Feb. 16, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team dropped an 81-68 decision to the Wofford Terriers Wednesday in a Southern Conference cross-divisional matchup held at the Pete Hanna Center.

"A few weeks ago, Wofford beat us by 38 points at their place," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "I thought that we played better tonight, but they also played better tonight. They shot it well, they did some things well and they are a very good basketball team. We saw improvement from our team tonight. Are we happy that we lost by 13 at home? No. Not by any means."

With the loss, Samford (12-15, 4-11 SoCon) fell to 6-6 when playing at home this season. The Bulldogs will next be in action Saturday at 4 p.m. (CST) as they conclude their current two-game homestand against Furman.

Wofford (15-12, 12-4 SoCon) registered its second straight victory Wednesday and improved its all-time record against Samford to 6-2. Since the Bulldogs joined the SoCon in 2008-09, the Terriers have won all five meetings between the teams.

"Wofford is a very tough matchup for us," Tillette said. "They can beat you off the dribble, they have a couple of really good 3-point shooters in (Cameron) Rundles and (Kevin) Giltner, and obviously they have (Jamar) Diggs and (Noah) Dahlman inside, and those guys are a load to guard down there."

Wofford shot a sizzling 66.7 percent from the field in the first half and took a 46-28 lead into the intermission. The Terriers extended its advantage early in the second period and held its largest lead of the game, 63-39, with 9:56 to play.

Down the stretch, Samford used 10 points each from Josh Bedwell and John Peterson, as well as five from Jeffrey Merritt to trim Wofford's final advantage to 13 points, 81-68.

The Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half and forced the Terriers into nine of their 17 turnovers. Samford outscored Wofford 28-20 in the paint and finished with eight steals. The Bulldogs' bench also outscored the Terriers' reserves by a count of 29-15.

"I thought we were energized tonight," said Tillette. "We forced 17 turnovers and we had eight steals. We drove the ball to the goal better, but we just kept getting fouled. We only made 19 of 30 free throws, so we need to get better at that."

Samford finished Wednesday's game with three players scoring in doubles figures. Bedwell, the Bulldogs' senior marksman from Hartselle, Ala., paced the team with 15 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field. Samford's 6-foot guard also turned in a perfect 3-for-3 outing from 3-point range and an unblemished 4-for-4 performance from the charity stripe.

Peterson followed with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs' junior forward from Boca Raton, Fla., added three rebounds and knocked down 6-of-8 attempts from the free-throw line.

Sophomore guard Gregg Wooten led Samford with six first-half points and finished with 12 in 26 minutes of playing time. The Bulldogs' native of Memphis, Tenn., also handed out three assists and grabbed two rebounds.

Samford shifted its starting lineup around a bit and true freshman Will Cook made his first career start Wednesday. The Bulldogs' high-flying guard from Dallas, Texas, took advantage of the opportunity and scored a career-high nine points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor. Cook scored a pair of athletic layups with slashing drives to the goal and logged a career-high 24 minutes of playing time.

"We juggled our lineup a bit tonight and we went with some younger guys," Tillette said. "I thought that they competed hard, but they also made some mistakes. We're trying to transition to play more man-to-man defensively and we haven't really had a lot of reps with that, so there was a bit of a learning curve tonight, but I thought they played hard."

Merritt, the Bulldogs' junior guard from Oklahoma City, Okla., nearly tallied his fourth double-double of the season as he finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Merritt entered the game as the second-ranked rebounder in the conference with an average of 6.7 boards per outing.

"I thought that we were more aggressive tonight," said Tillette. "A lot of that can be attributed to playing more man-to-man and I think it helped us rebound the ball better. They got nine offensive rebounds, but we got eight offensive rebounds, so we've become more aggressive and we've become a tougher basketball team. We have a long way to go, but I think that we've gotten better."

Wofford also finished with three players scoring in double figures. Noah Dahlman, the third-ranked scorer in the league this season, led the Terriers with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while Cameron Rundles followed with 17 points of his own. He also pulled down five rebounds and knocked down a trio of key 3-point baskets.

Jamar Diggs, Wofford's senior forward from Minneapolis, Minn., turned in a solid all-around game with 14 points, three assists, two steals and a block in 29 minutes of playing time.

Wofford turned in a stellar 59.6 shooting percentage and connected on 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) of its 3-point attempts from the field. The Bulldogs finished Wednesday's game shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from long range.

"We have a tough end of the regular season coming up," Tillette said. "We have Furman coming here Saturday and then we go to Charleston Monday. Then, we close out the regular season against Chattanooga, who is leading the North Division. So, we don't have an easy game left on the schedule. We're looking for our team to be as good as they can possibly be. We are going to show up tomorrow, strap it on in practice and try to get ready for a tough game on Saturday."

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 4 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their brief two-game SoCon homestand against the Furman Paladins at the Pete Hanna Center.