Nov. 30, 2004

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University basketball team dropped its second heart-wrenching contest of the 2004-05 season on Tuesday as IUPUI's Brandon Cole hit a last-second three-point shot from the right wing to defeat the Bulldogs, 60-58, at Seibert Hall.

"Even though we lost, I think that this was a good game for us, because it will really prepare our team for league play," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "IUPUI was very similar to a lot of the teams that we will play in the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference) and I think that we learned a great amount about our players tonight."

With 18 seconds remaining, Samford (3-2) held tight to a 58-57 lead, but IUPUI (3-1) rebounded an errant Bulldog shot and took a full timeout to set up its final play of the game.

On the inbounds play, the Jaguars' George Hill collected a pass at the top of the key and penetrated slightly to his right drawing a pair of Samford defenders. Hill, IUPUI's freshman point guard from Indianapolis, Ind., then passed the ball out to Cole on the right wing who gathered himself in time to get off the game-winning shot with 4.9 seconds remaining.

"On the last shot, we had people out there in position, but we just didn't challenge the shooter hard enough or quick enough," Tillette said. "Then, on our final play, if the opposing team scores late in the game, we call `Fly', which means that Jerry (Smith) will bring the ball down the court and try to find one of our shooters on the wing. We had a good look, but it just didn't go down."

In Samford's final attempt, Jerry Smith hustled the ball up the court and found Jon Mills on the right side of the arc for what would have been a buzzer-beating shot. Mills was able to get the attempt off before the horn, but the Hail Mary was slightly long and found the back of the rim.

The loss was the Bulldogs' second close defeat of the 2004-05 season. Less than a week ago, Samford dropped a hard-fought two-point decision on the road against South Alabama, 52-50. The Bulldogs' two losses this year have been by two points apiece, while their victories have all been by at least 12.

"We started the game very slowly tonight," said Tillette. "I went into the game thinking that we could change some things around, but it had a negative effect on us and we looked like we were playing in mud defensively. I also think that we made some silly turnovers in the beginning of the game that put us behind and forced us to dig ourselves out of a hole."

Samford fell behind 8-0 to open the game and was trailing by its largest deficit of the season, 28-9, with 6:23 remaining in the opening period.

The Jaguars were led on Tuesday by both Cole and Akeem Clark who played a combined 77 minutes. Cole hit the clutch three-point shot down the stretch and scored a game-high 14 points, while Clark finished with 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting.

For the second game in a row, Samford turned in a quality bench performance as 31 of its 58 points were scored by non-starters. Smith, the Bulldogs' sophomore point guard, led the team with 10 points and four assists.

Samford's Curtis West made his second career start on Tuesday and tallied nine points on 3-of-4 shooting. The Baton Rouge, La., native also collected a team-high two steals and added a pair of assists.

The Bulldogs went on a 12-3 run to end the first period of play and trimmed IUPUI's lead to 29-21 at the half.

"I have to give a lot of credit to our kids for coming back," Tillette said. "I think that shows the character of our team, but they (IUPUI) were able to hit some tough shots down the stretch."

The Bulldogs' J. Robert Merritt, the reigning OVC Player of the Week, was guarded relentlessly the entire game and was only able to get off three shots for total of five points.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Friday as the Bulldogs travel to Monroe, La., for the second game of their home-and-home series against the Louisiana-Monroe Indians. The contest is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.