Dec. 3, 2005

Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. - Despite a 16-point, 10-rebound performance from junior Jerry Smith, the Samford University basketball team dropped a hard-fought 55-52 decision to the South Alabama Jaguars on Saturday at the Mitchell Center.

With the loss, Samford (3-3) had its two-game winning streak snapped and fell to 2-3 on the road this season. The Bulldogs' previous two road losses occurred at No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Oklahoma.

"Obviously, a lot of what went wrong for us in the game was how we started off the second half," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "We were missing a lot of our 3-point shots and we didn't really run our offense effectively at all. We fought back there at the end and made it a close game, but we just fell short."

South Alabama (4-1) took its first lead of the game at the 19:37 mark in the second half and used an 11-0 run to open the frame.

The Jaguars were led in both scoring and rebounding by guard Chey Christie. Christie, a 6-4 senior transfer from Clemson, finished with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. He scored all 16 of his points in the second half.

Samford's Smith also recorded a double-double on Saturday, the second of his career.

Smith connected on 7-of-13 of his shot attempts and led the Bulldogs with 16 points. He also paced the team with 10 rebounds and four assists. J. Robert Merritt, Samford's senior forward, scored 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting, while Joe Ross Merritt tallied eight and Randall Gulina finished with seven.

Despite shooting 37.5 percent from the field in the second half, Samford trimmed the Jaguars' lead from 15 points to four points in less than seven minutes of play.

After South Alabama's Christie hit a jumper with 7:21 remaining in the game to make the score 45-30, the Bulldogs rallied to cut their deficit to 50-46 with 55 seconds left as J. Robert Merritt drove in for a layup. The Jaguars then connected on their free throws down the stretch to close out the game.

"I thought that our guys did some good things at the end to get us back in the ballgame," said Tillette. "They played hard and they brought us within striking distance, but we have to be able to shoot the ball better. If you look at the rebounds, we were dead even, but we only shot 7-of-13 from the free-throw line."

South Alabama shot 54.5 percent from the field in the second half, including a 62.5 percentage from beyond the arc. The Jaguars finished the game 7-of-22 from 3-point range, while the Bulldogs ended with a 5-of-18 mark.

Samford held a slight 22-21 advantage at the half behind the play of Smith.

A native of nearby Picayune, Miss., he led all scorers with nine points in the first half. Smith, the Bulldogs' 6-2 point guard, also proved to be a force on the boards as he led both teams with six rebounds.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 17-9 lead in Saturday's in-state contest and held the eight-point lead with 7:34 remaining in the opening period. Samford limited the Jaguars to a stagnant 29.2 shooting percentage from the floor and a 14.3 mark from beyond the arc.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Thursday as the Bulldogs begin their 20-game Ohio Valley Conference scheduled against arch-rival Jacksonville State at 7 p.m., in Seibert Hall.