Dec. 18, 2010

Box Score

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Samford women's basketball team held the College of Charleston to just 21 second-half points on its way to a 62-53 Southern Conference win over the Cougars Saturday night at Carolina First Arena.

"I thought the key was our defense in the second half, holding them to 21 points," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "This was a great team defensive effort. Their senior point guard (Tonia Gerty) had 14 points in the first half, but Shelby Campbell did a great job on her in the second half and I thought that was big."

Morris said the play of several non-starters was a big reason why the Bulldogs were able to come away with the win Saturday night.

"It was a good team win," Morris said. "Jazmine Martin, J'Quita Babineaux and Shelby Campbell all came in and gave us some good minutes off the bench. In conference play on the road, you're going to need the whole team and I was pleased to see some good contributions from our bench tonight."

As a team, Samford shot 48.9 percent overall and 33.3 percent from three-point range. The Bulldogs held College of Charleston to just 38.2-percent shooting overall and just 13.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Samford was led by Savannah Hill with 15 points and six rebounds. Emily London had 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Paige Anderson added 10 points for the Bulldogs in the win.

For College of Charleston, Tonia Gerty led the way with 20 points, with 14 of those coming in the first half, and eight rebounds. Latisha Harris had nine points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Cougars.

After the teams traded baskets early in the first half, Samford went on a 10-4 run to take a 12-6 lead with 14:34 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Alex Crow. Charleston then scored the next six points to tie the score at 12-12 with 12:20 to go in the first half.

Samford came back to grab a 17-14 lead with 7:18 to go in the half after a basket by Hannah Dawson. With Samford leading, 19-16, Charleston went on an 11-6 run to take a 27-25 lead with 2:42 to go before halftime. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the half. With Samford trailing, 32-31, a layup by Anderson at the buzzer gave the Bulldogs a 33-32 lead going into halftime.

Samford pushed its lead out to five early in the second half at 37-32 with 19:04 to go in the game after a layup by Hill. Charleston fought back to tie the game at 39-39 with 17:24 to go in the game. Samford then scored the next five points to take a 44-39 lead with 14:37 to go after a jumper by Ruth Ketcham.

The Cougars came back again to tie the score at 44-44 with 10:39 left in the game. Samford then scored the next six points to take a 50-44 lead with 8:02 to go after a jumper by London.

College of Charleston cut the Samford lead to one twice at 51-50 and 54-53. Clutch free throws by Dawson, Ketcham and London allowed Samford to score the final eight points of the game to pull away for the 62-53 win.

The win is Samford's seventh in a row. The Bulldogs improve to 7-2 overall and 2-0 in SoCon play. Charleston falls to 4-6 overall and 1-2 in league play.

Samford will play again on Monday when the Bulldogs play at Georgia Southern. The game is scheduled for a 4 p.m. (CT) start from GSU's Hanner Fieldhouse.