ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Tierra Hodges scored a career high 17 points and claimed 13 rebounds to power Furman  past Samford, 67-52, in Southern Conference Tournament opening round action Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Cellular Center.

With the victory, Furman (18-12, 9-5 SoCon), the tournament's No. 2 seed, advances into the semifinals, where it will face Chattanooga on Friday at 1:15 p.m.

The loss ends the season for Samford (10-20, 5-9 SoCon), the tournament's No. 7 seed.

Hodges, a redshirt sophomore forward, connected on 8-of-11 shots and her only free throw attempt for her 17 points, and combined three offensive rebounds with 10 defensive caroms for her game high 13 rebounds in just 24 minutes of play.  In three games against Samford this season, the Covington, Ga., product tallied 38 points and 37 rebounbs.  She missed seven games in December and January with a foot injury.

"That's the scariest 7 vs. 2 matchup a coach could face," said Paladin mentor Jackie Carson, now in her ninth season at her alma mater.  "To be able to get out of this gym with a win against Samford, especially after the feeling we had last year (59-58 first round loss to Samford, is great.

I've very proud of Tierra.  She gave us the spark along with Jarya Outten, who came him to help get us where we needed to be in the second quarter.  We're glad to survive."

After sweeping Samford in dominating fashion in the two regular season meetings, most recently a 74-41 triumph in Birmingham last Saturday in its regular season finale, Furman fell behind early to the Bulldogs, who found the mark on 6-of-11 first quarter 3-point attempts to bolt to a 20-10 lead.

It didn't last for Samford, however, as Furman, fashioned a 16-3 run over the first seven minutes of the second quarter to take its first lead, 26-25, on a pair of Taylor Petty free throws at the 3:00 mark.

Hodges' 3-point play with 1:48 remaining in the first half put Furman ahead of good, 30-27, and the redshirt sophomore capped her seven-point, six-rebound effort in the second period with a jump shot with 23 seconds on the clock to send the Paladins into the locker room with a 32-29 lead.

Furman took command in the third quarter, limiting Samford to just five points and outscoring the Bulldogs 14-1 over the final six minutes to go up, 52-34.  Back-to-back 3-pointers by freshman guard Jade Kirisome highlighted the stretch, which Hodges completed with a stickback following a Le'Jzae Davidson miss in the final second of the period.

Samford battled back to twice trim Furman's lead to seven points in the fourth quarter, using a Natalie Armstrong 3-pointer to make it 59-52 with 2:25 remaining, but Furman closed out the contest at the free throw line with a 8-0 run.

Davidson joined Hodges in double figures with 15 points.

Furman finished the game shooting 40.7 percent from the field (22-of-54), including 7-of-15 from 3-point range.

The Paladins also outrebounded the Bulldogs, 38-26, giving them a combined +42 advantage on the glass in the three meetings this season.

Samford drained 7-of-14 shots over the first period but made just 13 of their final 37 shots to finish at 39.2 percent for the game.

Hunter Reid, Sports Information