Chattanooga beats Samford, heads to SoCon quarterfinals

Mar 3, 2018, 03:08 am

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Makinde London scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and tenth-seeded Chattanooga beat seventh-seeded Samford 89-79 in Friday night's opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament to snap a five-game skid.

David Jean-Baptiste and Rodney Chatman scored 18 points apiece and James Lewis Jr. added 14 points for the Mocs (4-15), who face No. 2 seed ETSU on Saturday.

Trailing 39-35 at halftime, Samford rallied to a 66-65 lead on Kevion Nolan's layup, but London's go-ahead 3 sparked a 12-4 run and the Mocs led 77-70 on Makale Foreman's 3 with 5:06 to go. Samford closed to within three points three times before Jean-Baptiste's 3 sparked an 8-0 run to close the scoring.

Demetrius Denzel-Dyson scored 20 points, Justin Coleman added 19 with a career-high 15 assists, Eric Adams had 14 points with 10 rebounds, and Alex Thompson scored 12 for the Bulldogs (6-13).