Dec. 20, 2003

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Samford scored the first 14 points of its game against Covenant College and never trailed as the Bulldogs won their second-straight game with a 95-54 victory on Saturday afternoon at Seibert Hall.

Sebastian Sachse led the way for the Bulldogs with a season-high 18 points off the bench. Josh Hare and Brian Boerjan also notched season-highs with 17 and 13 points respectively. J. Robert Merritt had 14 points and Eddie Harper chipped in 10 points as the Bulldogs improved to 4-4 on the season and 3-0 at home by scoring 59 points in the paint against the smaller Scots.

Jonathan McClellan scored 14 points and Nate Beers added 13 points for Covenant who drops to 5-10 on the season.

Samford began the game with a 14-0 run after struggling in the opening minutes of its game on Thursday night. "I wasn't pleased with the way we started on Thursday," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "I thought it was important for us to get off to a strong start today."

The Bulldogs led 17-3 at the first media timeout which came at the 15:00 mark of the first half. Samford shot 75 percent on 21-28 shooting in the opening period to take a 51-20 lead into halftime.

The Bulldogs cooled off somewhat in the second half shooting only 64 percent to finish the game shooting a season-high 70 percent for the game. Samford's largest lead of the game was 43-points at 93-50 with 2:22 left to play. The Scots were never able to make a run of more than four-straight points. Samford went 8-16 from three-point and shot 87 percent from the free throw line.

"Our ball distribution was good today," said Tillette. "We had five players score in double figures and another finish with nine points. Monday will be a tough transition for us our decision making will be important against a much more athletic Memphis team."

Covenant shot 51 percent from the floor in the second half to finish the game shooting 42 percent. The Scots were 5-23 from three-point range and 5-10 from the free throw line.

Samford will be back in action on Monday as it travels to Memphis to take on the Tigers in a 7 p.m. game at the Pyramid.