March 7, 2009

Box Score

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - For the third time in the last four seasons, the Samford University basketball team advanced to the semifinal round of its conference tournament. On Saturday, the Bulldogs streaked past The Citadel Bulldogs and earned a 76-67 victory in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 Southern Conference Tournament.

With the win, Samford (16-15) advanced in the four-day, 12-team competition to face the homestanding Chattanooga Mocs on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (CDT). The SoCon Tournament showdown will be televised live on SportSouth and will be held at The McKenzie Arena.

"That was a pretty good performance by our team against a very good Citadel team," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "They had a great year, they're really well-coached, they beat us 70-45 at our place, so we had something to play for. I was proud of our guys at both ends of the floor. I thought we did a lot of good things, used a lot of good judgment, so good for them. Now, we get to play Chattanooga on their home floor. What a reward."

Samford finished with four players scoring in double figures and methodically frustrated The Citadel's defense with 3-point baskets and back-door layups.

The Bulldogs' Bryan Friday finished with a team-high 21 points, while fellow-junior Trey Montgomery added 20. Both players pulled down seven rebounds and Samford out-rebounded the bigger The Citadel (20-12) team, 28-23. It was the second-straight game that the Bulldogs won the rebounding battle and their eighth this season.

"We knew that these last two games, against Furman and The Citadel, that they're both familiar with our offense," said Friday. "They have assistant coaches that have run it in the past, so they know what we're doing, but if we stick with the basics, we can get layup after layup, even if teams know what we're doing. So we're confident on all of our offensive stuff."

Samford also cleaned up its free-throw shooting Saturday and tallied a 77.4 performance from the charity stripe. The Bulldogs finished the game 24-of-31 at the line and Montgomery led the way with a career-high 12-of-13 performance from the charity stripe.

The Citadel turned in a 50-percent shooting mark from the field, but was outdone by Samford's 56.4-percent outing.

The Bulldogs' Josh Davis connected on three 3-point baskets and finished with 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor. Curtis West also registered a key performance for Samford with 11 points, two assists and a rebound.

"We were able to get basic things done by our guys making good judgments and by just being patient," Tillette said. "Not slow, just by being patient and going deep in the clock. A couple of times we didn't do anything with the ball, but that's okay. We had a few turnovers, but mostly we took care of the ball by going deep in the clock and that made a lot of things happen for us."

With its win, Samford defeated The Citadel for the first time since Jan. 2, 1993. Earlier this season, the Bulldogs dropped a 70-45 decision at home against The Citadel on Jan. 26. The loss was Samford's worst in the short history of the Pete Hanna Center.

Samford jumped out to an early lead Saturday and held a 24-13 lead with eight minutes to play in the first half. The Bulldogs' Friday and West both scored nine points in the opening period and Samford shot 50 percent from the field. Friday knocked down a season-high three 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes of action.

The Citadel, which also shot a sizzling percentage from the floor in the first half (48.1), used a key 9-0 run late in the opening 20 period to trim Samford's lead to 32-30 at the intermission.

Demetrius Nelson, The Citadel's First-Team All-SoCon performer, led all scorers with 10 points in the first half. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 center from John's Island, S.C., was 5-for-7 from the field in the opening period, but was limited to only two rebounds in the game.

One of the key players for Samford in Saturday's victory was freshman Matthew Friday. The Bulldogs' physical 6-foot-8 center from Grapevine, Texas, played excellent defense against Nelson and helped limit him to 15 total points.

Matthew Friday missed Samford's first meeting against The Citadel after having his appendix taken out eight days before the matchup.

The Citadel's Cameron Wells scored a game-high 22 points and single-handedly attempted to win the game for his team in the second half.

With 18:22 remaining to play, Wells knocked down a pair of free throws and trimmed Samford's lead to 37-32. Samford then used seven-straight points from Montgomery and a back-door layup from Bryan Friday to extend its advantage to 46-32 with 15:58 remaining.

Samford would never lead by less than seven points for the remainder of the game. The Bulldogs also tied their season output in most points scored with 76; a feat they earlier achieved against both UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina.

The Samford University basketball team will continue its quest for the 2009 SoCon Tournament championship Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs square off against the Chattanooga Mocs in the semifinal round of the four-day competition. The game will be televised live on SportSouth.