Jan. 30, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team held off a late UNC Greensboro rally to earn a 54-51 Southern Conference win Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center.

"UNC Greensboro is a good team," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "They give us a hard time and they do a good job defensively. I was pleased that we found a way to win the game. We made a lot of mistakes and didn't play well, but we found a way to win the basketball game."

Samford was led in scoring by Savannah Hill with 18 points, all in the first half. Hill made 7-of-10 shots from the floor, including 4-of-5 from three-point range. Hill also led the team in rebounding with nine and assists with four.

Following Hill for Samford, Monica Maxwell scored eight points, while Alex Crow added six points. Hannah Dawson pulled down seven rebounds in the win.

UNC Greensboro was led by Kendra Smith with 13 points. Brey Dorsett scored 10 points and Sarah Folwell added nine points and seven rebounds for the Spartans.

Samford jumped out to an early 7-1 lead with 16:23 to go in the first half after a layup by Dawson. UNC Greensboro scored the next five points to cut the lead to one at 7-6 with 14:56 left in the first half.

With Samford leading, 11-10, the Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run to push their lead out to 13 at 23-10 with 10:21 to go in the half following a layup by Paige Anderson. UNC Greensboro answered with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five at 23-18 with 6:25 to go in the opening period.

Samford scored the next six points to make the score 29-18 with 4:24 to go after a three-pointer by Hill. UNC Greensboro fought back to cut the lead to five at 29-24 with a minute left in the half. Samford took a 34-26 lead into halftime.

Samford pushed its lead out to 13 early in the second half at 41-28 with 15:48 to go in the game after a layup by Crow. With Samford leading, 48-37, UNC Greensboro went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to four at 48-44 with 8:08 to go in the game.

After a three-pointer by Emily London made the score 51-44, UNC Greensboro went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 51-51 with 1:01 to go after a three-pointer by Dorsett. Two free throws by London with 34 seconds left and one by Crow with four seconds to go gave Samford the 54-51 win.

The win was Samford's fifth-straight, improving the team's record to 16¬-6 overall and 10-3 in Southern Conference play. UNC Greensboro drops to 7-14 overall and 4-9 in league play.

For the game, Samford shot 43.2 percent from the floor, including a 39.1 percent effort from three-point range. UNC Greensboro shot 30.6 percent overall and 27.3 percent from three-point range. Samford committed 12 turnovers, while the Spartans turned the ball over just three times.

Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 1, when the Bulldogs play host to Elon at 7 p.m. at the Pete Hanna Center. The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.