Collapse at End of First Half Proves Fatal to Gophers

Huff Fuels Second-Half Surge with 3-Pointers, Finishes with 15 Points

TOWSON, Md. — Goucher trailed Juniata by only seven points and had the ball with :15 remaining in the first half of this evening's Landmark Conference game in the Decker Sports & Recreation Center. Nothing that happened the rest of the period was beneficial for head coach Didi Cotton's Gophers.

First there was a steal by Juniata's Jordan Speck, who turned it into two points by making a layup with :09 still remaining before halftime. Then another steal of the inbounds pass, this one by Natalie Glinsky, who knocked down a short-range jumper and was fouled on the play, which took only three seconds off the clock.

Glinsky was errant on the free-throw attempt, but teammate Erin McGinley rebounded the miss and scored just ahead of the buzzer. The six points they scored in final nine seconds put the Eagles up 33-20 at the break and they went on to defeat the Gophers, 73-54.

The Gophers (2-15, 2-6 Landmark) didn't score again in the first half after Elizabeth von Ende (Leawood, Kan./American Hebrew Academy) landed a shot from 3-point range to create a 20-20 tie with 3:27 remaining in the period. The Eagles (13-6, 6-2 Landmark) went ahead to stay just 19 seconds later on a layup by Kate McDonald.

A pair of 3-point baskets by Sharnell Huff (Bowie, Md./Bowie) fueled a spurt of eight consecutive points that allowed the Gophers to close to within 35-30 just over two minutes into the second half.

Huff finished as the leading scorer for the Gophers as she netted 15 points. Leia Roberts-Brown (Capitol Heights, Md./Archbishop Carroll) added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench.

McGinley's 17-point effort was tops for Juniata. McDonald registered a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds.