March 5, 2010

Box Score

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Samford University basketball team's 2009-10 season came to an end Friday night as the Bulldogs dropped a 55-43 decision against The Citadel Bulldogs in the opening round of the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament held at Bojangles Coliseum (11,000).

"This was a tough way for the season to end, but this has definitely been the most difficult season that I've ever been associated with," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "It started out horribly with the passing of Jim Griffin on Sept. 8, and then there was my own personal illness as well as all of the other requisite stress fractures and things that players go through in their own lives.

"The final record of our team this season is no reflection of the character of our team. Our team kept trying to move forward all year long and they demonstrated a lot of character during those tough stretches. We've never had an effort issue or an off-the-court discipline issue, so our final record was not because of any lack of effort from these guys."

With the loss, Samford (11-20) ended its season with a four-game losing streak. The Citadel (16-15) snapped a three-game slide Friday and advanced the quarterfinal round of the tournament where it will square off against Appalachian State on Saturday at 6 p.m. (CST).

The Citadel seemed to have Samford's number this season and finished with a 3-0 record in the annual series.

"I would like to congratulate The Citadel," Tillette said. "I thought that Cameron Wells was the difference for them. We fouled him way too much in the first half and then he hit a big three at the end of the half which also really hurt us. They did a good job all night of running their offense. I thought we defended reasonably well, but they didn't turn the ball over and they were able to get good shots."

The Citadel was led in scoring by junior Cameron Wells' 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor. The Bulldogs' native of Houston, Texas, also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and finished a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

As a team, The Citadel shot 16-of-18 from the charity stripe. Conversely, Samford finished Friday's contest with a 6-of-12 performance from the free-throw line.

Also scoring in double figures for The Citadel were Harrison DuPont and Austin Dahn. DuPont registered 13 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocks for the Bulldogs, while Dahn added 10 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Samford was led offensively by senior point guard Trey Montgomery's 16 points. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-4 native of Destrehan, La., closed out his illustrious four-year career Friday as he moved into 19th place on Samford's all-time scoring list. Montgomery shot 6-of-11 from the field and closed out his collegiate career with 1,030 career points.

Fellow senior Bryan Friday added 11 points for the Bulldogs and scored eight straight points for Samford in the second half. Friday, a native of Grapevine, Texas, finished 4-of-9 from the floor and pulled down six rebounds. With his 11 points against The Citadel, he closed out his four-year career with a total of 972 points.

Samford's Jeffrey Merritt turned in a solid performance Friday with seven points, nine rebounds and a steal. The Bulldogs' sophomore from Oklahoma City, Okla., played 24 minutes and knocked down an early 3-point basket.

"Our problem tonight was on the offensive side of the floor," said Tillette. "It's been that way all year for us and tonight was no exception. We only had five guys score in the game and our leading scorer Josh Davis did not have one of his better games tonight. Our younger guys did some things well, but they didn't have their best games offensively. I give the credit to The Citadel in their assuredness in guarding us."

The Citadel shot 36.2 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from beyond the arc. Samford turned in a 31.4 percentage from the floor, but was only 5-of-27 (18.5 percent) from downtown. The Bulldogs out-rebounded The Citadel 37-32 and Samford's bench outscored the Cadets' reserves 15-2.

The Citadel used an 11-0 run midway through the first half of play to take a 27-18 lead at the intermission. During their scoring outburst, the Bulldogs' Wells made four straight free throws, DuPont connected on a put-back layup and Dahn registered five-consecutive points.

Samford aided The Citadel's 11-0 run by going on a 5:22 scoring drought in the first half. After the Bulldogs' Montgomery tallied a driving layup with 10:23 to play in the period, Samford did not score again until Montgomery connected on another driving left-handed layup at the 5:01 mark.

Montgomery led all scorers at the half with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. He also pulled down four rebounds and registered eight straight points for the Bulldogs. Samford only shot 29.2 percent from the field in the first half, while The Citadel turned in a 38.1 shooting percentage.

Wells, The Citadel's All-SoCon point guard, led his squad with nine points in the first half, including a key 3-point basket at the buzzer. His other six points came from the free-throw line.

"We started three sophomores down the stretch this season and our hope is that they will be better next season as juniors," Tillette said. "We will also have some redshirt freshmen and incoming freshmen that we will count on to make us a better team. We'll also have Josh Davis and Andy King back next season, but collectively, we're going to need to get better. The offseason is always a key time for us and our guys need to work hard to improve this year."

Next season, Samford will return four starters and nine returning letterwinners. The Bulldogs will also add the services of redshirt freshmen Drew Windler and Levi Barnes, as well as highly-touted incoming freshmen Will Cook and Tyler Hood.