Cardinals Dominate Boards, Defeat Gophers by 30

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Goucher was outscored, 28-6, in the paint and trailed Catholic, 47-23, at the end of the first half as the two teams opened Landmark Conference play against one another tonight in the DuFour Center. The Cardinals stretched their lead to as many as 38 points in the second half before securing a convincing 81-51 victory.

Catholic went ahead for good on a basket by Kelli Josephsen 2:25 that made the score 8-7 just into the contest and, less than five minutes later, the Cardinals (5-1, 1-0 Landmark) opened up a double-digit advantage over head coach Didi Cotton's squad on a layup by Jill Woerner.

The Gophers (1-5, 0-1 Landmark) fell behind 47-19 when Mary Hagaman knocked down a 3-point field goal with 1:32 remaining before halftime, but baskets by Precious Kollock (Baltimore, Md./Patapsco) and Danielle Collins (Accokeek, Md./Gwynn Park) in the final minute of the opening period reduced the deficit to 24 points at the break.

After the Cardinals tallied the first 12 points of the second half, the Gophers never got closer than within 30 the remainder of the game.

Sharnell Huff (Bowie, Md./Bowie) was the only double-digit scorer for Goucher as she furnished the Gophers with 12 points.

Eight of the 11 players who got into the scoring act for Catholic contributed at least six points to the victory. The leading scorer was Josephsen with 14 points.

The Cardinals, who were 20-for-37 from the field (.541) in the first half, dominated the boards, pulling down a total of 60 rebounds, including 26 on the offensive end of the court. As a result, they scored 19 second-chance points.

Goucher had only five offensive rebounds among their final total of 23 boards.