Jan. 31, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team earned a hard-fought Southern Conference win over Georgia Southern, 62-55, Monday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.

With the win, Samford improves to 16-6 overall and 9-4 in Southern Conference play. The Bulldogs' win paired with Elon's loss to Davidson, moves Samford into a tie with Elon for second place in the SoCon standings, just two games behind first-place Appalachian State. Georgia Southern drops to 9-13 overall and 6-7 in league play.

The game was tight throughout the second half. Samford, however, hit some key shots down the stretch and made 8-of-8 free-throw attempts in the last five minutes to pull out the win.

"I'm very pleased with our team in terms of, when it was tied and we were missing shots we normally make, we didn't panic and we corrected ourselves," Morris said. "The players on the court got it right, corrected themselves and kept fighting and kept defending. We guarded well down the stretch and, as we kept running our offense, the shots started falling."

Samford was led in scoring by senior guard Emily London with 22 points. London made 9-of-9 attempts from the free-throw line. Fellow senior Savannah Hill had 10 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, while junior forward Hannah Dawson added 10 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Jazmine Powers came off the bench to spark the team in the second half with six points, hitting key shots down the stretch.

For Georgia Southern, Samantha Williams scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Meredyth Frye added 13 points for the Lady Eagles.

After Samford fell behind early, 5-2, the Bulldogs went on a 13-0 run to take a 15-5 lead with 12:05 to go in the first half after a layup by Shelby Campbell. Georgia Southern fought back to cut the lead to seven at 17-10 with 8:28 left in the first half, but a three-pointer by Paige Anderson pushed Samford's lead back out to10 at 20-10 with 8:19 left in the half.

The teams traded baskets over the next several minutes. With Samford leading, 24-14 with 2:36 to go in the half, the Lady Eagles scored the final four points of the half to cut Samford's lead to 24-18 heading into halftime.

Georgia Southern cut the Samford lead to four at 24-20 with 17:46 to go in the game. Samford pushed its lead back out to seven at 29-22 with 16:22 left after a three-point play by Hill.

With Samford leading, 32-24, Georgia Southern went on an 11-2 run to take a 35-34 lead with 12:11 to go in the game. The teams went back-and-forth over the next several minutes, with five ties and a lead change occurring in less than five minutes.

With Samford trailing, 46-44, the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to take a 51-46 lead with 4:34 to go after a pair of free throws by London. Free throws by London and Dawson and some key defensive stops down the stretch helped seal the win for Samford.

As a team, Samford made 20-of-21 attempts from the free-throw line. Samford shot 36.0 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent from three-point range, while GSU made 42.0 percent of its shots and 38.5 percent of its three-pointers. Samford out-rebounded Georgia Southern, 37-24.

Samford will return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 2, when the Bulldogs play at Chattanooga. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. (CST) start and it can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.