Feb. 14, 2009

Box Score

BOONE, N.C. - The Samford women's basketball team claimed its 20th win of the season in a 59-47 Southern Conference victory at Appalachian State Saturday afternoon at the Holmes Center.

Samford improves to 20-4 overall and 15-2 in SoCon play with the win. The Bulldogs move into a first-place tie with Chattanooga in the SoCon standings. The win marks the third time in the last four years Samford has won at least 20 games. Appalachian State drops to 7-18 overall and 6-10 in league play.

"Appalachian State is an athletic team and they do a lot of things defensively," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "I was very pleased with our team that, for the most part, we handled that. With all the different defenses they run, we kept our composure."

Samford was led in scoring by Emily London with 19 points. Monica Maxwell added 11 points, while Savannah Hill had nine points and five assists. Megan Wilderotter had six steals for the Bulldogs.

ASU was led by Sam Ramirez with 11 points. Sade Means had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers.

The teams traded baskets for the first part of the first half, with neither team able to lead by more than three points. With Appalachian State leading, 14-11, Samford went on a 19-0 run to take a 30-14 lead with 2:05 to go in the half. Samford held ASU scoreless for over eight minutes in the run.

The Mountaineers scored the final four points of the half to cut Samford's lead to 30-18 at halftime.

Samford pushed its lead out to 15 early in the second half, but with Samford leading, 33-18, ASU went on a 15-3 run to cut the lead to three at 36-33 with 10:54 to play in the game. Samford then went on an 8-0 run to push the lead back out to 11 at 44-33 with 5:36 to play after a three-pointer by London.

Appalachian State fought back to cut the lead to seven at 45-38 with 4:21 to play. However, the Mountaineers could get no closer as Samford came away with the 59-47 win.

For the game, Samford shot 42.9 percent from three-point range, while ASU hit 33.3 percent of its three-pointers. Samford forced ASU into 23 turnovers, while the Bulldogs committed just 12 turnovers in the game.

Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 16, when the Bulldogs play at Davidson. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. (CT) start, and it can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.