Samford 58, Clemson 48
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-The Samford women's basketball team earned its first win over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent with a 58-48 victory over the Clemson Lady Tigers Sunday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
The game was played in front of 1,037 fans, the third-largest crowd to see a women's basketball game in the Pete Hanna Center. The win was the sixth in a row for Samford, giving the Bulldogs a 6-2 record. Clemson falls to 6-3 with the loss.
"This was a great win for our team for a lot of reasons," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We had a lot of promotion and a lot of hype for this game, getting an ACC team to come to our arena. To be able to win the game in front of a great crowd was important for our program.
"In terms of the game itself, we were not at our best," Morris said. "We struggled at times, we were just a little off and that can happen because we haven't played a lot of games here in this stretch. But to still be able to battle, fight and win was big. We had a lot of people step up and help us during this game."
Samford was led in scoring by senior guard Emily London with 17 points, making 8-of-8 free throw attempts, with most of those coming down the stretch to help Samford pull away for the win.
"It was just a matter of concentrating," London said. "We shoot them every day in practice and it's expected for all of us to make them. We shot 12-for-12 from the free throw line as a team, and that is something you don't get from very many teams now-a-days and we take pride in that."
Behind London for Samford, junior guard Paige Anderson scored 11 points. Sophomore guard Hannah Dawson added 10 points for the Bulldogs. Senior forward Savannah Hill led the team in both rebounds with 11 and assists with five in the win.
For Clemson, Shaniqua Pauldo led the way with 14 points. Sthefany Thomas scored 12 points for the Lady Tigers. Jasmine Tate led Clemson in rebounding with 11 in the game.
In the first half, Clemson jumped out to an early 9-3 lead following a layup by Kelia Shelton with 15:42 to go in the opening half. Samford then went on a 12-2 run to take a four point lead at 15-11 with 8:25 to go in the half after a layup by Shelby Campbell.
Clemson fought back to take a 17-15 lead with 5:36 to go in the opening half after a layup by Pauldo. Samford outscored Clemson, 9-4 for the remainder of the half to take a 24-21 lead into halftime.
The Lady Tigers tied the game early in the second half at 29-29 with 17:38 to go in the game. Samford then took the lead for good on a jumper by Dawson with 17:18 to go at 31-29.
With Samford leading, 35-33, the Bulldogs went on a 12-2 run to push its lead to 12 at 47-35 with 9:13 to go in the game after a three-pointer by Anderson. After Clemson cut the Samford led to seven at 47-40, the Bulldogs scored seven of the next eight points to push their lead to a game-high 13 at 54-41 with 3:21 to go after a three-pointer by Anderson.
Clemson cut the lead back to six at 54-48 with 51 seconds to go, but Samford scored the final four points of the game to come away with the 58-48 win.
As a team, Samford shot 37.3 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three-point range, while holding Clemson to 31.4 percent overall and just 15.0 percent from three-point range. Samford made all 12 of its free-throw attempts, while Clemson was 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.
Samford will return to action on Saturday, Dec, 18, when the Bulldogs return to Southern Conference play with a game at the College of Charleston. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. (ET) start from Charleston's Carolina First Arena.
Wofford 83, Bluefield College 36
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Wofford women's basketball team leaned on their most efficient output from the floor, 55 percent, to improve to 4-4 overall with an 83-36 win over Bluefield College Sunday afternoon in Ben Johnson Arena.
The Terriers were 55 percent over and 46 percent from the three point line, as they held the Rams to 18 percent from the floor and 12 percent from three. Both marks for the Rams were season lows for a Wofford opponent, and both offensive marks for the Terriers were season-highs.
With the win, it is the first time the Terriers have improved to .500 through eight games since the 2007-2008 season.
Bluefield won the opening jump ball, but Rachel Brittenham forced a turnover as April Moorhouse scored the games for the basket on the other end for Wofford. The Terriers are 4-0 when scoring first on opponents. On the next possession for the Rams a missed layup by Celinda Arrington provided Mahagony Williams with her 700th rebound. She becomes only the fifth Terrier all-time to collect 700 career rebounds. Williams finished the game with eight rebounds giving her 707 career rebounds.
Williams notched Wofford next basket as the Terriers opened the game with a 9-0 run before the Rams notched a bucket to make it 9-2 at the 15:57 mark. Seven of Moorhouse's 13 points came during the run.
Five minutes later a Logan Morris layup gave the Terriers nine point lead, 16-7, and with six and a half minutes left to play in the half a Moorhouse basket pushed the Wofford lead to 22-9.
The Terriers would close the half on 21-6 run to take a 43-15 lead into the break. Daniella Motley capped the run with a jumper at the buzzer.
After the break, Wofford quickly ran the lead to 40, 67-27, midway through the half as they closed the game with an 83-36 win.
Williams led all scorers with 18 points. Williams currently sits with 957 points shy of her quest to become the 12th Terrier to score 1,000 points. She needs 20 points to move into 12th place all time in the scoring record books. She would be only the fifth Wofford player all-time to grab 700 rebounds and score 1,000 points. Williams has notched double-digit points in six of the Terriers seven games this season and ten of her last 11 games dating back to last season. The only game she hasn't scored in double-digits was the team's 2010-11 opener when she scored nine points.
Moorhouse followed with her 13 points, and Morris added 12 points to continue the Terriers streak of placing a freshman in double-digit points in seven of the teams first eight games. Morris has now scored ten plus points in her last three games. Mariah Masalin added a season-high eight points going 3-of-3 from the floor including 2-for-2 from three. Rachel Brittenham passed out five assists, and had five steals.
Wofford travel to UNC Greensboro Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff and a chance to open Southern Conference play 2-0 for the first time since joining the conference in 1997-1998.
Florida Atlantic 68, Georgia Southern 65
BOCA RATON, Fla. - It was a tale of two halves as the Georgia Southern Women's Basketball team (1-8) lost a heartbreaker as Florida Atlantic pulled out a 68-65 win Sunday afternoon. Senior point guard Jamie Navarro returned to the floor and was the Lady Eagles' leading scorer with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half. Lyrell Barfield scored 18 of her game-high 20 points in the second half to pace the Owls.
Meredyth Frye had 14 points for Georgia Southern and MiMi DuBose and Samatha Williams added 10 each. Krista Tate was the top rebounder for the Lady Eagles with eight boards in her 39 minutes of action. DaLita Scott had 11 points and Vontrice Dennis had a game-high 10 rebounds for FAU.
Georgia Southern led by as many as 18 points in the second half, but Florida Atlantic used a 15-1 run over four and a half minutes to cut the margin to four, 55-51. A three-point basket by Frye extended the GSU lead back to seven, but the Owls hit two straight three pointers to cut it to one point, 60-59, at the 6:05 mark of the second half. Florida Atlantic shot 50 percent from the floor and Georgia Southern was plagued by poor shooting in the second half, 25.9 percent, but the Lady Eagles clung to the lead until the final 52 seconds of the game.
A steal and score by Frye put the Lady Eagles back up by three, and they were up 65-61 with 2:11 left in the game, but Florida Atlantic would keep chipping away at the lead with trips to the free throw line. The Owls connected on 4-5 of their free throws to tie the score at 65 all with 52 ticks left on the clock. The two teams traded turnovers in the last 40 seconds, but a steal by April Goins with 14 seconds left set up a Barfield three-pointer to give Florida Atlantic its second lead of the game. A last-second three-point attempt by the Lady Eagles was unsuccessful.
The Lady Eagles took a 40-24 lead into the locker room at halftime behind 47 percent shooting from the floor and had nearly double the number of Owl field goals, 16-9. Georgia Southern had five three-point baskets to the Florida Atlantic's one and had forced FAU into 13 first-half turnovers. In the second half, FAU committed only four turnovers while GSU had eight. Free throws weighed in favor of the Florida Atlantic with the Owls 14 free throw attempts in the second half, 20 overall, compared to the Lady Eagle's 11 total attempts.
Two free throws started the scoring for Florida Atlantic for its only lead of the game until the final score. Navarro scored the Lady Eagles' first five points with a trey and two free throws. Georgia Southern benefitted from FAU's turnovers early in the game, scoring seven of the 19 points off Owl mistakes in the first six minutes. Down double digits for most of the first half, Florida Atlantic would cut GSU's lead to six, 24-18, with less than eight minutes left. A Lady Eagles' 13-2 run, sparked by three three-point field goals, two by DuBose and one by Williams, would stretch the lead back out to 17.
The Lady Eagles continue their road trip with a game at Stetson Tuesday at 11 a.m.