Dec. 18, 2004

TROY, Ala. - Sophomore forward Veronica Pike scored a career-high 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Samford women's basketball team to a 68-55 win at Troy Saturday afternoon in Trojan Arena.

"We came in here and played hard," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "It was a great job by our team, and a team-effort. I thought we did an outstanding job of guarding them the whole time."

Behind Pike for Samford was Cora Beth Smith with 15 points. LaBrena Friend scored 11 points, and Sarah Clement pulled down nine rebounds.

Both teams shot well in the first half, with Samford (7-1) hitting 50.0 percent of its shots and Troy (2-5) shooting 48.1 percent. The Trojans held the lead early, leading by as many as five points at 18-13 with 10:57 to go in the half on a basket by Valensia Hairston. The Bulldogs came back to take the lead at 21-20 on a layup by Pike with 5:45 remaining in the opening period. Samford led by as many as six points in the half at 32-26 with 1:30 to go, and the Bulldogs took a 35-31 lead into halftime.

Samford scored the first six points in the second half to push the lead to 41-33 with 16:17 to go in the game. The Bulldogs led by 11 at 54-43 with 6:16 remaining, but the Trojans cut the lead to six at 56-50 with 4:53 remaining. The Bulldogs then went on a 7-0 run to make the score 63-50 with 1:46 to go. Samford pushed its lead to as much as 15 points at 68-53, and the team came away with the 68-55 win.

The Bulldogs will return to action on Tuesday, December 21, when they play at Georgia Tech. The game is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off in Atlanta.