Nov. 27, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In what is being considered its biggest non-conference home game since the 2002-03 season, the Samford University basketball team will play host to the undefeated Ohio Bobcats at 7 p.m., on Tuesday in a critical early-season showdown at Seibert Hall.

The game will be broadcast live on WVSU 91.1 FM and via the internet at either www.samfordsports.com or www.al.com/wvsu.

Samford (1-3) enters Tuesday's contest looking to break out of its current two-game losing slide. The Bulldogs have played three of their four games on the road this season, including hard-fought matchups against No. 1-ranked Florida and No. 15 Arizona.

In its previous game, Samford fell on the road to Arizona, 86-57, on Wednesday. The Bulldogs finished the contest with three players scoring in double figures and limited Arizona to its lowest scoring output of the 2006-07 campaign.

Senior Randall Gulina led Samford with a game-high 21 points against Arizona, while Jerry Smith followed with 13 points and Travis Peterson added 10. Peterson, a native of Glendale, Ariz., also tallied five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in his homecoming to the state of Arizona.

Ohio (2-0) heads into Tuesday's contest looking to extend its current two-game winning streak.

The Bobcats played their first two games of the 2006-07 campaign at home in Athens, Ohio, and posted victories over Marist (Nov. 11), 83-66, and Yale (Nov. 19), 73-65. Ohio currently has four players averaging double figures in scoring this season in Whitney Davis, Jerome Tillman, Leon Willams and Kenneth van Kempen.

Davis, a 6-foot-4 senior guard from Ann Arbor, Mich., is pacing Ohio with 17.5 points per game this season and is followed by both Tillman and Williams at 13 points per contest. Williams, a 6-foot-8 forward, is also averaging 13 rebounds per game. Van Kempen is scoring 12.5 points per contest.

Heading into the 2006-07 campaign, Samford was preseason picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs are coming off a 20-11 season in 2005-06 and return four starters in Randall Gulina, Joe Ross Merritt, Peterson and Jerry Smith.

Ohio entered the year as the preseason second-place pick in the East Division of the Mid-American Conference.

Heading into the 2005-06 season, the Bobcats were named ESPN.com's "It" team and were a near-unanimous pick to win the MAC. Ohio finished the campaign with a 19-11 record and a 13-2 mark at home in the Convocation Center.

The Bobcats will be Samford's toughest non-conference home opponent since the Bulldogs opened the 2002-03 season against Chattanooga on Nov. 22, 2002. Samford dropped the season-opening contest to Chattanooga, 68-66.

Samford will square off against Ohio for only the second time in school history Tuesday.

The teams began the all-time series last season as part of the 2006 ESPN BracketBusters Classic and the Bobcats rallied for a 64-52 victory in Athens, Ohio. This year's game is the first meeting between the teams held in Birmingham, Ala.

Samford's Smith, a four-year starter at point guard, will be making his 59th-consecutive start Tuesday.

He has started in every game since a non-conference matchup against Louisiana-Monroe on Dec. 3, 2004, and has only missed two starts in his previous 79 games. A native of Picayune, Miss., Smith has already recorded two double-doubles this season to increase his career total to four.

The Samford University basketball team will face off against the Ohio Bobcats at 7 p.m., Tuesday in a key non-conference matchup held in Seibert Hall.