Gophers Never Dig Way Out of Early 17-2 Hole

Perry Scoreless in First Half, Ends Up with Game-High 20 Points

SCRANTON, Pa. — Goucher turned to the three-point field goal a little more than usual today after spotting Scranton a 17-2 lead before today's Landmark Conference game against the Royals was even seven minutes old. While the Gophers were successful on exactly half of the 24 three-point tries they launched and were able to knock their deficit down to single digits in the second half, they still wound up taking a 75-64 hit to drop to 0-5 in the all-time series between the two schools.

A layup by Reggie Suggs (Baltimore, Md./Walbrook) that tied the score at 2-2 produced the only points the Gophers (5-11, 3-4 Landmark) were able to come up with in the first 7:26 of the contest. The Royals strung together 15 unanswered points following Suggs' layup and stretched their advantage to 17-2 on a three-point basket by R.J. Wallace.

Tim Alexander (Hagerstown, Md./Williamsport) came off the bench for the Gophers during Scranton's 15-0 run and managed to stop the streak by nailing a shot from three-point range. Later in the first half, after the Royals 10-8, 4-3 Landmark) had built their lead up to as many as 19 points, the junior guard knocked down three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, lowering Goucher's deficit to 33-20.

Two players who were held scoreless in the first half — Dorian Green (Baltimore, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) and Micah Perry (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) — combined to score all 11 points when the Gophers opened the second half with an 11-4 run that trimmed Scranton's lead to 40-31. Green, a freshman who was inserted into the starting lineup in the sixth game of the season and has remained there, wound up with a career-high 11 points.

Perry, who was 0-for-3 from the field in the first half, put up 20 points on the Royals over the final 20:00, mostly on the strength of his 6-for-12 effort on three-pointers. The junior guard has supplied the Gophers with 20 or more points three times in 2009-10 and a total of five times during his career.

Alexander, who made four of Goucher's season-high 12 three-pointers, finished with 13 points.

Zach Ashworth (19 points), Eli Londo (17) and Luke Hawk (14) all scored in double figures for the victorious Royals, who remain the only member that head coach Leonard Trevino's Gophers have yet to defeat in the short history of the Landmark Conference.