Women's Basketball Falls At Eastern Illinois, 68-60 :: The Bulldogs finish the regular season with a record of 22-8 overall and 15-5 in OVC play

The Bulldogs finish the regular season with a record of 22-8 overall and 15-5 in OVC play

March 1, 2008

CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Samford women's basketball team dropped its regular-season finale with a 68-60 loss at Eastern Illinois Saturday evening at Lantz Arena.

With the loss, Samford drops to 22-8 overall and 15-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Bulldogs earn the No. 2 seed in next week's OVC Tournament, and they will play host to No.7-seeded Eastern Kentucky Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

"I thought EIU played well, especially to start the game," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We were a little flat coming out of the gate, but I was proud of our team and the way they responded to come back and take the lead in the first half."

Chika Okoli led Samford in scoring with 13 points. Monica Maxwell scored 11 points, while Emily London and Savannah Hill added 10 points each.

For EIU, Rachel Galligan led the way with 22 points. Dominique Sims scored 12 points, Ellen Canale scored 11 points and Maggie Kloak added 10 points for the Panthers.

Eastern Illinois jumped on top early, scoring the first five points of the game for an early 5-0 lead. The Panthers pushed their lead out to 11 at 19-8, but Samford answered with a 16-2 run to take a 24-21 lead with 4:52 to go in the first half after a layup by Okoli.

EIU scored the next four points to retake the lead at 25-24. A three-pointer by Okoli gave Samford the lead back at 27-25 with 3:55 to play in the first half. The teams went back and forth the rest of the half and EIU took a 30-29 lead into halftime.

Samford took the lead early in the second half at 31-30 after a jumper by Alex Munday. EIU answered with an 11-2 run to take a 41-33 lead with 15:26 to go in the game. Samford fought back to cut the lead to two at 41-39 with 14:27 to play after a three-pointer by Okoli.

EIU scored six of the next seven points to push its lead out to seven at 47-40 with 11:24 left in the game. Samford cut the lead to three at 47-44 with 9:48 to play. With EIU leading, 49-46, the Panthers went on a 9-1 run to push its lead to 11 at 58-47 with 4:47 to play in the game.

Samford cut the lead to four at 60-56 with 2:21 to play, but the Bulldogs could get no closer as the Panthers came away with the 68-60 win. .