TOWSON, Md. - Senior forward Matthew Mancuso (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) once again led The University of Scranton men's basketball team's offensive unit, tallying a game-high 17 points, as the Royals got up big early on Goucher and never looked back in a convincing 87-38 win in Landmark Conference action on Saturday.
The 49-point victory for Scranton (now 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the Landmark) was one of their biggest in program history, as it matches a 121-74 win for the Royals over Elizabethtown in 1983 for the fifth-highest all-time. It is also the second-highest margin of victory in a game for head coach Carl Danzig, and the highest for the Royals in a Landmark Conference game since the creation of the conference in 2007-08.
In the dominating win, the Royals effectively put the Gophers away with an incredible run to end the first half.
Up only 14-13 with 8:25 to go in the period, the Royals ended the period on a startling 19-0 run to go into halftime up by an insurmountable 33-13 edge.
The scoring run for Scranton continued into the first three minutes of the second half, and up 40-13 with 17 minutes to go in regulation, Goucher finally ended the Royals' 26-0 scoring run with a made free throw.
From there, Scranton rolled, as they held Goucher to 23.1 percent shooting from the floor (12-of-52) and 17.6 percent from three-point range (3-of-17) in the victory.
Overall, it was an all-around day for the Royals' offense in the big win, led once again by Mancuso, as the senior paced the Royals in scoring for the fifth straight game with his 17 point performance. Mancuso, who also pulled down eight rebounds, also went 9-of-11 from the charity stripe in the win.
Elsewhere, sophomore Logan Bailey (Scranton, Pa./Scranton Prep) also went into double-figures with 13 points, while pulling down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Meanwhile, freshman Stephen Braunstein (Colts Neck, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) came off the Royals bench and scored nine points to round out the top performers for Scranton.
Goucher (who dropped to 1-7 and 0-1 in the Landmark with the loss) was led in a losing effort by Dwayne Morton, who came off the Gophers' bench and scored 13 points.
The University of Scranton men's basketball team now takes the week off for final exams and returns to action on Monday, December 16 when they host DeSales in a non-conference match-up in the John Long Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
--ROYALS--