Dec. 5, 2003

Box Score

ROCK HILL S.C. - J. Robert Merritt drained a three-point shot from the left corner with 2.5 seconds remaining to give Samford a 66-64 victory over Winthrop and send the Bulldogs to the Championship Game of the Brother's Heat and Air Shootout at Winthrop University on Friday night.

Winthrop's (3-2) Torrell Martin hit a pull up jumper with 12.6 seconds to give the Eagles a one point lead. Eddie Harper took the in-bounds pass and dribbled the length of the court before finding Merritt alone in the corner for the game winner. The Bulldogs (2-2) were 10-24 from three-point range in the game, Merritt was three of six to finish with 13 points..

"I think we took a step forward tonight," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. ". This was a quality win for our ball club, Winthrop is a very good team and this was a very tough environment. I thought this was our best game as far as playing the most qualitative minutes."

"If you let it come down to the wire, sometimes your going to get stops and sometimes you are not," said Winthrop head coach Gregg Marshall. "Merritt is an outstanding stand-still shooter and made a big shot."

Winthrop had a 35-29 lead at halftime as it shot 52 percent in the first half while Samford struggled shooting just 36 percent at the break and was 8-17 from the free throw line in the first half.

The Bulldogs used a 9-3 run to begin the second half to pull even at 38-38 on a Tyson Dorsey three-pointer with 15:40 to play. Dorsey was four of eight from long range in the game and finished with 14 points. Harper also had 14 points to lead the Bulldogs and Phillip Ramelli added 10 points.

Tyron Walker led Winthrop with 13 points and Josh Grant had 10 points off the bench for the Eagles who are 59-11 at home in Coach Marshall's six seasons.

Samford took its first lead of the game 47-46 on a back-door lay-up by Jon Mills with 11:15 to play. The Bulldogs maintained the lead until Ivan Jenkins hit a jumper with 2:58 to play to put the Eagles up 59-58 but the basket was answered by Merritt who hit a three pointer on Samford's next possession.

The Bulldogs shot 64 percent in the second half to finish the night shooting 51 percent from the floor and 42 percent from long range. Winthrop shot 48 percent from the floor but was just 2-14 (14 percent) from the arc.

Samford will face Southern Miss in the Championship game at 8 p.m. ET. The Golden Eagles were a 59-57 winner over Hampton in the first game of the day. Hampton and Winthrop will meet in the consolation game at 6 p.m. ET.