Dec. 4, 2004

MONROE, La. - The Samford University basketball team made a late run behind the second-half scoring of J. Robert Merritt on Friday, but the Bulldogs' comeback attempt fell short versus the Louisiana-Monroe Indians, 63-56, at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

"I could say that we didn't do what we needed to do today, but actually I have to give a lot of credit to Louisiana-Monroe for doing the things that they needed to do," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "They forced us to speed up offensively and that took us out of our rhythm a little bit."

Merritt, a 6-6 junior from Oklahoma City, Okla., scored 15 points in the second half of play to bring Samford (3-3) within four points, 57-53, with 3:04 remaining. At that point, the Indians' Adrian Harper hit a clutch three-point basket from the corner to increase ULM's lead to 60-53.

Merritt finished the contest with a game-high 20 points. He was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.

The Bulldogs then cut Louisiana-Monroe's lead to four points again as redshirt freshman Joe Ross Merritt knocked down a key three-point shot at 2:20 remaining in the game. Samford's 6-4 guard finished the contest with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting.

Louisiana-Monroe (4-1) scored the last four points of Friday's game as the Indians continued to hit their free throws. ULM shot 73.7 percent from the free-throw line against the Bulldogs and prior to the game the Tribe was shooting a stellar 77.8 percent from the charity stripe.

Gary Robinson hit two free throws down the stretch and Cecil Hood added a late score to put the game out of reach, 63-56. Robinson led the Indians with a team-high 17 points.

Randall Gulina, the Bulldogs' sophomore guard, caught fire in the first half of play and scored 15 of the teams' 24 points in the opening period. The Baton Rouge, La., native shot 6-of-9 from the floor in the first half and was a blistering 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

His total of 15 points on Friday was Gulina's career-high performance and he finished the game 6-of-12 from the floor.

"I think that we were a little out of sync in the first half of play and it seemed like the only person that came to play was Randall Gulina," said Tillette. "He really played with some good fire out there and he kept us in the game early."

Despite Gulina's first-half heroics, Samford trailed the Indians, 32-24, at intermission. The Bulldogs shot 37 percent from the floor in the first half, while Louisiana-Monroe connected on 54.5 percent of its shots.

The Tribe was led by a trio of scorers in the first half, who all finished the period with six points. DeAndre Alexander, Gary Robinson and Daryl Mason each tallied six points in the first half of play to pace Louisiana-Monroe.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Thursday, Dec. 9, as the Bulldogs return to Birmingham, Ala., to face Tennessee Wesleyan at 7 p.m., in Seibert Hall.

All of Samford's home games are general admission seating, $8 for adults and $4 for children 3-12 (children under the age of three are admitted free). Special pricing is available for groups of 10 or more.

For more information, please feel free to call the Samford athletics ticket office at (205) 726-2966.