Dec. 20, 2011

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Against its highest-ranked opponent in over five years, the Samford University basketball team dropped an 82-50 decision against the third-ranked Kentucky Wildcats Tuesday in front of 21,984 fans at Rupp Arena. The attendance was the largest to watch a Samford basketball game in school history.

"Kentucky is an outstanding team," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "I am proud of our team, the way we were able to run our offense against their pressure. We were a little bit behind the eight ball, our starting point guard had the stomach flu and could only play three minutes, and our backup had a bad leg. I thought we competed throughout the whole game; we actually got better from half to half, that's our measure of the game for our team."

With the loss, Samford (3-7) had its two-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 1-2 when playing on the road this season. The Bulldogs will next be in action after Christmas in a road matchup at Sam Houston State on Dec. 28.

Kentucky (10-1), which was Samford's highest-ranked opponent since the Bulldogs opened the 2006-07 season at No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Florida on Nov. 10, 2006, extended its home winning streak to 41 games Tuesday. Under the tutelage of Head Coach John Calipari, the Wildcats have not been defeated in Rupp Arena.

"Kentucky is very well-coached, but they are athletic enough that when they make a mistake defensively they erase it," Tillette said. "They erased about five balls off the boards that in our league nobody is erasing. On the other end they are going to get in to a comfortable mode of shooting so they are going to feel freer and be more in rhythm to make shots that they might not normally make. I don't really see a weakness for their team."

Kentucky scored the first 11 points of the game and jumped out to an early 15-5 advantage following a layup from Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. At the 12:48 mark in the first half, Samford used a jumper from Drew Windler and a driving layup from Jeffrey Merritt to trim the Wildcats' lead to 20-9.

"I think our team was a little nervous to start the game," said Tillette. "I also thought we got it right a little bit after that. We were a little starry eyed, stuck in mud with a Rupp Arena kind of aura. I thought we settled in and after that competed."

The Bulldogs continued to grind out buckets in the opening period despite only shooting 9.1 percent from 3-point range. Samford finished the first half 1-of-11 from beyond the arc, but following a layup from Windler and the team's lone 3-point basket from Tyler Hood, the Bulldogs trailed Kentucky 29-18 at the third media timeout.

The Wildcats closed out the first half with a 16-4 run to take a 45-22 advantage into the intermission.

Samford played better in the second half of play and was only outscored by Kentucky, 37-28. The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 43.5 percent from the field, but only 18.8 percent from 3-point range (3-for-16).

"We learned a lot from this game," said Merritt. "We showed a lot of character by fighting and battling for 40 minutes. I mean, we don't have the guys blocking shots at 6-foot-10, 6-foot-11, but it shows that we all can compete. If we play for a team, you can succeed."

Windler and Hood both scored 11 points to boost Samford's offensive attack, while the Wildcats finished with four players scoring in double figures.

Kentucky's Doron Lamb tallied a game-high 26 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and Darius Miller added 17 points and five assists. The Wildcats' Marquis Teague and Kidd-Gilchrist finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Samford's Windler scored his 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, while Hood went 3-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe. Senior Matthew Friday came off the bench to provide a spark for the Bulldogs as the 6-foot-8 center scored eight points on a 4-of-5 shooting performance. His lone miss came from beyond the arc.

"We ran our concepts very well tonight," said Hood. "That's one of the things that coach stresses, to make sure to run the concepts. We run well under this system. Get guys in good spots and knock down shots. In this case run guys off the three and try to make plays."

Kaylin Johnson also came off the bench for Samford and dropped in seven points in only 14 minutes of playing time. Merritt followed with six points, five rebounds and a pair of assists in a game-high 35 minutes of game action.

"Samford ran their offense better than any other team that we've faced this season," said Calipari. "They shot 43.5 percent from the field and were even better from inside the arc. That's unheard of against our team. They struggled a bit from 3-point range, but I thought that they were very well-coached and ran their offense better than most teams we'll see this season."

Samford's bench outscored Kentucky's reserves 22-7, while the Wildcats did their damage on second-chance points (18-4) and points off turnovers (18-5).

Kentucky finished the game with seven blocked shots, but was held below its season average of 10 per outing. Samford only committed 14 turnovers Tuesday, while the Wildcats committed seven miscues.

The Samford University basketball team will take a few days off for Christmas before returning back to campus Dec. 26, in preparation for a road trip to Sam Houston State. The Bulldogs will square off against Sam Houston State on Dec. 28 at 7 p.m., and then travel to College Park, Md., for a meeting with the Maryland Terrapins at 1 p.m., on Dec. 31.