Feb. 16, 2009

Box Score

DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Samford women's basketball team placed five players in double figures on its way to a 78-67 Southern Conference win at Davidson Monday evening at Belk Arena.

"I thought we set the tone with our defense, but we made a lot of shots as well," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We had a situation where they doubled some of our players, but we had some other players step up and make some shots for us."

Samford was led in scoring by Emily London with 22 points, tying a career-high set earlier this season against Davidson. Savannah Hill scored 15 points, Chika Okoli had 12 points, Karmen Smith had 11 points and Megan Wilderotter added 10 points for the Bulldogs.

For the game, Samford shot 58.3 percent from the floor, including a 69.2 percent effort in the first half. The Bulldogs shot 57.1 percent from three-point range in the game.

Davidson was led by Ashley Lax and Julia Paquette with 14 points each. Mandy Halbersleben and Mercedes Robinson added 10 points apiece for the Wildcats.

Samford raced out to an early 22-3 lead with 12:09 to go in the first half after a layup by Okoli. Samford pushed its lead out to as much as 20 at 25-5 and 28-8 in the first half.

Davidson came back to cut the Samford lead to 15 at 31-16, but Samford quickly pushed the lead back to 18 at 34-16 after a three-pointer by Smith with 6:44 to go in the half. Davidson closed to within 13 points at 41-28, but Samford scored the final five points of the half to take a 46-28 lead into halftime.

Samford pushed its lead back out to 20 early in the second half at 48-28. Davidson, however fought back to cut the lead to 15 at 50-35 with 17:23 to go in the game. Samford outscored Davidson, 10-5 over the next few minutes to push the lead out to 21 at 60-39 with 13:58 to go after a three-point play by J'Quita Babineaux.

Samford maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half. Davidson could get no closer than 11 points in the final period as the Bulldogs came away with the 78-67 win.

With the win, Samford improves to 21-4 overall and 16-2 in Southern Conference play to remain in a first-place tie with Chattanooga in the league standings. The 16 conference wins are the most league wins in program history. Davidson drops to 10-16 overall and 9-8 in SoCon play.

Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 23, when the Bulldogs play host to Western Carolina. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.