Feb. 16, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In what might be the final home game of his career, Samford's Travis Peterson scored a career-high 26 points Saturday as the Bulldogs held off the never-say-die Eastern Kentucky Colonels for a key 74-73 Ohio Valley Conference victory in the Pete Hanna Center.

"I couldn't be happier for Travis and for Joe Ross (Merritt)," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "They both had great games tonight and they are both great ambassadors for our program. They are two of the finest young men that I've been around and I'm extremely happy that they came through our program."

Samford's two graduating seniors, Peterson and Joe Ross Merritt, were each honored prior to Saturday's contest with a special "Senior Night" presentation. Peterson led all scorers with 26 points, while Merritt finished with six points, five rebounds and five assists.

"Joe didn't score a lot of points tonight, but he did everything else for us," Tillette said. "He played with a great mindset and he's definitely one of our toughest players. He's done a great job this season in adapting to playing the guard position, and that has been a huge key for us."

With the win, Samford (12-14, 9-9 OVC) snapped its two-game losing streak and earned its first season sweep of Eastern Kentucky (13-12, 10-7 OVC) in school history. The Bulldogs improved to 8-7 in their all-time series against the Colonels and picked up two-straight wins in the rivalry for the first time since 1997.

At the completion of Saturday's OVC action, Samford moved up to sole possession of sixth place in the league standings.

The Bulldogs are only a game-and-a-half out of fourth place with two games remaining. With a victory or a Southeast Missouri loss, Samford would secure an OVC Tournament berth. The Bulldogs play at Southeast Missouri on Feb. 28, in their next conference game.

"This was a very important win for us, but there's still a lot to be decided in the league," said Tillette. "There are seven teams still bunched together in the middle of the standings and we know that every game is going to be important. It will be nice to get away from OVC play next week for BracketBusters, but Louisiana Tech will not be an easy game."

Samford played stifling defense in the first half and took a 23-16 lead into intermission. The Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the field in the opening period, but only 20 percent from beyond the arc.

Eastern Kentucky only knocked down 32 percent of its field-goal attempts in the opening half and was 0-for-8 from 3-point range.

In the second half of play, the Bulldogs' lead fluctuated anywhere from four to nine points until the Colonels' Darnell Dialls knocked down a jumper to trim their deficit to 41-39 with 11:09 remaining. Eastern Kentucky's 6-foot-8 senior ended up tying his career-high with 25 points Saturday.

After Dialls' bucket, Samford rallied for a quick 13-2 run which was capped off by 3-pointer from Josh Davis and a post-up layup from Trey Montgomery. Following the outburst, the Bulldogs led 54-41 with 6:40 remaining.

"I really thought that Josh Davis had a good game for us tonight," Tillette said. "He played well defensively and he hit some really big shots, especially the free throws at the end of the game. He had some turnovers that were costly, but I thought that he made up for it with his hard work and effort."

Samford led 64-56 with 1:56 remaining in the game. At that point, Eastern Kentucky began intentionally fouling the Bulldogs and sending them to the free-throw line.

The strategy worked well for the Colonels as they ended up chipping away at Samford's lead and making the score 72-70 following a deep 3-pointer from Josh Taylor with 22 seconds left. After the 3-pointer, Eastern Kentucky fouled Samford's Josh Davis, and the Bulldogs' true freshman calmly knocked down both free throws.

Davis finished the game with nine points and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. As a team, Samford shot 23-of-36 from the charity stripe.

On the final possession of the game, Eastern Kentucky's Justin Stommes hit a desperation 3-pointer to make the final score 74-73.

In addition to Peterson's game-high 26 points, Samford's Montgomery followed with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Bryan Friday finished with eight points, while both Josh Bedwell and Merritt scored six apiece.

Eastern Kentucky's Mike Rose added 23 points for the Colonels and played all 40 minutes of the game.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday as the Bulldogs travel to Ruston, La., for a non-conference matchup against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs as a part of the 2008 BracketBusters challenge.