Shooting Woes Hinder Gophers in First Landmark Test

TOWSON, Md. — Baskets by Amaka Ezeani (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) and Briana Bull (Baltimore, Md./Owings Mills) were all that Goucher could come up with offensively in the first eight minutes of tonight's game against Moravian, the first Landmark Conference contest of the 2015-16 season for both teams.

Ezeani made the only shot she attempted; the rest of the team was 1-for-15 from the field. The Greyhounds enjoyed a 14-4 lead.

The Gophers were able to turn things around on offense in the latter stages of the opening period, making four of their final five shots to close to within 17-12.

But once the second quarter got under way, their shooting woes returned. They took 14 shots and made only four. Only a 9-of-10 performance at the free-throw line by Goucher, which included Jaida Scarborough (Baltimore, Md./Digital Harbor) making all eight of her foul shots, kept Moravian from owning an even bigger lead than 45-29 at the end of two periods.

The Gophers never were able to make a run at the Greyhounds during the second half, even when they rang up 24 points in the fourth quarter. The final score was still 84-64, Moravian.

"Tough loss, that's all I can say," head coach Patrick Daniel said after the contest. "When you don't get effort for 40 minutes, this is what happens. We were not aggressive on offense; we were not aggressive on defense. You can't do that against anybody you play.

"We will be a better team on Saturday (when we play Drew)."

Scarborough led all scorers as she finished with 19 points. The junior guard did most of that damage at the charity stripe where she made all but three of her 16 attempts. She also was credited with game-high totals of six assists and five steals.

Ezeani and Bull added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

For the Greyhounds (7-1, 1-0 Landmark), Camille McPherson wound up with 18 points, but there were four other double-digits scorers in Alexis Wright (12 points), Alesha Marcks (11), Trista Cunningham (11) and Maggie Melhem (10).

Moravian out-rebounded Goucher, 49-36, but nobody on either team had more rebounds than the seven Ezeani latched onto.

The Gophers (4-2, 0-1 Landmark) ended up going 18-of-22 at the foul line (.818).

Saturday's game against the Rangers is part of a Landmark Conference doubleheader in Madison, N.J. The men's game is scheduled to tip-off at 2 p.m. and the women's tilt will follow.