Women's Basketball Falls In OVC Semifinals, 57-51, To SEMO

March 2, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Samford women's basketball team ended its 2006-07 season with a 57-51 loss to the top-seeded and regular-season champion Southeast Missouri Redhawks Friday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

"You have to give SEMO a lot of credit," Samford head coach Mike Morris. "We tried three times and couldn't beat them. They are a good team.

"I am very pleased with our team," Morris said. "This has been a tough year in a lot of ways. I am as proud of this team as any I have ever been associated with. This team has endured a lot of things that have just made us tougher."

Samford ends its season with a record of 18-13, the third-most wins in the program's history. Southeast Missouri improves to 23-7 and will play in Saturday's championship game against the winner of the Murray State-UT Martin game later today.

For Samford, Veronica Pike led the team in scoring with 18 points. Alex Munday also scored 15 points for the Bulldogs. The game was the final college game for Samford's three seniors, Pike, Chelsee Insell and Tish Pilkerton. The three seniors have the most wins of any senior class in the program's history with 62 victories in the last four seasons.

Southeast Missouri was led by Sonya Daugherty with 20 points. Tarina Nixon and Missy Whitney added 14 points each. Lachelle Lyles led all players in rebounding with 21 for the game.

For the game, Samford shot 37.3 percent from the floor. The Bulldogs were 73.3 percent from the free-throw line and 11.8 percent from three-point range.

SEMO jumped out to an early 7-4 lead with 17:24 to go in the opening half after a layup by Whitney. Samford came back to tie the score at 7-7 after a layup and a free throw by Megan Wilderotter with 16:05 to play in the first half.

SEMO responded with a 10-4 run to take a 17-11 lead with 12:24 to go in the first half following a layup by Nixon. Samford scored seven of the next nine points to cut the lead to one at 19-18 with 8:02 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Monica Maxwell.

The Redhawks scored the next six points to push their lead to seven at 25-18 with 6:35 to go in the half after a pair of free throws by Amber Blunt. Samford cut the lead to three at 27-24 with 1:22 to go after a jumper by Karmen Smith. SEMO took a 29-24 lead into halftime.

Samford scored the first four points of the second half on a pair of layups by Pike to cut the SEMO lead to one at 29-28. With SEMO leading, 34-30, Samford scored the next five points in a row to take a 35-34 lead with 15:24 to go after a jumper by Pike.

The teams went back and forth over the next few minutes until with Samford leading, 45-44, SEMO went on an 8-0 run that covered 7:12 of the clock. Samford broke the run when Taryn Towns hit two free throws with 1:57 to go in the game to make the score 52-47.

Samford cut the lead to four at 55-51 with 16 seconds left, but the Redhawks came away with the 57-51 win.