By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
FAIRFAX, Va. – The Samford Bulldogs fought hard down the stretch, but an early hole and familiar problems were too much to overcome as Bucky McMillan’s squad saw its first trip to the NIT end early.
Samford fell 86-69 to the George Mason Patriots on Wednesday, March 19 at EagleBank Arena, ending the Bulldogs’ 22-11 campaign after a rollercoaster ride of a season.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the opening minutes as they traded deep shots to begin. Samford’s 6-4 lead got negated by two George Mason 3-pointers in just over a minute to put the Patriots up 10-6. That proved to be the last time the Bulldogs led in the game.
While Riley Allenspach cut the deficit to one just before the first media timeout, George Mason capitalized on a string of Samford turnovers to go on a 7-0 run and lead 17-9.
Trey Fort and Lukas Wells helped the Bulldogs continue to fight and cut the deficit to five with 10:34 left in the half, but the Patriots retook control from there.
A 3-pointer just before the under-8 media timeout gave George Mason a double-digit lead for the first time in the game, and in the span of three minutes, the lead ballooned to 40-17 with four minutes left in the half.
Allenspach and Collin Holloway would each make a pair of free throws down the stretch to go with a deep ball from Walls. That cut the deficit to 18 before KD Johnson’s layup with 12 seconds to go gave the Patriots a 45-24 lead at the break.
The 3-point battle resumed to start the second half as Brownell made a pair of triples in the first seven minutes of the half. The second one helped the Bulldogs get back within 20, but a put-back layup followed by a turnover and a fast-break layup from George Mason forced a timeout from McMillan.
Brownell remained hot from deep even after the timeout. He took advantage of offensive rebounds to drain 3-pointers and even scored eight-straight points for Samford to keep pace with the Patriots offense.
With the Bulldogs still training by 22, they made one final stand with nine minutes to go.
Building off Brownell’s momentum, Samford hit four 3-pointers over a two-minute span, including a pair from Brownell and big shots from Walls and Julian Brown.
That run forced a timeout from George Mason before Brownell cut the deficit to 13 with 6:07 remaining off his sixth 3-pointer of the second half. Samford hung within 13 for most of the next two minutes as the Bulldogs defense limited the Patriots’ impact on the offensive end.
However, that was as close as they could get to the lead in the final minutes. After the final media timeout, George Mason went on an 11-3 run to put away any chance of a Samford comeback and advance to the second round of the NIT, ending the Bulldogs’ run in the process.
Much of Samford’s misfortune came from the same problems that plagued it throughout SoCon play. The Bulldogs gave up 18 turnovers, including 12 in the first half, and surrendered 24 points off those giveaways and 16 fast-break points.
Despite an improved shooting performance in the second half, including a 40 percent clip from deep in the final 20 minutes, Samford shot just 33 percent from the field in the first half and 25 percent on 3-pointers.
In the end, the Bulldogs just matched the 40 percent field goal rate that McMillan repeatedly said the team needs to be above to succeed.
Despite that, Samford still had multiple positives to take away from the game, none bigger than the Sandy, Utah nativeBrownell.
The junior forward finished with 27 points and seven rebounds off 6-for-10 shooting from deep. Walls joined him in double figures with 10 points, and big shots from Holloway and Brown gave them each nine points on the night.
Elsewhere, Trey Fort came down with nine rebounds to go with his five points as he regularly attacked the glass, and in the final game of his six-year college career, Rylan Jones finished with eight assists despite not getting on the scoreboard.
The Bulldogs’ 2024-25 season is now over after a No. 4 seed in the SoCon Tournament and a quarterfinal exit led to the first-round loss in the NIT, but the year still remained filled of positive moments for Bulldogs fans to look back on.
A blazing start to non-conference play saw Samford go toe-to-toe with Michigan State and Cornell on the road and take dramatic wins over quality teams like North Alabama and Utah Valley.
SoCon play led to more heroics against Chattanooga, Mercer and Wofford as well as the unforgettable scene of thousands packing the Pete Hanna Center in January against ETSU.
While there will be many lessons to take from the 2024-25 campaign and likely some faces coming and going due to graduates and transfers, McMillan and the Bulldogs have set a new standard in the last three seasons that they will now strive to achieve once again this coming November.
This article was written by Andrew Simonson. Follow his work on X and Instagram @andrewtsimonson.