BIRMINGHAM, ALA.. -- Masyn Marchbanks scored a game high 22 points and Samford used a strong first quarter to grab control on the way to an 81-62 victory over Furman in Southern Conference women's basketball Thursday evening at the Pete Hanna Center.

With the win Samford (11-10, 5-1 SoCon) improved on its SoCon lead while Furman (9-12, 1-5 SoCon) suffered its third consecutive loss.

The Paladins, who were paced in scoring by Grace van Rij with 13 points and 12 each from Janay Outten and Jada Session, play at Mercer on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

Furman grabbed an early 7-0 lead before Samford responded by outscoring the Paladins 25-5 over the remainder of the first quarter to take a 25-12 lead.

The Bulldogs drained 7-of-16 3-pointers over the game's first 20 minutes to take a 44-25 advantage into halftime.

Marchbanks, a freshman guard, connected on 8-of-20 shots, including 4-of-4 free throws over 37 minutes of action to pace Samford, which shot 46.2 percent from the field (30x65).

Andrea Bailey followed with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Carly Heidger rounded out the Bulldogs' double figure scorers with 11 points.

The Paladins suffered 20 turnovers, which Samford converted into 28 points.

Furman used a 9-0 run to cut Samford's lead to 63-57 following a pair of van Rij free throws with 5:32 remaining, but the Bulldogs quickly squashed the rally with a 12-0 spurt, capped by a Heidger layup, to make it a 75-57 game with 2:54 remaining.

Session led all rebounders with 12 caroms to notch her team leading sixth double-double of the season.