Asheville, N.C. – The Furman women's basketball team was eliminated from the Ingles Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship presented by General Shale on Friday morning with a 75-45 defeat to the top-seeded Samford Bulldogs from the Harrah's Cherokee Center.

Furman drops to 19-12 on the season while Samford improves to 17-14 overall.

Tierra Hodges led the Paladins offensively with 12 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-12 shooting from the field. Celena Taborn was 3-of-5 shooting overall, and 3-for-4 at the charity stripe, for nine points. Le'Jzae Davidson compiled six points while Milica Manojlovic also had six points to go with five assists.

Paige Serup led all players with 19 points for the Bulldogs and was joined in double figures by Charity Brown (12), Sarah Myers (11) and Natalie Armstrong (10). Brown also recorded a team-high six rebounds. Raven Omar contributed eight points and six assists.

Manojlovic gave Furman an early 3-0 lead over Samford, knocking down a 3-pointer just under 45 seconds into the contest. The Bulldogs responded with a 10-2 run and held a 10-5 lead, but Hodges came back with a fast break layup at the 5:00 mark and cut the Paladins' deficit down to 10-7. After Furman trimmed the lead to four points twice, Samford closed out the first quarter scoring the final four points to lead 17-9.

The Paladins got as close as six points twice in the second quarter beginning on a layup by Hodges with 9:42 remaining to put the score at 17-11. The Bulldogs extended their lead out to 26-15 with 5:28 left, only to see Furman come back with five straight points to trail 26-20 with 2:34 to go after a pair of free throws by Lindsey Taylor. Samford outscored the Paladins 6-2 over the final 2:19 of the half to lead 33-22 at intermission.

Furman got to within nine points twice during the first two minutes of the second half, the last coming at 35-26 with 8:40 left on Taborn's layup. The Paladins would not get any closer the remainder of the contest as the Bulldogs posted a 50.0 percent shooting mark from the field and behind the 3-point line in the third quarter. Samford built out its lead to 18 points, 52-34, heading to the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs continued their shooting into the fourth quarter, going 8-of-10 (80.0 percent) from the field and making all four of their 3-point attempts. Samford outscored Furman 23-11 in the final period to put the final score at 75-45.

The Paladins concluded the game shooting 34.9 percent (15-of-43) from the field and 80.0 percent (12-for-15) at the free throw line. Furman led 7-5 in second chance points.

The Paladins posted their second consecutive 19-win season in 2019-20, giving them six in program history and third under head coach Jackie Carson.

Furman also had two 1,000-point scorers this season in Taborn and Taylor Petty. Petty finishes with 1,124 career points and Davidson 1,753. Davidson is the program's all-time leader in 3-pointers made and ranks third in scoring.