Feb. 14, 2006

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team's late rally came up a bit short against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels on Tuesday as the Bulldogs suffered a heart-wrenching 75-70 defeat at home in Seibert Hall.

Samford (16-8, 12-5 OVC) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, but rallied to take its final lead of the game at 70-69 with 2:56 remaining.

It was at that point that the Bulldogs went stone cold from the field, missing its final five shots and Eastern Kentucky (12-13, 9-8 OVC) made a layup and four-consecutive free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

"I was frustrated by the lack of effort shown by our guys tonight," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "Late in the game, we had the lead, but then we commit a costly turnover, we miss a layup and we miss a couple of open shots. Those things will happen, but that's why you have to play hard to separate yourself early in the game."

Eastern Kentucky jumped out to its big first-half lead behind the play of senior point guard Matt Witt.

Witt, a native of Tipp City, Ohio, scored 18 of his career-high 33 points in the first half and finished the game with a career-high seven 3-point field goals. On Tuesday, he also became Eastern Kentucky's all-time scoring leader with 1,742 points.

Fellow-senior Jason McLeish added 17 points for the Colonels, while forward Darnell Dialls tacked on 10. Eastern Kentucky shot 60.4 percent in the game and connected on 10-of-17 of its 3-point attempts.

"I think that Witt demonstrated that he's a great player tonight," Tillette said. "He made some difficult shots and that's why for the last three minutes of the game we just went man-to-man on him and had the others play zone. I think that Curtis (West) did a good job on him late in the game, but he was the only one that could guard him."

After trailing by eight at the half, 41-33, Samford rallied mid-way through the second period and tied the game at 60-60, as Travis Peterson slammed home his third, two-handed dunk of the contest with 9:26 remaining.

The Bulldogs then took their first lead of the game two minutes later with a free throw from Peterson to make it 61-60. The teams see-sawed back and forth for the next five minutes until Samford went ice cold from the field at the two-minute mark.

Peterson led the Bulldogs with a career-high 25 points on Tuesday. Samford's 6-foot-10 center shot 10-of-15 from the floor and made 3-of-6 of his 3-point attempts.

Junior Randall Gulina complemented Peterson with 14 points of his own, while J. Robert Merritt finished with 12. Point guard Jerry Smith tallied a career-high 10 assists and Curtis West grabbed a game-high three steals.

"I thought that we played well enough offensively," said Tillette. "We started the game off terribly, but overall we did a decent job. We were able to score the ball inside against their zone and we made 13 three-point shots in the game. We shot 43 percent from the arc and we had 23 assists compared to 10 turnovers. Unfortunately, we just missed a couple of key shots when we needed them."

Eastern Kentucky shot a sizzling 61.5 percent from the field in the first half to take a 41-33 advantage into the intermission.

"The first half was one of the most embarrassing that I have ever been associated with," said Tillette. "Our team definitely showed a lack of effort and I think that I did a terrible job of getting them ready to play."

The Colonels connected on seven first-half 3-point baskets and shot 63.6 percent from beyond the arc. Witt, a 6-foot-0 point guard, shot 7-of-11 from the floor in the opening period and drained four 3-point baskets.

Samford shot 48 percent from the field in the first half and made 7-of-14 of its attempts from 3-point range.

Senior J. Robert Merritt led the team with eight opening-period points, while Peterson followed with seven. Smith handed out four assists in the first half and Gulina grabbed five rebounds.

Sophomore Joe Ross Merritt hit some key buckets on Tuesday and finished with nine points. He was 3-of-5 from the floor, with all nine of his points coming from 3-point range.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Thursday as the Bulldogs square off against the Morehead State Eagles in a critical OVC game that will begin at 8 p.m., in Seibert Hall. The contest will be televised live to a national audience on ESPNU.

Thursday's game can also be heard live on WVSU 91.1-FM or via the Internet at either www.samfordsports.com or www.al.com/WVSU.