Feb 22, 2003

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - J. Robert Merritt was 8-of-10 shooting and scored 19 points, including 17 in the first half, as Samford beat Campbell 63-44 in front of a season-high crowd of 3,120 on Senior Day at Seibert Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Eddie Harper added 14 points and five assists as Samford (13-13, 9-6 Atlantic Sun Conference) shot 55 percent from the floor and dominated the boards 32-21.

Campbell (5-20, 1-13) was led by Tarick Johnson who scored 10 points and Jonte' Edwards who grabbed seven rebounds.

The Camels opened the game by making their first four shots and opening a 9-4 lead. Samford responded with an 11-0 run to make the score 15-9 at the 13:35 mark. The Bulldogs extended the lead to as many as 19 in the first half and took a 30-21 lead into the locker room.

Merritt was 7-8 and 3-3 from three-point range in the first half as he had 17 points at the break compared to just 21 just for the entire Campbell team. Merritt's nine rebounds in the game tied his career-high that he set at Campbell on Jan. 9.

The Bulldogs built their largest lead of 21 points at 44-23 with 17:03 remaining in the game. Campbell mounted 21-9 run over the next 10 minutes to pull to within nine points at 53-44 with 7:08 to play. Those would be the Camels final points of the afternoon as Samford ended the game on a 10-0 run to make the final score 63-44.

Cornell Felton played his final home game at Seibert Hall and went off to a standing ovation when he was subbed out with less than a minute to play. Felton finished five points, three rebounds, and four assists.

Samford reached the .500 mark on the season for the first time since Dec. 16, when it was 4-4. Samford will try to have a winning season for the ninth-straight season was it wraps up the regular season on Friday, Feb. 28, at Belmont.