Jan. 28, 2012

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team picked up its biggest Southern Conference victory in school history Saturday as the Bulldogs defeated the first-place Davidson Wildcats, 77-74, in front of a boisterous home crowd at the Pete Hanna Center. Samford (7-13, 4-5 SoCon) is in the midst of its fourth season as a member of the talent-laden SoCon.

"This was a huge win for us tonight because we'd never beaten Davidson," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "It's a great win and it is definitely one of the best wins we've had since I've been coaching. It's even bigger because I have a lot of respect for Davidson's program and the history of what they've been able to accomplish."

With the victory, Samford tallied its third straight home triumph and improved to 4-1 in its last five games. The Bulldogs also jumped to fourth place in the SoCon North Division standings and only trail first-place UNCG by a game and a half.

Samford will attempt to earn its fourth consecutive home win Monday as the Bulldogs welcome College of Charleston to the Pete Hanna Center.

"Since losing to The Citadel three weeks ago, our team has moved to another level," Tillette said. "I'm not saying that we figured it out, because we definitely have a lot of things that we need to continue to get better at, but our team is a better team than it was even last game. We need to continue to eliminate self-destructive plays. The whole goal is to be less imperfect. We're never going to be perfect, but we're limiting our mistakes and our team has taken that to heart."

Davidson (15-5, 9-1 SoCon) suffered its first conference loss of the season and had its 13-game SoCon winning streak snapped. Prior to Saturday's defeat, the Wildcats' most recent setback occurred at Furman, 88-79, on Feb. 12, 2011.

In Samford's first victory over Davidson in school history, the Bulldogs streaked out of the gates quickly and garnered a 14-6 lead behind six early points from Drew Windler. Samford then used a deep 3-point basket from Jeffrey Merritt at the 3:29 mark to extend its first-half advantage to 33-23.

Merritt finished the opening period with a game-high 14 points and knocked down 3-of-3 attempts from 3-point range. The Bulldogs' Raijon Kelly also turned in a solid first half of play as the true freshman point guard scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field.

With the stellar output from Windler, Merritt and Kelly, Samford boasted a 42-26 lead at the half.

"Our team came out with a lot of energy, and it's hard to sustain, but our energy put us in a good position to contest their threes," Tillette said. "In the second half, we were a bit fatigued because of their physicality, but our guys stayed the course and we had a lot of contributions from some of our younger guys. Connor Miller did an outstanding job tonight coming off the bench."

Davidson opened the second half with a 20-9 run to cut the Bulldogs' advantage to 51-46 with 11:40 left to play. During their run, the Wildcats used eight straight points from De'Mon Brooks, a jumper from Tom Droney and back-to-back buckets from JP Kuhlman to pull within five points of Samford.

To put an end to Davidson's second-half run, the Bulldogs' Windler and Connor Miller both knocked down key 3-point baskets.

Miller, Samford's true freshman guard from Stanley, Wis., turned in the best game of his young career Saturday as he scored a personal-best 12 points on a perfect 3-of-3 performance from the field. He also went 2-for-2 from beyond the arc and made all four of his free-throw attempts.

Miller's first 3-point basket of the game gave Samford a 57-46 lead with 10:46 remaining on the clock. His second 3-pointer of the night was just as clutch for the Bulldogs at 5:40 in the game to give his squad a 65-55 advantage.

Despite Miller's heroics, Davidson used back-to-back 3-point field goals from Kuhlman and Chris Czerapowicz to trim Samford's lead down to 67-64 with 3:55 to play. Following a critical dribble-drive and flying layup down the lane by Miller, the Wildcats' Czerapowicz answers with a bucket of his own to make the score 73-71 with just over a minute remaining.

"Connor Miller definitely impressed me the most today," said Merritt. "He stepped up in the second half and made those two huge threes. Then, he made that running layup to put us up by four points late in the game and that was huge."

As time wound down, Davidson still trailed by two points with 18 seconds remaining, but had possession of the ball. The Wildcats ran the clock down to approximately 10 seconds, fed the ball inside to their leading scorer Brooks, but the sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., couldn't connect on the possible game-tying basket.

Brooks' final shot found the back of the rim and Samford's Will Cook skied for the key rebound. Cook finished the game with a team-high eight boards and also filled up the stat sheet with 10 points, three assists, three rebounds and a blocked shot.

"Will Cook had a great game tonight and since we've switched to our match-up zone, he and Jeffrey (Merritt) have gone to get the rebounds," said Tillette. "They will fly from wherever to go grab the ball and that helped us today, because Davidson is always very active on the glass. I have to give kudos to Will for a great game tonight."

After Cook's late rebound, the Bulldogs' Miller calmly sank both free throws to give Samford a 75-71 advantage with six seconds left. The game ended with a desperation 3-pointer from Davidson's Nik Cochran and a pair of free throws from Cook.

"This was probably the No. 1 win in my college career," said Cook. "Davidson was the top team in the conference, so this was a huge victory to knock them off. I just came out today and tried to play hard on defense. We have great players on offense, so I feel like I can help the team most on the defensive end of the court, and then the offensive part will just come. I'll never forget getting that last rebound, because it was a big shot and if it would have gone in, then it would have put the game in jeopardy."

Samford finished Saturday's game with five players scoring in double figures for the first time this season. Merritt paced the team with 20 points, while Windler finished with 15 and Kelly added 12. The Bulldogs outscored Davidson 16-10 in the paint and shot a sizzling 52.5 percent from the field.

"I thought we did a good job of attacking Davidson down low," Tillette said. "It's a pick-your-poison kind of thing. Anytime they would double us down in the post, we would have open shooters around the arc. We were able to knock down some big 3-point shots tonight."

Samford only attempted 14 3-point baskets, but connected on 10 of them for a season-high percentage of 71.4 from beyond the arc. Prior to Saturday's victory, the Bulldogs' best percentage from 3-point range was a 59.6-percent outing against Lindsey Wilson on Dec. 10.

Since losing at The Citadel on Jan. 7, Samford has compiled a 4-2 record and is only allowing opponents to score 66.3 points per game. The Bulldogs limited Davidson, the highest scoring team in the SoCon with an average of 79.2 points, to only 74.

"Three weeks ago tonight, we lost at The Citadel and our team looked physically flat and mentally stale," said Tillette. "Our coaching staff came together and that's when they decided to go with the match-up zone. That decision has revived us on both ends of the floor."

Samford attempted a season-high 33 free throws Saturday and connected on 25 for a solid 75.8-percent mark from the charity stripe. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded, 34-25, but outscored Davidson, 17-13, off the bench.

After earning its first win in school history against Davidson, Samford will also try to achieve the same feat Monday against College of Charleston. The Bulldogs are currently 0-11 versus College of Charleston.

"We have another big challenge Monday night with a College of Charleston team that is coming here to play," Tillette said. "Not only is College of Charleston a good team, but it's always tough to play three games in five days."

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Monday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their key three-game conference homestand with a matchup against the College of Charleston Cougars to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.