By Todd Hummel
SELINSGROVE -- So you want to be a basketball coach?
Susquehanna coach Jim Reed watched Friday night as his Crusaders put together their best performance of the season in a win over Catholic.
But Reed didn't get much time to enjoy it, in fact his thoughts quickly switched to next game, which in the Landmark Conference meant less than 24 hours later.
"We probably played our best game of the year (Friday night), so then the thing I'm worried about (Saturday) morning, is this the time for the mental letdown," Reed said. "We were so high and had played so well. That was the thing we didn't want to be -- soft (Saturday)."
The Crusaders were anything but soft against Goucher, limiting the Gophers to just 28 percent from the floor and leading from the first basket in a 55-42 win at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.
"It was games against two totally different teams -- Catholic is a zone team, while Goucher plays tough man-to-man defense. It made it a real tough weekend to switch gears," Reed said. "I'm real proud of the kids."
Susquehanna won its fourth conference game in a row and improves to 11-9 overall, 5-4 LC. The win puts the Crusaders' in fourth-place by themselves. Susquehanna now holds a two-game lead over Catholic for the final playoff berth with five league games remaining. Susquehanna has two more important home games next Friday and Saturday, when it hosts the Merchant Marine Academy and Drew. Goucher drops to 5-14 overall, 1-8 LC.
The Gophers have struggled on offense in the new year, not scoring any more than 50 points in any of their eight games in 2010 and Saturday afternoon was another struggle for Goucher.
Susquehanna jumped out to a quick 12-2 lead on the Gophers with 15:43 left in the first half when Jess Zigarelli nailed two foul shots. The Crusaders wanted to work their transition game against the physical Gophers, but that was stymied by Goucher's work on the offensive glass.
The Gophers were able to stay in the game in the first half, cutting the SU lead to five twice, by outrebounding Susquehanna 24-12 in the first half, including 12-2 in offensive boards.
"We would have liked to get into transition more and gotten some easy baskets to get the ball down the floor before they get set up, but in the first half they had 12 offensive rebounds, to able to run and fast break you have to get the ball," Reed said. "(Rebounding) was a real weakness for us early in the season. I'm going to say it's only been the last eight games or so that we've put an emphasis on it and we've been pretty good.
"We did a lot better in the second half, didn't give them those second opportunities."
Fixing the rebounding problem -- Susquehanna outrebounded Goucher, 21-10, in the second half -- led to the Crusaders opening up a 17-point advantage (43-26) with less than 10 minutes left in the game on a Jennifer Butts post move inside. The Gophers never got any closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Zigarelli was the only player in double figures for the game on both teams with 12 points for the Crusaders. Erika Barron added nine points, while Samantha Cartwright had eight points and 10 boards.
Amber Smith and Elizabeth von Ende each scored nine points to lead Goucher.
