Jan. 2, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to take a 74-49 Southern Conference win over Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center.

"This was a complete team effort," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "A lot of people played and contributed. I thought we set the tone defensively, forcing them into 27 turnovers and only committing 12 ourselves. I thought our approach and our toughness were great today."

For Samford, junior forward Savannah Hill led the team with 14 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Paige Anderson had 13 points and senior guard Monica Maxwell added 10 points.

Junior guard Emily London scored seven points, and in the process became just the fourth player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career. London now has 1,002 career points. She ranks fourth on the school's all-time scoring list, just six points behind third-place Chelsee Insell. The program's all-time leading scorer is Alex Munday, who scored 1,603 points from 2003-04 to 2007-08.

Georgia Southern was led by Carolyn Whitney with eight points. J'Lisia Ogburn and Briana Scott added seven points apiece for the Eagles.

In the first half, Georgia Southern jumped out to an early 5-2 lead. Samford, however, answered with an 11-0 run to take a 13-5 lead with 16:05 to go in the first half after a layup by Hannah Dawson.

With Samford leading, 15-10, the Bulldogs went on a 15-3 run to push its lead out to 17 at 30-13 with 8:08 to go in the half after a jumper by Anderson. Samford pushed its lead out to as much as 22 in the first half, and the Bulldogs took a 44-24 lead into halftime.

Samford pushed its lead out to 25 at 52-27 early in the second half. With Samford leading, 52-29, the Bulldogs went on a 9-1 run to increase its lead to 31 at 61-30 with 11:13 to go after a three-pointer by Anderson.

Georgia Southern scored the next eight points to cut the lead to 23 at 61-38 with 7:27 left in the game. The Eagles could get no closer than 23 the rest of the game as the Bulldogs came away with the 74-49 win.

For the game, Samford shot 50 percent (29-of-58) from the floor, and the Bulldogs made 44 percent (11-of-25) from three-point range. Samford forced Georgia Southern into 27 turnovers in the game. Georgia Southern out-rebounded Samford, 30-27.

With the win, Samford improves to 10-5 overall and 4-2 in Southern Conference play. Georgia Southern drops to 7-6 overall and 2-2 in league play with the loss.

Samford will return to action on Monday, Jan. 4, when the Bulldogs play host to College of Charleston. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.