by Amara Mayers. Alabama A&M then went on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to eight points at 52-44 with 4:34 left after a three-pointer by Strickland. Samford pushed the lead back out to 12 at 56-44 with 2:44 left after a jumper by Reece. Alabama A&M could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way as Samford came away with the 61-50 win.
 
As a team, Samford shot 44.2 percent from the floor, compared to 38.8 percent for Alabama A&M. Samford made 42.9 percent of its three-pointers, while Alabama A&M shot just 10.0 percent from beyond the arc. Samford won the rebounding battle over Alabama A&M, 35-29.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 1-1 on the young season. Alabama A&M drops to 0-3 with the loss.
 
Samford will return to action on Monday, Nov. 24, when the Bulldogs play host to North Florida. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.