Leopards Prevent Gophers from Finishing Second

Leopards Prevent Gophers From Finishing Second

Dec. 20, 2007

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. - Even after Wednesday's one-point loss to Apprentice School, Goucher needed only a victory over Wentworth Institute of Technology this evening in order to finish in second place at the Cruzin Classic. But the Gophers allowed the Leopards to storm out to a 17-4 lead in the opening 4:28 this evening and were eventually handed an 86-50 defeat.

It's the first time all season that the Gophers (2-7) have trailed a Divsion III opponent at the conclusion of regulation. Prior to this evening, they defeated Catholic and their other four games against Division III programs went into overtime.

Once Wentworth assumed a 19-6 lead less than five minutes into this evening's contest, head coach Leonard Trevino pulled all five of his starters and sparked by eight points from Cameron Brown (Baltimore, MD/Owings Mills), the Gophers went on a 14-3 run to close to within 22-20 with 11:15 left to play in the first half. The Leopards (5-4), however, wasted little time re-establishing a double-digit advantage as they reeled off 12 unanswered points to go up 34-20.

At the half, Wentworth was out in front, 47-25.

The Gophers never got closer than 20 points during the entire second half.

The leading scorer for Goucher was Marcus Cotton (Silver Spring, MD/Springbrook), who finished with 12 points. The other four starters were limited to a combined total of 10 points.

Goucher's bench produced 28 points as Brown ended up with 10 points and Micah Perry (Silver Spring, MD/Springbrook) and Pat Bailey (Rockville, MD/Magruder) chipped in with seven points apiece.

Sherrad Prezzie-Blue captured scoring honors for Wentworth as he had 25 points to go along with six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.