Dec. 2, 2006

Box Score

MOBILE - For the third-straight season, the Samford University basketball team led at the half against the South Alabama Jaguars, but fell prey to a late second-half comeback as the Bulldogs dropped a 59-54 decision in the Mitchell Center on Saturday.

Samford (2-4) led 31-26 at halftime, but only shot 11.1 percent from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes of play as South Alabama (5-2) rallied for its third-straight home win this season. The Jaguars have won 13-consecutive games against Samford.

"It was a tough loss for us tonight," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "I thought that we had a good chance to win, but we just didn't shoot the ball well in the second half. We played tough in the first half and I thought that we shot better, but we still missed a lot of wide-open shots."

The Bulldogs had four players score in double figures for the second straight game Saturday. Senior Jerry Smith paced the team with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, while Travis Peterson scored 13 and grabbed eight rebounds.

Junior Joe Ross Merritt and senior Randall Gulina both finished with 11 points. Merritt was 2-for-8 from beyond the arc, while Gulina was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line and pulled down four rebounds.

South Alabama's leading scorer Demetric Bennett finished with a double-double as he once again topped his team's scoring list with 21 points. He also tallied a game-high 10 rebounds in 36 minutes of play.

With the game knotted 45-45 at 5:37 left in the second half, the Jaguars went on a critical 14-6 run to earn a 59-51 advantage.

South Alabama's late surge was sparked by 3-point baskets from Carlos Smith and Stephen Cowherd.

The Jaguars also knocked down 6-of-8 free-throw attempts in the final two minutes of play. South Alabama finished the contest with a 44.4 shooting percentage from the field and a 35 percent mark from downtown.

"I thought that they had a good team" Tillette said of South Alabama. "They were very similar to a lot of the teams in our league and that's why I think this was an important game for us. We need to be able to close out games in the second half this year, especially during conference play."

Saturday's game between Samford and South Alabama was the third between the teams in the last three years.

In all three matchups between the in-state rivals, the Bulldogs built a substantial first-half lead on the road, but didn't shoot the ball well in the second period. In 2004, Samford lost 52-50 and then dropped a hard-fought 55-52 decision last season.

Samford went into the intermission with a 31-25 lead. The Bulldogs' Smith turned in a nine-point performance in the first half while Gulina added seven and Peterson tallied six.

The teams played to an early 7-7 tie in the game before Samford used some clutch shooting from Smith, Peterson and Joe Ross Merritt to take a 23-16 advantage with 6:23 remaining in the half.

Following a 3-point basket from Merritt and a back-door layup by Smith, the Bulldogs maintained its seven-point lead and then quickly extended it to 11 points after a four-point play from Peterson.

With 2:04 left in the half, Smith drove the lane, drew a pair of Jaguar defenders and then kicked the ball out to Peterson at the top of the arc. Peterson knocked down the shot despite being fouled on the arm by South Alabama's Darren Cloud.

Samford shot 40.9 percent from the field in the opening half of play.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 7:30 p.m., as the Bulldogs begin Ohio Valley Conference play on the road against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. The in-state contest will be played at the Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville, Ala.