Jan. 18, 2007

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team remained undefeated at home this season Thursday as the Bulldogs earned a methodical 66-53 victory over the Morehead State Eagles in Seibert Hall. Senior Randall Gulina led all scorers with 18 points.

"This was a good win for us," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "Morehead State is a good basketball team and they are very well-coached. I just thought that we played well tonight and we were able to do a lot of good things against them. We really attacked them on the offensive end and we were able to play well against their man defense."

With the win, Samford (10-8, 7-2 Ohio Valley Conference) improved to 6-0 at home this season and moved into sole possession of second place in the conference. On Saturday, the Bulldogs will play a second straight home game against Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m.

Morehead State (10-7, 6-3 OVC) was defeated for a second time in its previous three games and was limited to its lowest scoring output since a 52-51 loss to Central Michigan on Dec. 30. The Bulldogs currently lead the OVC in scoring defense with an average of 61.8 points allowed this season.

"I thought that we did a very good job on the defensive end of the court," Tillette said. "We didn't rebound the ball as well as I would have hoped, but they have a bunch of active guys and they are a good rebounding team. I was pleased with how energetic we were tonight and hopefully we can continue this play into Saturday."

Samford led the entire game Thursday and finished with three players scoring in double figures.

Gulina paced the Bulldogs with 18 points, four rebounds and three 3-point field goals. He was 6-of-11 from the floor and 3-of-6 from downtown. Junior Travis Peterson collected a career-high four steals and also added 16 points and four rebounds.

Guard Curtis West was the third Samford player to finish in double figures. He tallied 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting with 10 of his 12 points coming in the first half.

The Bulldogs scored the first six points of the ball game and jumped out to an early 15-6 lead with 11:20 to play until halftime. Samford increased its first-half lead to as many as 13 points, 36-23, and took a 36-24 advantage into the intermission.

"We came out and played with intensity in the first half," said Tillette. "We were active on defense and for the most part we were making smart decisions with the ball in our offense. I was pleased with how we finished with 17 assists and only committed 11 turnovers, and we were able to force 12 turnovers on seven steals."

Morehead State's Quentin Pryor drained a jumper to open the second half of play, but from that point Samford's lead was never less than 12 points.

Prior, a senior from Europa, Miss., was the lone Eagle to score in double figures Thursday. Morehead State's guard finished with 11 points in 36 minutes of play, while leading scorer Shaun Williams was limited to four points on a 2-of-4 shooting performance.

"We wanted to try to keep Williams from scoring in the paint and I thought that we were able to do that tonight," said Tillette. "Our interior defense was solid and we were able to put pressure on their guards. We played well as a team and we also had some of our younger guys come off the bench to get some quality minutes."

Samford's Jason Black, Jim Griffin and Bryan Friday all came off the bench to score for the Bulldogs.

All three of the reserves were perfect from the floor and Black finished with four points on 2-for-2 shooting. Redshirt freshmen Griffin and Friday both tallied two points in the game.

The Bulldogs finished with season-highs in both field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage Thursday.

Samford shot a stifling 65 percent from the field and turned in a 53.3 percent outing from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs only attempted 15 three-point field goals, but knocked down eight.

Senior point guard Jerry Smith registered a game-high eight assists. So far this season, the Bulldogs' native of Picayune, Miss., has led the team in assists 11 times. Junior guard Joe Ross Merritt also turned in a solid outing with nine points, two rebounds an assist and a block.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday as the Bulldogs host the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at 2 p.m., in Seibert Hall.