Jan. 27, 2001

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Samford Bulldogs built a 7-0 lead in the first six and a half minutes of play and never relinquished it, to hand Jacksonville State a 55-51 Trans America Athletic Conference loss at the Pete Mathews Coliseum on Saturday.

The game was the 100th game for Samford women's basketball and Aimee Cochran who has played in 99 of those games opened the scoring with a three-pointer on her way to a team-high 18 points. The Bulldogs (5-13, 4-5 TAAC) defense held Jacksonville State to 31 percent shooting from the floor while Samford shot 41 percent.

"The difference in the game was our defense," said Samford head coach Janet Cone. "Our defense did what it needed to do to win a ball game." Cortney Moore was a force in the lane as she swatted five shots and grabbed five rebounds for the Bulldogs. Samford had a season-high total of seven blocked shots in the game. Wendi Wilcox had 13 points as Samford jumped out to a 32-20 halftime lead.

Jacksonville State (6-12, 3-6 TAAC) was led by Amanda Tyus who scored every Lady Gamecock field goal until the 13:22 mark of the second half. She finished with 23 points after scoring 15 of the team's 20 points at halftime.

"Other people need to step up," said JSU head coach Dana Austin, of the lack of scoring for JSU in the first half. "It is easy to stop one person and Amanda (Tyus) is the only one who's hot right now."

In the second half, neither team shot particularly well and JSU battled back to tie the game at 51-51 with 2:33 left to play. Samford freshman Sarah Clement hit a free throw to put the Bulldogs ahead to stay as the defense would hold JSU scoreless the rest of the game.

Jacksonville State out-rebounded the Bulldogs 36-33 but committed 23 turnovers to 21 for Samford.

Both teams will rest for a week before playing each other again next Saturday in Birmingham. Tip off is set for 4:15 p.m. at Seibert Hall.