2008 Woodie Awards
Samford women look ahead after Murray loss ends win streak
Val Kikkert
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Sports
After a weekend on the road, the women’s basketball team is asking themselves, “What’s next?”
The team went 1-1 on Thursday and Saturday as they began the close-out of their regular season conference games. After defeating Tennessee Tech 71-60 on Thursday, the team traveled to Murray State and lost 74-64 on Saturday, ending an eight-game winning streak.
Thursday’s win improved Samford’s record for the season to 21-6 and 14-3 in conference play. The 21st win ties this year’s team with the 2005-06 team for most wins in school history.
Freshman Emily London led the Bulldogs’ offensive drive with 18 points. Red-shirt sophomore Monica Maxwell scored 17 points while freshman Savannah Hill scored 11 points. Senior Taryn Towns had eight points, six rebounds and seven assists.
“Tennessee Tech is a tough place to win a conference game, but we defended well and had five to six straight defensive stops that made a big difference at the end of the game,” Head Coach Mike Morris said.
Morris said the team did well for about 25 minutes against Murray State, but they could not hold off the best offensive team in the league. The Bulldogs did not do well at boxing-out or on their offensive rebounds, Morris said.
“We had it won at the beginning but then gave up the win by not getting the offensive rebounds,” junior Karmen Smith said.
Against the Racers, London scored a career-high 21 points, senior Alex Munday scored 18 points and junior Chika Okoli added eight points.
London was named OVC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season after averaging 19.5 points per game last weekend.
Going into Saturday’s game, Samford was ranked second and Murray State was ranked fourth. The Bulldogs are 8-2 at home and 6-2 on the road in conference games. Morris said he is not concerned about finishing up this season on the road because the team has played consistently well in any location.
The team’s main focus during practice this week is to work on boxing-out and defending, Morris said. He said the team needs to improve in these aspects of their game in order to gain momentum to beat top-ranked SEMO this weekend.
“In order to be the best, we have to beat the best. Our focus this week is on ourselves and improving our game,” Morris said.
The team will finish in the top four this season, but this weekend’s results will determine their exact placement. Morris said he wants the team to keep their focus on the next game against SEMO, which is Thursday at 5 p.m.
In regards to nearing the end of the season, Morris referenced the team shirts, which say, “What’s next?” indicating the team’s focus for the season to continue to look forward to the next game.
"SEMO is always a big game for us because they’ve always been a big rival. We won’t have a hard time getting pumped up for this game,” Towns said.
The team went 1-1 on Thursday and Saturday as they began the close-out of their regular season conference games. After defeating Tennessee Tech 71-60 on Thursday, the team traveled to Murray State and lost 74-64 on Saturday, ending an eight-game winning streak.
Thursday’s win improved Samford’s record for the season to 21-6 and 14-3 in conference play. The 21st win ties this year’s team with the 2005-06 team for most wins in school history.
Freshman Emily London led the Bulldogs’ offensive drive with 18 points. Red-shirt sophomore Monica Maxwell scored 17 points while freshman Savannah Hill scored 11 points. Senior Taryn Towns had eight points, six rebounds and seven assists.
“Tennessee Tech is a tough place to win a conference game, but we defended well and had five to six straight defensive stops that made a big difference at the end of the game,” Head Coach Mike Morris said.
Morris said the team did well for about 25 minutes against Murray State, but they could not hold off the best offensive team in the league. The Bulldogs did not do well at boxing-out or on their offensive rebounds, Morris said.
“We had it won at the beginning but then gave up the win by not getting the offensive rebounds,” junior Karmen Smith said.
Against the Racers, London scored a career-high 21 points, senior Alex Munday scored 18 points and junior Chika Okoli added eight points.
London was named OVC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season after averaging 19.5 points per game last weekend.
Going into Saturday’s game, Samford was ranked second and Murray State was ranked fourth. The Bulldogs are 8-2 at home and 6-2 on the road in conference games. Morris said he is not concerned about finishing up this season on the road because the team has played consistently well in any location.
The team’s main focus during practice this week is to work on boxing-out and defending, Morris said. He said the team needs to improve in these aspects of their game in order to gain momentum to beat top-ranked SEMO this weekend.
“In order to be the best, we have to beat the best. Our focus this week is on ourselves and improving our game,” Morris said.
The team will finish in the top four this season, but this weekend’s results will determine their exact placement. Morris said he wants the team to keep their focus on the next game against SEMO, which is Thursday at 5 p.m.
In regards to nearing the end of the season, Morris referenced the team shirts, which say, “What’s next?” indicating the team’s focus for the season to continue to look forward to the next game.
"SEMO is always a big game for us because they’ve always been a big rival. We won’t have a hard time getting pumped up for this game,” Towns said.
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