Jan. 24, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team continued its season-long shooting woes in the brand-new Pete Hanna Center on Thursday as the Bulldogs were 6-of-26 (23.1 percent) from 3-point range in a 61-43 home loss to the UT Martin Skyhawks.

Samford (8-11, 5-6 Ohio Valley Conference) is 3-6 when playing in the Pete Hanna Center this season and is shooting 28 percent from beyond the arc at home. In their last two home games, the Bulldogs have combined to shoot 10-of-44 (23 percent) from 3-point range.

"Our effort from start to finish was totally disappointing," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "That was a horrific effort. That was as bad of a performance from a Samford team representing a University and a jersey. That reflects directly on me and I did a poor job of getting our guys ready to play. At some point in time, we need to bow up and shoot the ball."

"I thought that we got it right on the road trip with our win at Eastern Kentucky, and we had three good days of practice leading into this game, but maybe our guys thought that it was automatically going to happen for them. We were absolutely terrible on both ends of the floor."

With its win, UT Martin (9-12, 5-6 OVC) snapped a three-game losing streak and swept the annual home-and-home season with Samford. Prior to this year, Samford held an unblemished 7-0 record in the all-time series.

The Skyhawks were led Thursday by the nation's leading scorer, Lester Hudson. The 6-foot-3 junior from Memphis, Tenn., played 39 minutes and recorded game-highs in points (20), rebounds (10), assists (5) and field goals (8).

Hudson, who entered the game averaging 27.6 points per game, was 8-of-19 from the field and 2-of-9 from 3-point range.

"Hudson is a really good player and he's strong enough to get his own shots," Tillette said. "So, we didn't want to pay too much attention to him then have the other guys really hurt us. We got hurt from him tonight, but it was really his supporting cast that killed us. We can live with holding him to 20 points, but it was their other scoring that did it."

UT Martin received 14 points from its bench, compared to seven points from Samford.

The Bulldogs were led in scoring by senior Joe Ross Merritt's 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field. He also pulled down a team-high five rebounds and knocked down all three of Samford's free throws.

Senior Travis Peterson and freshman Josh Bedwell both followed with nine points apiece for the Bulldogs.

Bedwell finished 3-for-7 from beyond the arc and accounted for half of Samford's 3-point field goals. Peterson added four rebounds and three assists, while tying a career-high with four blocks.

Samford jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in the game at the first media timeout, but UT Martin used four points from Olajide Hay and back-to-back 3-pointers from Marquis Weddle and Joe Bailey to take a 15-10 advantage.

The Skyhawks then continued their 16-4 run with another 3 from Gerald Robinson and eventually took a 29-21 lead into the intermission.

After only scoring four points in the opening half, Hudson took over in the final period and tallied 16 of his game-high 20 points. He scored 14 of UT Martin's first 23 points of the second half and the Skyhawks led 54-36 with 7:23 remaining.

Down the stretch, Samford smallest deficit was 18 points, following a Bedwell 3-pointer with 51 seconds left.

"We can't spend any time worrying about playing Austin Peay," said Tillette. "Right now, we just need to be worried about ourselves. It's all about us having to play with better effort. Tonight, we were nowhere near where we need to be as a team and we're definitely going to have to play better down the stretch."

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 7 p.m., as the Bulldogs square off against the first-place Austin Peay Governors.