Goucher Trails Throughout Against First-Place Catholic

WASHINGTON — Goucher surrendered the first eight points to start tonight's Landmark game against Catholic, and the host Cardinals never relinquished that advantage in a 77-56 victory that allowed them to maintain their perfect start to the conference season.

The Gophers (3-10, 2-2 Landmark) had a brief rally to cut the deficit to 10-7 after a jumper from Jordan Young (Washington, D.C./McLean School of Maryland) with 12:45 remaining, but Catholic (11-3, 5-0 Landmark) gradually increased its lead the rest of the way.

The Cardinals sank five 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, the last of which came from Kyle Phanord with 2:27 left to make it 37-22. Goucher kept the home team off the scoreboard for the rest of the half, but only managed a layup from Troy DeShields (Seaford, Del./Sussex Technical) during that span. That allowed Catholic to take a 13-point cushion into the second half.

The Gophers shot 34.6 percent from the floor in the first half, and they made little improvement on that percentage afterwards, shooting 36.4 percent after the break. The Cardinals, who led by as many as 27 points in the closing minutes, hit 31 of their 64 attempts overall (48.4 percent). Jay Howard (18 points), Phanord (16 points) and Bryson Fonville (15 points) all finished in double figures, while Corey Stanford grabbed a game-high 19 rebounds.

Tre Galloway III (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) scored all of his team-high 11 points in the second half. The sophomore guard converted all four of his attempts from the field, and he added three more points from the free throw line. Galloway was the only Gopher to crack double figures.

Goucher concludes a stretch of four games in nine days on Saturday afternoon at Scranton. The five-time Landmark champion Royals (11-2, 5-0 Landmark) are currently ranked 24th in the nation by D3hoops.com. This weekend's contest is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.