Dec. 7, 2006

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Chelsee Insell and Alex Munday scored 19 points each to lead the Samford women's basketball team to a 64-59 win at Jacksonville State to open Ohio Valley Conference play Thursday night.

"This was a big win," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "I told our team, this was a game we really needed to win because we could have easily lost this basketball game. I was really pleased with our young ladies down the stretch."

Behind Insell and Munday for Samford (5-3, 1-0 OVC), Megan Wilderotter scored 10 points, including four late free throws to seal the win. Karmen Smith scored eight points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

JSU (3-7, 0-1 OVC) was led by Courtney Slaughter with 20 points and LaTonya McKinney with 10 points.

After falling behind early in the first half, 2-0, Samford went on a 17-2 run to take a 17-4 lead with 11:54 to go on a jumper by Munday. JSU answered with a 10-2 run of its own to cut the lead to five at 19-14 with 6:52 left in the half on a three-pointer by Slaughter.

Samford pushed its lead back out to nine at 25-16 with 4:54 left in the half on a three-point play by Insell. With Samford leading, 28-18, JSU went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to four at 28-24 with 2:34 left in the half on a three-pointer by Eren McMichael. Samford took a 31-26 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Samford quickly pushed its lead back out to nine at 35-26 on a layup by Insell and a jumper by Veronica Pike. JSU then went on an 11-3 run to cut the Samford lead to one at 38-37 with 13:21 to go in the game on a layup by Erica West.

The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes until Samford pushed its lead back out to seven at 50-43 with 8:34 to go on a jumper by Smith. The Gamecocks fought back to cut the lead to two at 52-50 with 5:08 to go on a pair of free throws by Ashley Clay.

JSU closed to within one at 56-55 with 1:39 to go, but a pair of free throws by Insell pushed the lead back out to three at 58-55. After JSU's McKinney hit two free throws to cut the lead back to one at 58-57 with 1:13 to go, Munday hit two free throws with 27 second left to make the score 60-57. Jolie Efezokhae then hit a jumper for the Gamecocks to make the score 60-59 with 20 seconds to go in the game. Wilderotter then hit four-straight free throws in the final 13 seconds to give Samford the 64-59 win.

Samford will return to action on Saturday, Dec. 9, when the Bulldogs play a non-conference game at in-state rival Troy. The game is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off from Troy's Trojan Arena.