Goucher Men's Basketball Falls To Roanoke In Opening Round Of Dick Leftwich Tip-Off Tournament
ROANOKE, Va. – Goucher College drops the opening game in the Dick Leftwich Tip-off Tournament to host Roanoke College in non-conference men's basketball action on Friday.
The Gophers will play in the consolation game on Saturday at 1 p.m. Goucher will face Johnson and Wales in the consolation game after the Wildcats lost to York (Pa.) 84-55 in the other first round matchup. It will be the first meeting between the two teams.
Cam Isaacs (Randallstown, Md./Randallstown) paced Goucher with 15 points. The sophomore has posted 15 points or more in two of the first three games this season and four times in his career. Isaacs, who has 11 games with at least 10 points in his career, is averaging 12.7 points per game this season.
Dwayne Morton (Baltimore, Md./Waynesville [Mo.]) added nine points and five rebounds. The senior, who is averaging 10.3 points per game, notched his second game this season with at least five boards and the 21 time in his career that he has hauled in five rebounds in a game including 14 in his last two seasons.
Roanoke jumped out to a 15-6 lead before the Gophers scored the next four points thanks to Axel Seka's (Frederick, Md./Urbana) first collegiate point on a free throw at 11:56 and his first career triple 17 seconds later. The Maroons then scored 27 of the final 35 points to go into the locker room with the lead.
Isaacs hit a pair of 3-balls to start the second half on a 6-2 run, but Goucher could get no closer the rest of the way.
Seka scored his first collegiate points and finished with seven points while Josh Lichti (Harrisonburg, Va./Harrionburg) grabbed five rebounds for the third-straight game. Tyler Jiles (Laurel, Md./Meade Senior) made his collegiate debut on the evening.
The game featured two Goucher College graduates head coaches. The Gophers head coach Tom Rose is a 1995 graduate while Roanoke head coach Clay Nunley is a 1998 graduate of Goucher.
Nunley was a freshman on the 1994-95 team that won the Capital Athletic Conference Tournament title and defeated the defending national champion Lebanon Valley in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament for the college's first NCAA Tournament win. In addition for Nunley's final three seasons Rose served as an assistant coach on the staff.
Roanoke used a 42-18 first half and a 46-32 second half to earn an 88-50 win.