Jan. 14, 2012

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In front of the TV cameras, the Samford University basketball team turned in its best performance of the 2011-12 campaign Saturday with a demonstrative 81-70 Southern Conference home victory against the Chattanooga Mocs at the Pete Hanna Center. The matchup was broadcast to a live regional audience on My68, and snapped the Bulldogs' six-game losing streak.

"I'm real proud of our guys," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "We've been shorthanded, we've been sick, we've got injuries, so I'm real proud of our guys. That's a good basketball team we beat. I knew Chattanooga was going to come and play. They're a good basketball team and they're well coached. I was real pleased we were able to separate down the stretch. We shot our free throws well."

Samford (4-12, 1-4 SoCon) was led offensively Saturday by a sophomore and two freshmen.

Sophomore center Drew Windler scored a career-high 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and knocked down a personal-best five 3-point baskets. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-9 native of South Milwaukee, Wis., also pulled down seven rebounds and finished a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.

True freshman Raijon Kelly, who has been an immediate spark for the Bulldogs since moving into the starting lineup Jan. 7, scored a career-high 19 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field Saturday. Kelly also tied his career-high with 36 minutes of game action and finished an unblemished 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.

As a team, Samford registered a season-high free-throw percentage of 91.7 (22-of-24). The Bulldogs' performance from the charity stripe far surpassed its previous season-high of 83.3 percent, which was achieved against Mercer on Dec. 7.

"We've gotten better all year, but to the naked eye that's hard to see, because in athletics it's either you win or you lose," Tillette said. "We look at video every day and while we're disappointed in losing as competitors, there's no discouragement. Our guys have gotten better. We've been having some really good practices and we were in a position to win the game at Georgia Southern. We just need to continue moving in the right direction."

Samford's third player in double figures Saturday was redshirt freshman Tyler Hood who finished with 15 points on a 6-of-12 performance from the floor. Hood, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-6 native of Kingston, Tenn., compiled three assists, a rebound, a block, a steal and a key 3-point basket.

With the loss, Chattanooga (9-10, 3-3 SoCon) had its three-game winning streak snapped. Heading into Saturday's contest, the Mocs were coming off consecutive SoCon victories against Western Carolina 78-62, Appalachian State 65-63 and Wofford 51-48.

Chattanooga turned in one of its worst shooting performances of the season at 33.9 percent. The Mocs attempted 33 shots from beyond the arc and knocked down 11 of them for a 33.3-percent outing.

Senior guard and Georgetown transfer Omar Wattad paced Chattanooga's offensive attack with 17 points, but only connected on 4-of-15 shot attempts. The Mocs' native of Johnson City, Tenn., was 4-of-13 from 3-point range. Chattanooga's Dontay Hampton and Z. Mason both came off the bench to add 11 points.

Samford turned in a 47.1-percent mark from the floor Saturday and finished 11-of-34 from 3-point range. The Bulldogs opened the game hitting on all cylinders and recorded a 57.1 shooting percentage in the first half to take a 44-32 advantage into the locker room. Samford knocked down six of its 11 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes of play.

During the first eight minutes of the second half, Chattanooga knocked down a barrage of 3-point baskets and used a 13-0 run to take a 49-48 advantage in the game with 12:32 left on the clock. The Mocs' Hampton knocked down three straight 3-pointers to catapult Chattanooga into the lead.

Following Hampton's third 3-pointer and the ensuing Samford timeout, the Bulldogs quickly answered with a 3-point basket from Hood on the right flank. After Hood's shot at the 12:05 mark, Samford never relinquished the lead and eventually extended its decisive advantage to 11 points with the final 81-70 score.

"I was pleased that we were able to separate from Chattanooga late in the game," said Tillette. "They cut the game down to four points and then our guys were able to hit their free throws down the stretch. I thought that Raijon Kelly, being a true freshman, really did an outstanding job. He scores 19 points, goes 8-of-8 from the free-throw line and doesn't commit a turnover. Not bad for a true freshman."

The Bulldogs entered Saturday's game shooting only 60 percent from the free-throw line. That prompted Chattanooga head coach John Shulman to start fouling Samford's Kelly at the 2:11 mark in the second half. Kelly closed out the game by hitting all eight of his free-throw attempts.

Samford senior Jeffrey Merritt turned in one of his best all-around performances Saturday as he nearly tallied a triple-double. Merritt, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-6 native of Oklahoma City, Okla., tied his career-high with 12 rebounds and added a career-high nine assists and seven points.

"Jeffrey's always just been that guy, that's going to work super hard, that's his bread and butter," said Windler. "As other players, we always look up to that. You see him flying around for rebounds, making plays, making passes. We tried to pick him up scoring-wise. Jeff's effort is never questioned. If he's not scoring that's all right, he's going to give us so much otherwise."

Samford recently reverted back to its matchup zone defense and has limited its opponents to a 37.7-percent mark from the field. Conversely, the Bulldogs have turned in a 45-percent mark during the same stretch.

"We went back to our matchup zone because we just felt like we didn't have enough foot speed or enough numbers for the man-to-man," Tillette said. "The people we envisioned coming in weren't here, two of our starters, so we had to go deep into our bench to some guys who aren't used to playing man to man. Today, we sprinkled in some man to man, but it was mostly matchup zone."

Samford forced 15 turnovers Saturday and outscored Chattanooga 25-13 in points off turnovers.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs once again hit the road to embark on a five-day, two-game trip versus Elon and UNCG. Samford will square off against Elon on Thursday at 6 p.m., and then close out the road swing Sunday at 1 p.m., at UNCG.