Sam's late basket lifts Southern over Alabama A&M 62-61

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Jared Sam shot 8 of 11 from the field and finished with 19 points, including the winning jumper with four seconds left, and Southern slipped past Alabama A&M 62-61 on Monday night.

Sidney Umude added 14 points, on 6-of-9 shooting, and Eddie Reese scored 12 for Southern (8-13, 4-4 Southwestern Athletic Conference).

Marcus Merriweather scored seven points during a 12-4 spurt that gave Alabama A&M (2-18, 2-5) a 59-58 lead when Mohamed Sherif hit a 3-pointer with 69 seconds to play. Torrey Mayo answered with a layup but Julian Walters made two free throws to put the Bulldogs back in front with 14 seconds left. Sam was fouled and missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Jamar Sandifer grabbed the offensive rebound setting up Sam's winner.

Sherif missed a potential winning 3 at the buzzer.

Merriweather had 16 points and Sherif added career-high tying 14 points and a career-best 14 rebounds for Alabama A&M. The Bulldogs shot 52.9 percent (9 of 17) from the free-throw line.

Southern, which led by 10 points midway through the second half, made 24 of 43 (55.8 percent) from the field.