UTM found out how quickly it will miss the presence of junior guard Justin Smith Saturday night in Skyhawk Arena as visiting Samford posted a 51-45 win.

With the loss the Skyhawks fall to 5-11 overall and 0-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Samford, who knocked off Murray State Thursday night, is now 8-7 overall and 3-1 in the league.

This is Samford's first season as a member of the OVC. Smith suffered a tear in his Achilles tendon Thursday night against Jacksonville State. He is scheduled to have surgery Monday and he will miss the rest of the season.

Smith was averaging 15.7 points per game and he was a 90 percent free throw shooter.

Earlier this season, the Skyhawks lost senior guard Earl Bullock to a knee injury. Bullock, who was on the bench for the Samford game, will miss the rest of the season. He underwent knee surgery during the holidays. He was granted a medical redshirt.

Bullock saw action in five games and was averaging 10.6 points per game. He was last year's OVC Newcomer of the Year.

"We know we have a loss on the court by not having Justin Smith and Earl Bullock playing," Campbell said.

"A few of the players were playing as if Smith was on the court tonight. Our players need to play their own game and not try to be someone they are not."

The Skyhawks enjoyed a lead for much of the first half against Samford, but with 1:45 to go in the half, Eddie Harper knotted the game at 20-all with a three-pointer. Harper gave Samford the lead at the break when he hit another trey with 48 seconds to play.

With 7:46 to play in the game, Samford led by 10 points, 41-31. The Skyhawks went to work and cut the gap to a point, 41-40, with 2:23 to play in the contest.

Jared Newson hit a jumper to make it a one-point contest. Newson had four points in the 9-0 run, while Tyler George knocked down a trey in the come-back attempt.

Samford answered the comeback by hitting eight-of-11 free throws in the final 1:52 of the game. Harper led Samford with 15 points, while Phillip Ramelli tossed in 14 points. Dorsey, who hit the first two free throws down the stretch for the visiting Bulldogs, finished with 10 points.

The Skyhawks were led by Newson and junior Jeremy Kelly. Both players scored 16 points each.

The Skyhawks hit three of 14 three-pointers and shot 37 percent from the field and a disappointing 33 percent from the free throw line.

"We will turn this season around," Campbell said. "We need to learn from our mistakes and move on."

UTM vs Murray State

UTM junior Jeremy Kelly scored a career-high 25 points against host Murray State Tuesday night in the Regional Special Events Center, but Murray State answered with six players in double figures to claim a 94-70 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball contest.

Junior forward Kelvin Brown led the way for MSU (14-3, 4-1 OVC) with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while senior guard Chris Shumate added 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line.

Murray State scored the game's first 10 points while holding UTM (5-12, 0-5 OVC) scoreless for the first 5 minutes, 44 seconds of the game.

After the Skyhawks cut the MSU lead down to two at 12-10 with 12:26 to go, MSU used another 10-0 run to push the margin back out to double-digits for good at 22-10 on a pair of Cuthbert Victor free throws with 10:05 left in the first half.

Murray State pushed its lead out to as many as 21 points in the first half at 39-18 with 4:58 to go before settling for a 49-35 lead at halftime.

The Racers put away any thoughts of a Skyhawk comeback by scoring the first six points of the second half for a 55-34 lead with 17:57 to go.

MSU's largest lead of the night was 32 at 92-60 with 3:36 to play before UTM was able to cut the margin down over the closing moments.

Skyhawk sophomore Jared Newson scored 18 second-half points to finish with 22 points.