Dec. 2, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team opened its home Southern Conference schedule with a victory for the third straight season Thursday as the Bulldogs fought for a physical 63-58 win against the Western Carolina Catamounts at the Pete Hanna Center.

"This was a good win for us and it was great that we got contributions from everybody, because we needed it against a tough WCU team," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "We were able to make plays, but they didn't make it easy for us. They were switching every screen and we would turn the ball over. We would get caught in their trap, but our team again showed its toughness and we were able to get the win."

Samford (5-3, 1-0 SoCon) finished with four players scoring in double figures for the first time this season. Sophomore Gregg Wooten tallied a career-high 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and knocked down 4-of-6 attempts from the free-throw line. He also tied his career high with five rebounds and added two assists.

Wooten, the Bulldogs' talented guard from Memphis, Tenn., has registered a career-high scoring mark in back-to-back games. Against Georgia State on Saturday, he came off the bench to notch 13 points and was 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.

Samford opened the season with some struggles from the charity stripe, but has since knocked down 41-of-54 shots from the free-throw line in its previous two games for a solid 75.9-percent mark.

"I thought that we shot free throws a lot better tonight," said Tillette. "Gregg Wooten had a great game for us. He played 27 minutes against that pressure and finished with 14 points and only one turnover. He scored 10 of his points in the second half and that's what he's capable of doing. He can go by people, he makes good decisions and his free throws are getting better. He's working hard every day and he has a huge upside."

The Bulldogs' Josh Davis and Jeffrey Merritt both added 12 points apiece Thursday. Davis proved to be clutch down the stretch as he went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Merritt nearly tallied his third double-double of the season by adding a team-high eight rebounds to go along with his 12 points.

Merritt, Samford's junior guard from Oklahoma City, Okla., shot 4-of-7 from the field, knocked down a key 3-point basket and tallied three steals, two assists and a block.

Senior center Andy King came off the bench to score 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the floor, with all of his field goals coming from beyond the arc. A native of Omaha, Neb., King pulled down four rebounds, handed out two assists and finished 2-for-2 from the free-throw line.

"I thought that the play of the game, on both ends of the floor, occurred within about six seconds of each other," Tillette said. "That was when Andy (King) hit a 3-pointer for us, then they came down on a 2-on-1 and Andy was able to come up with a big steal. I thought that was a huge play and Andy did a great job of helping us, just like he hit the game-tying 3-pointer against Georgia State."

With Thursday's loss, Western Carolina (4-5, 0-1 SoCon) had its two-game winning streak snapped. The Catamounts will continue their SoCon road trip Saturday with a televised matchup at Chattanooga.

Senior guard Mike Williams proved to be the only Western Carolina player in double figures as he recorded a double-double with game highs in both points (20) and rebounds (10). He only shot 6-of-16 from the field, but played 37 minutes and finished with four steals, three assists and went 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Samford led by as many as 12 points in the first half, 25-13, with 5:15 left to play until halftime, but didn't score another basket until Wooten's layup at 12:42 in the second half to trim Western Carolina's lead to 29-27.

During the Bulldogs' 12:33 drought, the Catamounts used a 16-0 run to turn a 12-point deficit into a four-point lead, 29-25, at the 13:58 mark in the final period.

With 7:26 to play in the game, Western Carolina held a similar four-point advantage, 41-37, before Samford received a driving dunk from Merritt, a 3-point basket from Davis and a hanging layup from Kaylin Johnson to regain momentum and a 44-43 lead.

Once the Bulldogs moved into the double-bonus with 3:27 remaining in the contest, Samford closed out the game by making 13 of its final 16 free throws to hang on for the victory.

The Bulldogs snapped a three-game losing streak against Western Carolina and Tillette improved to 94-43 against conference opponents at home. Since joining the SoCon in 2008, Samford has registered conference home-opening victories against Furman 71-60, Elon 55-31 and now Western Carolina 63-58.

As a team, the Catamounts only shot 35.2 percent from the field, including a 6-of-27 outing in the first half.

"In the first half, we held them to 22-percent shooting and that was frustrating because we thought we should have been leading by 14 of 16 points," Tillette said. "They were stuck on eight points forever, but we couldn't pull away because we kept turning the ball over. We finished with 18 turnovers tonight and we can't do that. We can't do that in this league and remain competitive. We'll definitely need to work on limiting that number, especially Saturday against a really good Appalachian State team."

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 4 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs continue their SoCon-opening homestand with a key conference matchup against the Appalachian State Mountaineers to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.