Feb. 22, 2007

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team fell to Southeast Missouri, 66-58, Thursday night at Seibert Hall.

Samford drops to 16-12 overall and 11-8 in Ohio Valley Conference play with the loss. SEMO improves to 20-7 overall and 15-4 in conference play with the win. Samford remains in fourth place in the league after Tennessee Tech's 80-79 overtime loss at Murray State.

If Samford wins Saturday afternoon's game against Eastern Illinois, the Bulldogs will finish fourth in the league and earn a home game for the first round of the OVC Tournament, scheduled for Tuesday night.

For the game, Chelsee Insell scored 15 points and pulled down five rebounds. Insell is now just four points away from becoming just the third player in the program's history to score 1,000 career points. Alex Munday scored 13 points for the Bulldogs. Veronica Pike scored nine points and Megan Wilderotter added eight for Samford.

Southeast Missouri was led by Lachelle Lyles with 17 points and 24 rebounds. Tarina Nixon scored 22 points and Sonya Daugherty added 20 for the Redhawks.

Samford jumped out to an early 5-3 lead with 16:19 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Wilderotter. Southeast Missouri then went on an 8-0 run to take an 11-5 lead with 10:08 to go in the half after a free throw by Daugherty.

Samford scored the next five points on a three-point play by Pike and a layup by Wilderotter to cut the lead to 11-10 with 9:20 to go in the half. With SEMO leading, 14-10, Samford went on a 6-0 run to take a 16-14 lead with 7:55 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Insell.

Southeast Missouri scored the next six points to take a 20-16 lead with 5:44 to go after a three-pointer by Nixon. Samford retook the lead at 21-20 with 4:01 to play in the half after a pair of free throws by Munday. The teams traded baskets the rest of the half and SEMO took a 29-27 lead into halftime.

SEMO opened the second half with a 13-2 run to push its lead to 13 at 42-29 with 15:06 to play after a jumper by Nixon. Samford answered with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five at 42-37 with 11:10 to go in the game after a jumper by Karmen Smith.

Samford cut the lead to four at 47-43 with 7:20 to go after a three-pointer by Taryn Towns. SEMO scored the next five points to push the lead back out to nine at 52-43 with 6:01 to play after a three-pointer by Ashley Lovelady. A three-pointer by Insell cut the lead to six at 52-46 with 5:42 to play, but Samford could get no closer the rest of the way as SEMO came away with the 66-58 win.

Samford will wrap up its regular season Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs play host to Eastern Illinois. The game is scheduled for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off from Seibert Hall.