Feb. 24, 2005

Box Score

NASHVILLE - The Samford University basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 87-85 loss on the road against Tennessee State on Thursday as the Tigers' reserve guard Reiley Ervin banked in an off-balance running jumper with 4.2 seconds remaining in overtime to give TSU the victory.

"Offensively, we played well enough to beat anybody in the league," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "Defensively, I think that we would've had a hard time beating the `lunch bunch'. I thought that we were horrible on the defensive end and we gave up 11 3's to their shooters."

Samford (15-12, 10-6 OVC) closed out its regular-season schedule on Thursday and will await the completion of Saturday's game to find out its seed in the 2005 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

The Bulldogs currently sit in a two-way tie for third place along with Murray State, which defeated Southeastern Missouri on the road on Thursday. Samford closed out its regular season with a five-game losing streak away from home and is hoping to remain one of the top-four teams in the final conference standings.

The top-four teams in the league will host the first-round tournament games on Tuesday, March 1.

Samford was led in scoring by junior J. Robert Merritt and sophomore Randall Gulina.

Each player finished with 17 points, while Jerry Smith tacked on 12 and Jon Mills added 11. Merritt scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half and ended the game 6-of-10 from the floor.

"At halftime, I told the team to continue what it was doing on the offensive end of the floor, but I also told them to completely change the way that they were playing on defense," said Tillette. "We came out and played strong early in the second half, but we just couldn't get it right."

Tennessee State (13-16, 8-7 OVC) improved to 9-2 at home this season and shot an impressive 69.2 percent from the floor.

The Tigers were led in scoring by Kareem Grant who finished with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-12 shooting. Grant, TSU's junior from Middletown, Conn., tallied 12 points from beyond the arc on a 4-of-5 performance from beyond the arc.

"I thought that our reserve players did a great job," Tillette said. "They were able to get a little more playing time in the first half, because there wasn't a stoppage of play for a long time. We just did a terrible job of stopping their shooters."

At the half, Tennessee State held a slight 43-42 advantage in the contest behind a 15-point performance from Grant. The Tigers' 6-6 junior led all scorers with 15 points and connected on a trio of 3-point baskets.

Samford's senior forward Mills led the team with nine points at the half and scored seven of the Bulldogs' first 12 points of the game. He was a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor and chipped in an assist.

The teams dazzled the crowd with a pair of stellar shooting performances from the field in the first half of play.

Tennessee State finished the opening period shooting 16-of-22 (72.7%) from the floor and Samford went into halftime shooting 69.6 percent. The Bulldogs were 16-of-23 from the field in the first half and connected on 6-of-9 of their 3-point attempts.

Samford had eight players hit a 3-point shot on Thursday and finished the game shooting 63.2 percent from beyond the arc. Merritt led the team with three 3-point field goals and finished 3-of-5 from long range.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Tuesday, March 1, as the Bulldogs compete in the first round of the 2005 OVC Tournament. Samford's opponent will not be determined until Saturday, when the OVC's regular-season schedule is completed.