Samford men’s basketball suffered consecutive defeats within the span of four days.
In the first contest, the Bulldogs traveled to Macon, Georgia, to face off against the Mercer Bears.
Mercer guard Jeff Gary netted a career-high 32 points as Mercer rolled past the Bulldogs by a score of 106-66. The final score marked the eighth time the Bulldogs were defeated by at least 15 points in SoCon play this season.
Samford guard Josh Sharkey had 17 points and six assists for the Bulldogs (9-21 overall, 3-13 SoCon) in the loss. Forward Jalen Dupree chipped in with 17 points and 11 rebounds while forward Robert Allen tallied 15 points.
The Bulldogs fell to Mercer in both contests this season, as Mercer previously defeated Samford 90-75 on Jan. 18.
On Saturday, Samford hosted the Buccaneers of East Tennessee State.
East Tennessee State’s Tray Boyd III scored 18 points that included a clutch 3-point basket to help the Buccaneers hold off Samford by a score of 80-74 for its seventh straight win.
Samford pulled within three points late in the contest on a Sharkey 3-pointer with 56.3 seconds left before Boyd’s corner 3-point shot made it 78-72 with 14.1 seconds left to play.
Allen led Samford in scoring, totaling 25 points and adding five blocks for the Bulldogs.
Sharkey added 20 points and nine assists, while Dupree added 12 points.
Similar to Mercer, the Buccaneers improved to 2-0 against the Bulldogs for the season, as they defeated Samford 88-63 on Jan. 15.
With the set of losses, the Bulldogs sit in eighth place in the Southern Conference, tied with VMI and ahead of only The Citadel.
Samford will travel to face Western Carolina on the road on Wednesday evening.
The game is currently set to tip-off at 6 p.m. CST and can be streamed on ESPN3.
Gunnar Sadowey is the sports editor for the Crimson. He is a senior from Elkhart, IN. Gunnar is currently a journalism and mass communications major with a print concentration and a German minor.
