TOWSON, Md. --- The Moravian College men's basketball team picked up its 15th victory of the season and moved to 2-0 on its final four-game road trip of the winter with an 81-74 come-from-behind win at Goucher College Wednesday evening.
The Greyhounds are now 15-7 overall, the most wins for the program since an 18-9 season in 2007-08 that ended in the NCAA Tournament as Moravian began playing in the Landmark Conference that year. The Blue and Grey are also 8-3 in Landmark Conference contests this winter.
Moravian trailed by as many as nine points early in the second half before coming away with the victory. Sophomore guard Jimmy Murray led the Greyhounds with 25 points including an 11-for-11 performance at the foul line to go with three rebounds and a pair of assists. Senior forward Brandon McGuire had his third straight double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds to give him 11 double-doubles this winter and 29 for his career. McGuire, who also had three assists, became the fifth player in school history to reach 700 rebounds as he increased his career total to 708, and he is 13th all-time with 1,222 points.
Sophomore forward Jake McGee tossed in 15 points off the bench to go with three boards and a pair of assists while sophomore forward Oneil Holder had eight points, eight rebounds, four steals and two assists. Senior guard Sean Hanna contributed six points, five assists, to become the ninth player in school history with 200 assists, and a pair of steals for the Blue and Grey while senior guard Isaiah Jennings and junior guard Matt Cardonne each had three points with Jennings adding two assists and two steals. Freshman forward John Hargraves and sophomore guard Will Brazukas both had two points with Brazukas dishing out two assists and freshman guard C.J. Barnes grabbing three boards.
Moravian's pressure defense turned it up in the second half. After allowing the Gophers to shoot 70.8 percent (17-of-24) from the floor, the Greyhounds limited Goucher to 8-of-28 shooting (28.6) percent and forced 12 turnovers in the final 20 minutes and 19 turnovers for the game.
The Gophers opened the scoring before a three-pointer by Murray put Moravian up 3-2 in the first minute of action. Goucher countered by scoring the next eight points for a 10-3 advantage. Murray pulled the Blue and Grey within a point, 12-11, on a pair of free throws five minutes into the contest, and a three-pointer by Hanna had the Hounds down 20-19 with just over 11 minutes before the intermission.
The Greyhounds eventually tied the contest at 27-27 on a lay-up by McGuire with 8:05 on the clock but Goucher pulled ahead again until McGee drained a three-pointer to knot the score at 35-35 with 4:44 until halftime. McGee hit a pair of free throws to put the Hounds ahead 37-36 a minute later but the Gophers headed to the locker room with a 47-41 lead after scoring the final four points of the half.
Goucher netted the first three points of the second half to take that nine point lead, 50-41. Murray connected on a pair of three-pointers to pull Moravian within three points, and McGuire drained a jumper and then a lay-up to bring the deficit to a point, 56-55, at the 13:00 mark. Both squads went nearly four minutes without scoring. Hanna snapped the drought with a lay-up at 9:18 as Moravian retook the lead, and the run would stretch to 9-0 while McGee hit a lay-up for a 60-56 Moravian edge with just under nine minutes left.
With the Greyhounds leading, 65-60, the Gophers scored eight straight points to take a 68-65 lead with 5:18 remaining. Two lay-ups and a three-pointer from McGuire gave the Hounds the lead for good with under four minutes on the clock. Murray would hit five free throws in the final 42 seconds to seal the win for the Greyhounds.
Moravian is scheduled to return to action on Saturday, February 11 in a Landmark Conference game at Juniata College in Huntingdon with tip-off set for 4:00 p.m.
