Jan. 29, 2004

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Phillip Ramelli scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Eddie Harper scored a career-high 19 points to lead Samford to a come from behind 73-69 Ohio Valley Conference victory over Eastern Illinois Thursday night at Seibert Hall.

Ramelli went 7 for 12 from the floor and 8 for 10 from the free throw line to help the Bulldogs battle back from a nine-point second half deficit. Harper was 3 for 5 from three-point range in the second and finished the game 7 for 13 from the floor. Tyson Dorsey added 12 points for the Bulldogs who improve to 9-9 overall and 4-3 in the OVC.

Eastern Illinois (3-14, 1-5 OVC) was led by 16 points from Josh Gomes, 12 points from Aaron Petterson, and 10 points from Jake Sinclair. The Panthers, who have lost five straight conference games, led 35-32 at halftime and built 55-46 lead with 12:02 to play.

Eddie Harper scored a career-high 19 points against EIU on Thursday

The turning point of the game came at the 11:30 media timeout according to Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette, "The watershed moment for us came on the bench during a timeout when coaches and players challenged each other. We got things right after that. I thought we played good defense tonight especially down the stretch. We have been talking about defending without fouling and we did a good job of that."

The Bulldogs went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to three with 7:33 to play on an old fashion three-point play by Jon Mills, who saw his first action since the new year. Samford took the lead for the first time in the second half on a pair of free throws by Jerry Smith to give the Bulldogs a 62-61 lead with 2:52 left to play.

Samford went 8 for 12 from the free throw line in the last three minutes including Dorsey sinking two free throws with 4.1 seconds left to secure the victory.

Ramelli saw his consecutive free throw string snapped at 22-straight after missing the back half of a one-and-one in the first half.

Eastern Illinois out rebounded the Bulldogs 29-25 and had a 12-3 advantage on the offensive boards but Samford hit 59 percent of its shots and made 12 more free throws than the Panthers.

Samford will be back in action on Saturday as it concludes its four-game home stand against Southeast Missouri State at 2 p.m.