Bull Goes for 18 Points, 12 Rebounds Against Rangers

MADISON, N.J. — Even though the second half was already more than five minutes old before she tallied her first point, Briana Bull (Baltimore, Md./Owings Mills) was Goucher's leading scorer in this afternoon's Landmark Conference game against Drew. She supplied the Gophers with 18 points.

In India Perkins (Brentwood, Md./Bladensburg), head coach Didi Cotton's squad had a second double-digit scorer as she finished with 14 points. After that, however, only six other players got into the scoring act for Goucher and only five of the six managed four or fewer points.

By comparison, Drew's starting five combined to score 63 points. The leading scorer for the Rangers was Courtney Trzasko, who made seven of the 11 3-point shots she took on the way to a game-high 24-point performance.

Quite simply, the Gophers couldn't match the offensive productivity of their opponent and were saddled with a 69-54 setback that keeps them as one of two Landmark teams that have yet to win within the conference in 2014-15.

Although Goucher never led at any point in the first half, it was able to keep its deficit below 10 points until Kati Yext was successful on a 3-point attempt with 3:23 to play before halftime. Her basket provided the home team with a 32-22 advantage.

Drew enjoyed an eight-point lead at the break, 34-26.

Bull, who was credited with a game-high 12 rebounds, was 8-for-13 from the field and made both of her free-throw attempts in the second half. Her first made basket was a layup that allowed the Gophers (4-13, 0-9 Landmark) to close to within 37-32; her second was another layup on the next possession which made the score 37-34. Trzasko accounted for the next six points, landing shots from 3-point range on back-to-back possessions to restore the Rangers' cushion to 43-34.

Goucher was forced to claw its way back from another 10-point deficit later in the period, lowering it to three points on layup by Bull with 7:43 left to play. From there, however, it took Drew just slightly longer than two minutes to put together a 9-2 run which was capped by yet another of Trzasko's 3-point baskets.

Although Goucher made six more field goals than its opponent, it was 0-for-3 on 3-point tries. In addition, the Gophers went to the free-throw line only five times, but made four of them.

There were nine 3-pointers among Drew's final total of 19 made baskets and the Rangers (10-8, 4-5 Landmark) outscored the Gophers by 18 points at the free-throw stripe by converting 22-of-28.

Goucher has now dropped seven games in a row, a streak that got started when the Gophers bowed to Juniata, 64-52, back on Jan. 6. They'll get a chance to avenge the loss and snap the slide when they welcome the Eagles to the Decker Sports & Recreation Center this coming Wednesday at 7 p.m.