Royals Pad Lead Against Struggling Gophers

Royals Pad Lead Against Struggling Gophers

Boswell Produces 19 Points, Leads All Scorers

January 16, 2009

TOWSON, Md. – After a lay-up by James Black (Baltimore, Md./New Town) allowed Goucher to pull even with Scranton at 50-50 with 6:43 left to play tonight, the Gophers proceeded to miss their next seven shots from the field, opening the door for the Royals to first regain and then pad their lead and eventually depart the Sports & Recreation Center with a 63-57 Landmark Conference victory.

The Royals (11-4, 3-1 Landmark) were able to open up a 59-52 advantage before Joel Smith (Nottingham, England/Cardinal Gibbons) connected from three-point range for the Gophers with :22 left to play.

Darrin Boswell (Nottingham, Md./Joppatowne) capped off his game-high 19-point effort with turning an offensive rebound into two points for Goucher with just :05 remaining, but the Royals managed to maintain the lead by going 6-of-6 at the free-throw line during the final :37.

Boswell has been the Gophers' leading scorer in eight of the past nine games.

Early on, it was the Royals who struggled to hold on to the ball and also put it in the basket as they committed six turnovers and were only 1-for-6 from the field in the opening 5:54. The Gophers (2-11, 0-4 Landmark) produced the first six points of the game and went ahead 10-2 on a lay-up by Reginald Suggs (Baltimore, Md./Walbrook). Scranton took its first lead of the contest on a free throw by Zach Ashworth with 3:07 remaining before halftime and the two teams were locked in a 27-27 tie at the break.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, who landed four three-pointers in the first half, finished as Scranton's leading scorer as he contributed 16 points to the win.

Goucher had two additional double-figure scorers: Marcus Cotton (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) turned in a 12-point, eight-rebound performance and Suggs delivered 11 points and seven boards off the bench.