Feb. 27, 2012

Box Score
SoCon Tournament Bracket

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford women's basketball team shot just 25.5 percent as the Bulldogs dropped a 52-39 decision in the team's regular-season finale against Davidson Monday evening in the Pete Hanna Center.

With the loss, Samford ends its regular season with a record of 17-12 overall and 12-8 in Southern Conference play. The Bulldogs enter next week's SoCon Tournament as the No. 4 seed, and will take on fifth-seeded Elon in Saturday's quarterfinals.

Davidson ends the season in a tie with Appalachian State for the regular-season title with a 17-3 league record. Davidson earns the No. 1 seed in the SoCon Tournament due to its two wins over Appalachian State in the regular season. The Wildcats are 21-8 overall.

"We're struggling offensively," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "From a defensive standpoint we played well enough to win the game. Offensively, we're struggling, we're not seeing some things and we're not making some shots we usually make. From a defensive standpoint we did some good stuff, we just have to get better from an offensive standpoint."

Samford was led in scoring by senior guard Ruth Ketcham with 10 points. Freshman forward Taylor Reece scored nine points. Senior guard Jazmine Powers dished out seven assists in the loss.

Davidson was led by Sophia Aleksadravicius with 13 points. Amanda Ottaway and Katrin Chiemeka added nine points each for the Wildcats.

The game was tight throughout the first half. The largest lead either team had in the first half was four points by Davidson at 6-2. Samford scored the next five points to take a 7-6 lead with 12:15 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Ketcham.

The teams were tied five times in the first half and there were six lead changes. The teams went into the locker room at halftime tied at 19-19.

In the second half, Davidson scored the first four points of the half to take a 23-19 lead with 18:41 to go after a pair of free throws by Laura Murray. With Samford trailing, 25-23, Davidson went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-point lead at 37-23 with 12:29 to go after a layup by Murray.

The Wildcats pushed their lead out to as much as 17 points at 41-24 with 10:47 to go after a three-pointer by Chiemeka. Samford fought back to cut the lead to 11 points at 43-32 with 5:59 to go after a jumper by Reece.

Davidson then pushed the lead back out to 15 points at 49-34 with 3:26 to go after a jumper by Murray. Samford scored the next five points to close to within 10 points at 49-39 with 49 seconds to go after a jumper by Reece. Davidson hit three free throws down the stretch to make the final score 52-39.

Fourth-seeded Samford's quarterfinal SoCon Tournament game against fifth-seeded Elon is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. (CT) Saturday afternoon in Asheville, N.C. at UNC Asheville's Kimmel Arena. The game, however, could be rescheduled for 3 p.m. (CT), if the UNC Asheville men's basketball team is playing in Kimmel Arena in the Big South Conference title game.

A complete bracket for the SoCon Tournament is below.

SoCon Tournament Bracket