Jan. 12, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Freshmen Emily London and Savannah Hill each had strong games to lead the Samford women's basketball team to a 64-45 win over Tennessee Tech Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center.

London tied a career high with 20 points, and Hill recorded her first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Bulldogs had a strong defensive performance in holding the Golden Eagles to just 45 points.

"I was really pleased with the way we started defensively," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We've won five games in a row, and it is because of our defense and our mindset of each player being committed to guarding and having five people on the same page defensively.

"Credit Tennessee Tech, they came out and were more aggressive in the second half and we were a little flat," Morris said. "It says a lot about our leadership, that when they cut it to one, we didn't panic."

Monica Maxwell scored 12 points and pulled down five rebounds in the game for Samford (12-5, 5-2 OVC). Seniors Alex Munday and Taryn Towns added six points each. Samford shot 51.4 percent from the floor for the game, while Tech shot 39.5 percent. The win was the fifth in a row for Samford.

"We knew we needed this win today to finish off this home stretch before going back on the road next week," Towns said. "We pride ourselves on defense, and our goal tonight was to hold them to 57 points, so we were happy that we were able to meet that goal."

For Tennessee Tech (3-14, 2-5), Blair Bowens and Kristina Tyler had 15 points each. Allison Price scored eight points for the Golden Eagles.

Samford jumped out to an early seven-point lead at 13-6 with 13:23 to go in the first half. The Bulldogs pushed their lead out to 10 at 21-11 with 6:59 to go in the half after a layup by Munday.

With Samford leading, 25-15, the Bulldogs closed the half with a 6-1 run to take a 31-16 lead into halftime.

Tennessee Tech opened the second half with a 15-2 run to cut the Samford lead to two at 33-31 with 14:57 to go in the game. The Golden Eagles closed to within one point at 36-35 with 12:16 to play, but Samford went on a 17-3 run to push its lead out to 15 at 53-38 with 5:17 to play after a pair of free throws by London.

Samford pushed its lead out to as much as 21 at 60-39 and 62-41, and the Bulldogs came away with the 64-45 win.

Samford will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 17, when the Bulldogs play at Morehead State. The game is scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. Central start.