Sea Gulls Do Damage Beyond the Arc in Road Victory

Sea Gulls Miss Only Once Over 9:09 Span

TOWSON, Md. — Each of Salisbury's first five baskets came from beyond the arc and the visitors ended with 15 threes to beat Goucher 69-59 despite the Gophers holding an 38-16 edge in points in the paint.

Elijah Gore opened up the scoring for Salisbury (7-1) with a three in sign of things to come. 

With 8:50 remaining the first half, the Sea Gulls still had not hit from inside the arc, but had led for the entire game until Ed Oliver (Adelphi, Md./High Point) made a jump shot to give Goucher (2-6) its only lead of the game at 17-16.

The Gophers would lead for less than a minute as Chris Viqueira responded with Salisbury's first two at 7:56 to give the visitors a lead they would never relinquish.

With Salisbury nursing a six-point lead heading towards intermission, the team used its hot shooting to pull away. From the 1:54 mark in the first half until 12:45 in the second half, Goucher's former Capital Athletic Conference foe missed only once from the floor. In that 9:09 span, Salisbury was 8 for 9 from the floor including seven straight made threes.

The Sea Gulls hit on their last three shots of the first half, all threes, to head into the break up 35-23. To start the second frame, they missed on a two point attempt before resuming their long-range shooting, hitting on their next three shots, again, all threes. After a made jumper, Tim Harwood nailed another three to extend the lead to 20.

The Gophers rallied, keyed by a Trae Lindsay (Baltimore, Md./Patapsco) layup as part of an 8-0 run. Brian Morton II (Ellicott City, Md./Mount St. Joseph) followed with a traditional three-point play, Lindsay added a free-throw and Norman Allen II (Bowie, Md./Riverdale Baptist) closed the flurry with a jumper.

Morton led Goucher scorers with 17 points and had eight rebounds, also tops among Gophers.

Goucher later received a 7-2 run to cut the lead to single digits with just over five minutes to go.

Off a Lindsay block, Mico James (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) jump-stopped into the paint and hit a running jumper to cut the lead to six with 3:20.

Harwood hit his only shot from inside the arc to extend the lead back to eight with 2:51 to go. Harwood finished with a game-high 26 points, including shooting 6-for-11 three-pointers, falling just short of the Decker Sports and Recreation Center record of eight by James Russo against St. Mary's (Md.) in 2006.

After the teams exchanged baskets, Trent Epps sealed the game with a traditional three-point play to ice the game.

The 15 threes by Salisbury fell just two short of the building record set by St. Mary's (Md.) in 2006 and Goucher against Hood in 2007.