BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Eastern Kentucky closed within three points with 4:33 left in the game but second seeded Samford used a 9-0 run to secure the 69-56 victory and advance to the semifinals of the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference tournament. The seventh seeded Lady Colonels (14-14) trailed by only two at halftime and cut a 10-point deficit midway through the second half to three points with less than five minutes to go. The Bulldogs (23-8) will face Murray State on Friday in Nashville.

Crystal Jones led EKU with a game-high 17 points and added seven rebounds. Junior LaTanya Stokes scored nine points and grabbed a game-high nine boards.

Taryn Towns led Samford with 16 points. Savannah Hill scored 13 off the bench and Alex Munday added 10.

Eastern committed 20 turnovers while the Bulldogs finished with only 10.

Samford drew first blood with a three-pointer by Towns 40 seconds into the game. Back-to-back lay-ups by Jones gave the Lady Colonels’ their first lead, 4-3, with 16:05 left in the first half. Jones scored EKU’s first six points.

The Bulldogs took four-point leads on three-pointers by Monica Maxwell at the 14:32 mark, and by Karmen Smith with just under 12 minutes to go before the break. Five straight points by LaTonyah Bentley gave the lead back to Eastern Kentucky. The junior center connected on a jumper to tie the score and then knocked down a trey to give her team a 20-17 edge.

Hill scored five of her 11 first half points on back-to-back Samford possessions. After a three-pointer, she hit a jumper for a 28-24 Bulldog lead with just over a minute remaining before intermission. Lindsey Waters’ shot with six seconds to go before halftime sent Eastern to the locker room down by two, 31-29.

Samford only shot 37 percent (10-of-27) from the field in the first half, but the Bulldogs made 6-of-12 from behind the three-point arc. The Lady Colonels made 50 percent (12-of-24) of their first half shots and went 2-for-5 from deep.

The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the second half to build a small cushion, 35-29. Emily London’s three-pointer made it an eight-point game, 40-32. Towns extended the Samford lead to double digits, 44-34, with a lay-up at the 15:43 mark.

The Lady Colonels kept the deficit from ballooning to more than 10 points. Free throws by Jones with 13:29 left to play had the visitors down by six, 44-38. However, Chika Okoli’s trey gave Samford its third 10-point lead, 51-41, with 10:15 remaining.

Eastern Kentucky used an 8-2 run to get back in the game. Jones got things going with a pair of free throws and then capped it off with a lay-up that made it 56-53 with 4:33 left to play. The Bulldogs had the answer, scoring nine straight to make it a 12-point contest with just under two minutes showing on the clock.

After drawing within three, the Lady Colonels scored only three points the rest of the game.