They Said It: South Carolina State
Samford Scoop got the chance to talk with Samford head coach Lennie Acuff, guard Jadin Booth, and center Dylan Faulkner. Booth led Samford with 26 points and six rebounds while Faulkner finished with 17 points and three rebounds.
Q: It seemed early in the second half when your guys picked up the defensive intensity. You forced some turnovers which created offense, how would you assess your team defensively?
“Yeah, you know, they made some tough shots. I really liked their team. I do. I really like their team. I know, but they had five threes at the 10 minute mark of the first half, and they only made two the rest of the way. I thought we did a better job guarding them. The thing, I mean, really, to be honest with you, the whole key to the game was though they only got one shot. I mean, they missed 32 shots, and only rebounded six of them. And so we were really concerned about that, but I look at our guards. Keaton had seven rebounds, Jadin had six, Cade had four, Diggie had three, Cam had three. I mean, our effort was really good. We’ve got a long way to go but we played really hard.”
Q: Isaiah Campbell-Finch played 19 minutes in his only second career college game. Where do you want to see him go over the course of the year as he provides a different punch off the bench?
Acuff: “Great question. What he does, he gives us more north-south. and he's really physical for a young freshman. He can sit down and guard and he can guard multiple positions. And when we play him, we keep him with Keaton and Jadin, it really gives us three guys that can get north-south and have a little bit more playmaking over there.”
Q: For both of you guys (Jadin and Dylan), what was it like playing for the first time in front of that crowd with a full student section?
Jadin Booth: “Yeah I think someone posted that’s the best student section in the SoCon and they lived up to it tonight. They were rowdy all night. It felt packed in there, so I really appreciate everyone showing up. We definitely fed off all that energy, so that was fun to be a part of.”
Dylan Faulkner: “Yeah, definitely. It was electric. There in the second half when we started making our run and stuff, and you start hearing them chant defense and stuff. I mean, you feel it as a player and you build off the energy you know we wouldn't win without them.”
Q: Only two games in but is there something you learned about your team tonight when you were down at halftime and early in the second half?
Booth: “Yeah, I think it shows we’ve got a lot of resilience. Obviously Dylan and Lamey (Zach Lamey, coach and the staff were all apart of the run last year at Lipscomb so they know what it takes to get to March Madness. Then we got an older group that can help lead us and get us there. So I think we're learning a lot about each other. Obviously 13 new guys is kind of hard but we’re figuring it out so we’re just trying to take it day by day.”
Faulkner: “Yeah, I think it's just a testament to the guys that Acuff recruits. We're not gonna quit. We're not gonna stop biting, you know, we're gonna fly tooth and nail to the very end every time. I got that.”
Samford is back in action on Wednesday night on the road against Texas Southern which starts a three-game road trip. The Bulldogs are back home against Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday, November 19th
