Dec. 12, 2010

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Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team earned its first win over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent with a 58-48 victory over the Clemson Lady Tigers Sunday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.

The game was played in front of 1,037 fans, the third-largest crowd to see a women's basketball game in the Pete Hanna Center. The win was the sixth in a row for Samford, giving the Bulldogs a 6-2 record. Clemson falls to 6-3 with the loss.

"This was a great win for our team for a lot of reasons," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We had a lot of promotion and a lot of hype for this game, getting an ACC team to come to our arena. To be able to win the game in front of a great crowd was important for our program.

"In terms of the game itself, we were not at our best," Morris said. "We struggled at times, we were just a little off and that can happen because we haven't played a lot of games here in this stretch. But to still be able to battle, fight and win was big. We had a lot of people step up and help us during this game."

Samford was led in scoring by senior guard Emily London with 17 points, making 8-of-8 free throw attempts, with most of those coming down the stretch to help Samford pull away for the win.

"It was just a matter of concentrating," London said. "We shoot them every day in practice and it's expected for all of us to make them. We shot 12-for-12 from the free throw line as a team, and that is something you don't get from very many teams now-a-days and we take pride in that."

Behind London for Samford, junior guard Paige Anderson scored 11 points. Sophomore guard Hannah Dawson added 10 points for the Bulldogs. Senior forward Savannah Hill led the team in both rebounds with 11 and assists with five in the win.

For Clemson, Shaniqua Pauldo led the way with 14 points. Sthefany Thomas scored 12 points for the Lady Tigers. Jasmine Tate led Clemson in rebounding with 11 in the game.

In the first half, Clemson jumped out to an early 9-3 lead following a layup by Kelia Shelton with 15:42 to go in the opening half. Samford then went on a 12-2 run to take a four point lead at 15-11 with 8:25 to go in the half after a layup by Shelby Campbell.

Clemson fought back to take a 17-15 lead with 5:36 to go in the opening half after a layup by Pauldo. Samford outscored Clemson, 9-4 for the remainder of the half to take a 24-21 lead into halftime.

The Lady Tigers tied the game early in the second half at 29-29 with 17:38 to go in the game. Samford then took the lead for good on a jumper by Dawson with 17:18 to go at 31-29.

With Samford leading, 35-33, the Bulldogs went on a 12-2 run to push its lead to 12 at 47-35 with 9:13 to go in the game after a three-pointer by Anderson. After Clemson cut the Samford led to seven at 47-40, the Bulldogs scored seven of the next eight points to push their lead to a game-high 13 at 54-41 with 3:21 to go after a three-pointer by Anderson.

Clemson cut the lead back to six at 54-48 with 51 seconds to go, but Samford scored the final four points of the game to come away with the 58-48 win.

As a team, Samford shot 37.3 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three-point range, while holding Clemson to 31.4 percent overall and just 15.0 percent from three-point range. Samford made all 12 of its free-throw attempts, while Clemson was 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Samford will return to action on Saturday, Dec, 18, when the Bulldogs return to Southern Conference play with a game at the College of Charleston. The game is scheduled for a 5 p.m. (CT) start from Charleston's Carolina First Arena.