Jan. 30, 2003

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Samford continued its dominance against Florida Atlantic by winning its eighth straight against the Owls 73-53 Thursday night at in Atlantic Sun men's basketball action at the FAU Arena.

The Bulldogs placed four players in double figures led by Cornell Felton who scored a career-high 16 points and handed out six assists. Tyson Dorsey scored 14 points, J. Robert Merritt had 13 points, and Phillip Ramelli added 10 points as Samford moved to 8-11 overall and 4-4 in the A-Sun. Samford moves its record against Florida Atlantic to 10-1 all time.

Chris Thomas led FAU with 18 points and Earnest Crumbley had 14 points for the Owls who dropped to 5-15 overall and 1-7 in the conference.

Samford held FAU to a season-low 13 points in the first as the Bulldogs took a 33-13 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs opened the game on a 7-0 run and extended the run to 18-5 before the Owls scored six straight points. The Bulldogs answered with eight straight to take a 26-11 before Nick Neumann scored FAU's first points in seven minutes to make the score 26-13 at the 3:08 mark of the half. The Bulldogs finished the half on a 7-0 run to take a 33-13 lead into halftime.

"I thought the way we started out defensively set the tone for the game," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "Our team was committed to making the extra pass in the offense and Josh Hare did an excellent job defending Avery Headley."

The Owls halftime total was the fewest of the season by a Samford opponent. FAU only managed to shoot 20 percent (4-20) from the floor in the first half. The Owls finished the game at 32 percent from the floor. Samford shot 63 percent from the floor in the game, 56 percent from three point range, and 94 percent from the free throw line.

The second half was a much more closely contested half as both team put up 40 points. FAU shot 39 percent in the second half but Samford remained hot from three point range hitting on 7-9 in the half.

"We knew we had to play two halves, 40 minutes of basketball. We stayed in our offense, they made some three's but they are a good team, they are well coached, they are going to make some three's." said Tillette

The Bulldogs string of 33 consecutive made throws came to an end when Merritt missed the front end of a 1-1 in the second half. The Bulldogs finished 15-16 from the line in the game and have made 37 of their last 38 from the stripe.

Samford will travel to Orlando on Saturday to face A-Sun North co-leader UCF in a 6:30 p.m. CT game.