Jan. 11, 2003

Box Score

Gardner-Webb sank three free-throws in the final 5.2 seconds and held off a late surge by Samford to win 56-52. The Bulldogs, now 1-2 in the Atlantic Sun, will play Georgia State at home on Jan. 18.

The Bulldogs (5-9, 1-2 A-Sun) trailed by one with 5.2 seconds left when Anthony LoPiano fouled GWU's Eli Strait. The 6'0" guard made his first free throw. On the second free-throw, a miss, the ball was tipped by Andre Manning into the hands of Josh Chiles. Tyson Dorsey fouled Chiles with 2.9 seconds remaining. Chiles sank both free-throws to provide the final score, 56-52.

Samford trailed 33-27 at the half, thanks largely to three 3-pointers from GWU's Brian Bender. The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 10 points before staging a comeback led by Phillip Ramelli. The junior scored 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 2-of-2 from 3-pointers. Ramelli added nine rebounds. Cornell Felton scored nine points and had three rebounds for Samford.

The Bulldogs held GWU to 37 percent shooting, but the Running Bulldogs grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. Gardner-Webb had a 43-32 overall rebounding lead.

"We gave up nine offensive rebounds in the second half," said coach Jimmy Tillette. "We gave them too many second-chance opportunities."

Gardner-Webb was led in scoring by Otis Daniels, who scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds.

"One thing that hurt us tonight was offensive inefficiency," said Tillette. "We've got to convert around the basket and we have to knock down the wide open 3's."

This was Gardner-Webb's first win of the season over a Division I opponent in 12 tries. The Running Bulldogs record was decieving however, considering the brutal schedule they have played. GWU lost its opener by two points to Tennessee. GWU also played Winthrop, Georgia Tech, Colorado State, Clemson, Virginia, Eastern Michigan, SMU and West Virginia during its non-conference schedule.

"We have met the enemy," said Tillette. "And it is us. Experience is only valuable if you learn from it. We just finished telling our guys, 'There isn't anybody in our league we can beat unless we play 40 minutes of hard and tough basketball.'"

The next chance for Samford to get on track will be Jan. 18, when the Bulldogs host a Lefty Driesell-less Georgia State at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on Fox-TV.