MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Samford women's basketball team dropped its season opener at Memphis, falling to the Tigers by a score of 64-48 Sunday afternoon at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
 
Samford head coach Mike Morris said fouls and turnovers cost his team in the season-opening setback.
 
"I thought we fouled too much defensively," Morris said. "What really hurt us was we had key players get in foul trouble. We have to do a better job of not fouling. We had some silly fouls. We were not in the right position at times and at other times we just gambled too much. From an offensive standpoint, we turned the ball over too much."
 
As a team, the Bulldogs turned the ball over 20 times and committed 23 fouls in the contest. Four Samford players committed four fouls each.
 
Junior center Taylor Reece led Samford in scoring with 16 points. Freshman forward Destiney Elliott scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds.
 
Memphis was led by Mooriah Rowser with 18 points. Breigha Cochran-Wilder added 15 points and six rebounds for the Tigers.
 
In the first half, Samford jumped out to an early 5-0 lead following a layup by Elliott with 18:15 to go in the first half. Memphis fought back to cut the lead to two points at 10-8 with 16:07 to go after a three-pointer by Cochran-Wilder. The Bulldogs pushed their lead back out to five at 15-10 with 12:57 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Ellen Riggins.
 
Memphis went on a 10-3 run to take a 20-18 lead with 8:50 left in the first half after a pair of free throws by Taylor Williams. Samford scored the next eight points to take a 26-20 lead with 5:41 left in the half after a layup by Riggins. The Tigers then went on an 8-0 run of their own to take the lead again at 28-26 with 2:46 left in the half after a layup by Rowser. Memphis took a 31-28 lead into halftime.
 
In the second half, Samford scored the first five points of the half to take a 33-31 lead with 18:48 to go in the game after a three-point play by Hannah Nichols. Memphis, however, went on an 11-0 run to take a 42-33 lead with 14:45 to play after a pair of free throws by Chochran-Wilder.
 
Memphis pushed its lead out to 14 points at 55-41 with 6:00 to go after a jumper by Asianna Fuqua-Bey. The Bulldogs fought back to close to within eight points at 56-48 with 3:57 to go after a pair of free throws by Reece. Memphis, however, scored the final eight points of the game to pull away for the 64-48 win.
 
Samford drops to 0-1 with the loss. Memphis improves to 2-0 with the win.
 
Samford will return to action on Friday, Nov. 21, when the Bulldogs play host to Alabama A&M. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.