Jan. 28, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - After its worst first-half performance of the 2009-10 campaign, the Samford University basketball team mounted a furious second-half comeback Thursday, but eventually ran out of gas in a 68-55 Southern Conference loss against the Appalachian State Mountaineers at the Pete Hanna Center.

"In the first half, I thought we had some good looks, but they just wouldn't go down," said Samford associate head coach Paul Kelly, who filled in for Head Coach Jimmy Tillette for a second straight game. "Appalachian State went to a zone early in the game and their aggressiveness forced us to play a lot quicker than we would have liked to play.

"I take responsibility for our team's ineffectiveness in the first half. I think our guys were trying so hard to show that they can do this without Coach Tillette that I think I probably keyed them up too much. They came out overhyped in the game and it wasn't until we were able to get in the locker room at halftime that we were able to settle them down."

Samford (9-12, 3-6 SoCon) only shot 25 percent (5-of-20) from the field in the first half and trailed Appalachian State (12-8, 6-3 SoCon) by a score of 38-18 at the intermission. The Bulldogs' 18-point first-half performance was their worst of the season. Samford's previous low was a 19-point, first-half outing against The Citadel on Jan. 16.

Appalachian State tallied a 51.9-percent outing from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of play and knocked down six first-half 3-pointers. The Mountaineers shot 50 percent from beyond the arc in the first half and finished the game with a 44.4-percent outing.

After falling behind 38-18 at halftime, Samford came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders to open the second period.

The Bulldogs opened the half with a quick 13-0 run and trimmed the Mountaineers lead to 38-31 with 16-10 to play in regulation. During the stretch, Samford's Josh Davis and Bryan Friday knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers and Trey Montgomery scored five of his nine points. Friday, the Bulldogs' senior forward from Grapevine, Texas, also dropped in a layup on a pretty back-door cut.

"I told them at halftime that all they had to do was chip away one point per minute," Kelly said. "It helped that we had that 13-0 run to start the half and then it became a ballgame. The thing that hurts us is when you play in our style it is extremely hard to dig out of that big of a hole. We almost have to play flawlessly to come out with a victory in the second half."

Following a 30-second timeout, Appalachian State regrouped and was able to stop the bleeding as Marcus Wright knocked down an eight-foot jumper and Donald Sims connected on a 3-point basket. Sims, the SoCon's leading scorer with an average of 19.4 points per game this season, was limited to 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, but tallied 10 of his points in the second half.

The Mountaineers were able to maintain a 10-point lead throughout the final period until the Bulldogs' Davis drained a 3-point basket at 10:45 left in the game to trim Appalachian State's lead to 48-42.

Davis, Samford's junior sharpshooter from Lubbock, Texas, finished with a game-high 25 points and tied a career-high with seven 3-point field goals. He shot 8-of-17 from the field, 7-of-15 from beyond the arc and tallied three steals. Davis played a key role in the Bulldogs' second-half rally and scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the final period.

After Samford's second rally late in the game, Appalachian State was once again able to rebound and quickly extended its lead back to 56-43.

The Mountaineers' Kellen Brand scored a pair of baskets during the stretch, while Ryann Abraham came off the bench to tally another key bucket. Abraham, Appalachian State's senior from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, finished with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field. He also knocked down 3-of-4 attempts from 3-point range in only 23 minutes of play.

Brand also scored in double figures with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the floor. He added four rebounds and three assists, but committed a game-high five turnovers.

"I have to give all compliments and respect to Appalachian State," said Kelly. "Those guys played well and I thought we did a good job in our toughest matchups. We did a good job on Sims and I thought we did a pretty good job on Isaac Butts. He hurt us on the offensive glass, but we limited his touches. It was their guys off the bench that really hurt us. Their reserves outscored our bench players 24-6 and Abraham knocked down those three big 3-pointers."

Late in Thursday's game, Samford mounted one last comeback as Davis drained his seventh 3-pointer of the game to cut Appalachian State's lead to 61-56 with 41 seconds left to play. The Bulldogs were then forced to foul and send the Mountaineers to the free-throw line, but the conference's best free-throw shooting team iced the game with five free throws in the final minute.

Free-throw shooting proved to be a key element in the outcome as Samford only shot 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from the charity stripe. Conversely, Appalachian State turned in a 70.6-percent mark from the free-throw line.

Samford's Davis proved to be the only Bulldogs' player to score in double figures Thursday. Montgomery added nine points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their brief two-game SoCon homestand against the first-place Western Carolina Catamounts at the Pete Hanna Center.