ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. - The Elizabethtown College men's basketball team scored its first Landmark Conference game of the season, topping Goucher, 77-69, Wednesday night.

With the win, the Blue Jays improve to 6-8 overall and 1-3 in the league, while the Gophers fall to 3-11 on the season and 0-4 in the Landmark.

Freshman Rance Russo scored 20 or more points for the fifth time this season, finishing with 24 points. Sophomore Tyreke Herbert tallied 10 points, nine rebounds, and six assists while junior Dylan Rowe registered 11 points and six rebounds. Senior Jalin Robinson added 11 points of his own.

Freshman John Dixon scored a team-high 17 points to lead the Gophers. Junior Octavius Johnson finished with a game-high 12 rebounds and nine points.

Holding a two point lead (7-5) early in the period half, the Blue Jays used a quick 9-2 run, capped off by a three from sophomore Jared Archer, to move ahead 16-7 with 13:53 left in the first.

Etown pushed its lead to 11 after Robinson found Rowe in the paint for the easy two, making the score 27-16 with 6:50 on the clock. Goucher cut four points off the deficit before the intermission but the Blue Jays still took a seven point lead (31-24) into the locker room.

After the Gophers quickly cut the deficit to three (31-28) at the start of the second, Etown responded. The Blue Jays rattled off six quick points to move back in front by nine (37-28) thank to two free throws from Rowe and buckets from Herbert and Russo with 17:05 left in the game.

Goucher continued to hang around and moved within one point after a layup by senior Nieko White made the score 40-39 with 12:42 on the clock. That, however, is as close at the Gophers would get as the Blue Jays pushed its advantage to as many as 10 points late in the second half to take the 77-69 victory.

Etown shot 46.9% (23-49) from the floor and made 6-15 (40%) from three, while Goucher finished 24-61 (39.3%) overall and shot 33.3% (5-15) from three. The Blue Jays made its mark from from the free throw line, knocking down 25-31, including 23-27 in the second half. 

Elizabethtown is back in action on Saturday, January 22 at Scranton. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.