Nov. 23, 2003

Box Score

West Lafayette, Ind - Purdue used a 16-2 run at the end of the first half to break open a 21-21 game and went on to a 66-50 victory over Samford in the opening game of the 2003-04 men's basketball season at Mackey Arena Sunday afternoon.

Eddie Harper led Samford (0-1) with 16 points and five rebounds while Phillip Ramelli had 11 points and five rebounds for the Bulldogs.

Kenneth Lowe led all scorers with 20 points for the Boilermakers (1-0) while David Teague added 10 points. The biggest shot of the game came as time expired in the opening period. Teague shot a three point shot that bounced off the rim straight up into the air and then in to give the Boilers a 37-23 halftime lead.

Eddie Harper led Samford with 16 points on Sunday

Samford played even with the Boilers for the first 15 minutes of the game. Samford held an 11-6 lead at the first media timeout and a 21-19 lead with 5:41 remaining in the half. From there, Purdue scored the next 13 points to build a double-figure lead. Josh Hare made two free-throws with five seconds left before Teague's improbable three-pointer at the buzzer.

"I thought we got off to a decent start," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "We were stuck for light years on 11 and 21. They had two big three pointers in transition that really hurt us. If you take away those two plays, it's a single digit lead at the half and psychologically there is a big difference when the lead is in single digits."

Purdue shot 52 percent from the floor in the first half while the Bulldogs shot just 39 percent from the floor.

Samford opened up the second half with four-straight made three pointers but could never get the lead down below 13 points. Lowe scored 10-straight points for the Boilers to push the lead to 20-points at 52-32 at the 14:14 mark.

The Bulldogs committed 19 turnovers, 13 in the first half against Purdue's pressure defense. "We put some younger guards in and they looked a little awe-struck," said Tillette. "It is the accumulated effect of their pressure that is challenging, but our biggest problem was he had to chase their perimeter players on defense."

The Bulldogs cold shooting continued in the second half as Samford shot 38 percent for the game and went 7-25 (28 percent) from three-point range. Purdue shot 47 percent for the game and made more free throws (13) than Samford shot (12).

Samford will return home to face Bryan College on Tuesday in its home opener. Tip-off at Seibert Hall will be at 7 p.m.