ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Achor Achor had 25 points and nine rebounds, Jermaine Marshall scored 23 and top-seeded Samford beat seventh-seeded East Tennessee State 76-69 to win the Southern Conference tournament championship on Monday. night and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Samford coach Bucky McMillan, who had never coached above the high school level, has the Bulldogs dancing four years after taking over the 321st-ranked program. Samford will make its first trip to the Big Dance since 2000 and only third overall.
The Bulldogs (29-5) extended the school's winning record by beating the Buccaneers (19-16), who were playing in the title game for the 13th time. ETSU was trying to advance to the NCAA tournament for the ninth time, winning four games in four days.
Achor had a three-point play and a dunk as Samford took an 11-2 lead. ETSU missed 4 of 5 shots and turned the ball over three times to fall behind.
There were seven lead changes and seven ties at halftime. Achor scored 17 points, Marshall scored 11 and Samford held on to a 40-38 lead. ETSU was fouled 16 times, Samford committed 12 and that led to 38 free throws in the first 20 minutes. The Bulldogs scored 13 of 21, while the Bucs scored 11 of 17. Only five Samford players scored, while ETSU scored nine players, led by Ebby Asamoah's nine.
Jaden Campbell hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Samford took its first three-possession lead since its opening run of the game, 52-43 with 15:30 left. The Buccaneers got within a point twice, the second time at 65-64 on a jumper by Asamoah with 6:23 left. Rylan Jones answered with a layup and Achor made two free throws to increase the Bulldogs' lead to five.
Allen Strothers made the second of two free throws with 5:12 left to pull the Buccaneers within 69-65. Neither team scored until Marshall's layup at the 2:22 mark increased Samford's lead to six.
Asamoah finished with 18 points for ETSU. He finished 3 of 11 from beyond the arc, setting a new tournament mark with 17 three-pointers. Quimari Peterson scored 17.
Brooks Savage is one of five Bucs coaches who led the team to the tournament title game in his first season.
Samford was playing for the SoCon title for the first time since joining the conference in 2008.
