Feb. 22, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - On a night in which the Samford basketball team honored its 2009-10 senior class, the Bulldogs fell behind early to the up-and-coming Georgia Southern Eagles, then rallied back to within three points late in the game before the Eagles were able to hold on for an 83-77 Southern Conference victory Monday at the Pete Hanna Center.

Samford's Peter Carroll, Bryan Friday, Trey Montgomery and Jim Griffin were all honored prior to the game with an emotional Senior Night tribute.

"The ceremony was extremely emotional and obviously we're losing some very good seniors," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "All of those guys are very important in my life and as far as the game is concerned, Georgia Southern just played better than we did. We played well tonight, but they played really well. They made a lot of 3-point shots and their style worked better than ours did."

With the loss in its home finale, Samford (11-17, 5-11 SoCon) closed out its 2009-10 campaign with a 7-7 record at the Pete Hanna Center. Additionally, the Bulldogs were only 2-7 at home in conference play.

"It's very disappointing to go only 2-7 in conference play on your home floor," Tillette said. "Before the season, if you would have asked me, I would have said that would be more like the opposite. I would have thought that we would go 7-2 at home. I really haven't been able to figure out why we've struggled, but tonight we just ran into a team that played better than we did."

Georgia Southern (8-21, 5-11 SoCon) picked up its first road victory of the season Monday. Heading into the matchup, the Eagles were 0-15 when playing away from the Hanner Fieldhouse. Georgia Southern also increased its all-time lead against Samford to 32-15.

The Eagles shot 52.7 percent from the field and turned in a blazing 53.6-percent outing from beyond the arc. Georgia Southern knocked down 15-of-28 of its attempts from 3-point range and was paced by Antonio Hanson's 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field. Hanson, the Eagles' senior guard from Fort Worth, Texas, finished 7-of-14 from 3-point range.

Both teams ended the game with five players scoring in double figures. Georgia Southern's Hanson led all scorers with his 27-point outburst, while the Eagles' Colby Wohlleb followed with 15 and Ben Drayton added 14. Georgia Southern's Rory Spencer and Willie Powers both chipped in with 12 points apiece, but Powers also proved to be dangerous with 11 assists and only two turnovers.

Samford was led in scoring by sophomore guard Jeffrey Merritt, who tallied a career-high 18 points for a second straight game. On Saturday, he finished with 18 points and nine rebounds against Chattanooga and followed up that performance Monday with an 18-point, eight-rebound outing versus Georgia Southern.

Merritt finished the game shooting 6-of-9 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range. He was also 3-for-4 from the charity stripe and added three assists and a pair of steals.

Following Merritt's 18-point performance, Samford received 15 points from Bryan Friday and 14 points from both Kaylin Johnson and Montgomery. Junior guard Josh Davis added 10 points and five rebounds for the Bulldogs and was 2-for-5 from 3-point range.

Montgomery and Friday both turned in solid outings in their final game at the Pete Hanna Center. Friday scored 15 points in only 19 minutes of play and went 6-of-11 from the field. Montgomery, who needed 18 points to reach the historic 1,000-point plateau, scored 14 points and increased his career total to 996. He was only 3-of-8 from the floor, but knocked down 8-of-9 attempts from the charity stripe.

Despite facing Georgia Southern's constant full-court pressure, Samford only turned the ball over 10 times. The Bulldogs outscored the Eagles 36-14 in the paint and dominated Georgia Southern in bench scoring 24-3. The difference in Monday's game was that Samford only received 18 points from beyond the arc, while the Eagles scored 45 of their 83 points on 3-point baskets.

"I thought we did a lot of good things tonight," said Tillette. "If you look at our stats, we hardly turned the ball over and we did a decent job of rebounding the ball. They did an outstanding job of limiting our looks at 3-point shots and I thought they did a good job of taking us out of our offense. Early on, we also missed a lot of easy layups and then kept getting our shots blocked in the second half."

Georgia Southern led by as many as 13 points in the first half and took a 46-36 lead into the locker room. Samford, following a fast-break layup from Andy King, quickly trimmed the Eagles' advantage to 52-49 with 14:37 to play in the game.

The teams then traded baskets for a few possessions midway through the half until Georgia Southern connected on a pair of 3-pointers from Hanson, including a shot that caromed off the backboard as the 35-second clock was expiring. Following another jumper from Hanson and a layup from Powers, the Eagles held a 69-58 advantage with 7:22 left to play.

"Georgia Southern made a couple of big shots down the stretch that really hurt us," Tillette said. "They made a couple of baskets at the end of the shot clock that were huge for them, but they shot the ball well all game. If they continue to shoot the ball like that, then they are going to win a lot of games."

Down the stretch, Samford's Davis hit a 3-pointer, Montgomery scored on a driving layup and Merritt knocked down a 3-point basket to cut Georgia Southern's lead to 79-74 with 41 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs later trimmed the advantage to 79-76 with a free throw from Davis before Powers and Hanson combined to make four free throws in the final seconds to hold on for the 83-77 win.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin their final road trip of the regular season against the Western Carolina Catamounts at the Ramsay Center (7,826) in Cullowhee, N.C.