Nov. 23, 2010

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team used a strong second-half performance to earn its first win of the season with a 66-52 victory at Jacksonville State Tuesday evening.

Samford trailed, 32-27 at halftime, but outscored the Gamecocks, 39-20 in the second half.

"We were not very pretty in the first half," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "Jacksonville State was ready to play, they have some veteran players and Coach Watts does a great job.

"But I thought we really picked it up defensively in the second half," Morris said. "I was very pleased with our defensive effort, and it's funny how the harder you play on the defensive end, the more shots fall for you. I was pleased with how we responded to adversity."

Samford was led in scoring by senior guard Emily London with 21 points, making 7-of-9 shots, including 4-of-5 from three-point range. London also dished out six assists in the game. With her performance, London moved into second place on Samford's all-time scoring list. London now has 1,267 career points and she is 336 points behind Samford's all-time leading scorer, Alex Munday with 1,603 points.

Behind London for Samford, Paige Anderson scored 10 points. Ruth Ketcham scored nine points, while Savannah Hill had eight points and seven rebounds.

Jacksonville State was led by Danielle Vaughn with 13 points. Brittany Wiley added 10 points for the Gamecocks.

Samford jumped out to an early 6-2 lead with 18:05 to go in the first half after back-to-back three-pointers by Hannah Dawson and London. With Samford leading, 11-6, Jacksonville State went on an 11-2 run to take a 17-13 lead with 8:30 left in the opening period.

Samford cut the JSU lead to one at 19-18 with 5:05 to go after a basket by Alex Crow. The Gamecocks then went on an 11-3 run to push its lead to nine at 30-21 with 1:17 to go in the half. Back-to-back three-pointers by Samford's Hill and London cut the JSU lead to three at 30-27 with 10 seconds to go, but a basket by JSU's Danielle Beneby at the buzzer gave the Gamecocks a 32-27 lead at halftime.

Samford opened the second half with a 14-0 run to take the lead for good at 41-32 with 14:33 to go after a three-pointer by London. JSU fought back to cut the Samford lead to five at 43-38 with 11:49 left in the game. Samford then went on an 18-1 run to push its lead to 22 at 61-39 with 6:39 to go after a three-pointer by Anderson.

With Samford leading, 64-43, Jacksonville State went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 12 at 64-52, but that was as close as the Gamecocks could get as Samford came away with the 66-52 win.

With the win, Samford improves to 1-2 on the young season. Jacksonville State drops to 2-2 with the loss.

Samford will return to action on Friday, when the Bulldogs play host to the Samford Thanksgiving Classic. In the tournament, Samford will take on Alabama State on Friday and South Florida on Saturday.