The Gophers, the tournament's No. 4 seed, advance to face top-seeded York in the semifinals on Thursday. The Spartans defeated Gallaudet, 78-65, in one of tonight's other first-round contests.
Russo supplied the Gophers with only six points in the first half tonight as he landed a pair of shots from three-point range. For St. Mary's (11-14), Ryan Junghans and Jeffrey Turner combined to score 26 points in the opening 20 minutes of play as the Seahawks, who defeated Goucher twice during the regular season for the first time since 1992-93, enjoyed a 39-34 lead at the break.
Russo didn't score his first points in the second half until the Seahawks stretched their lead to nine points. The sophomore guard tied the single-season school record for three-point field goals when he landed one with 14:07 remaining to pull the Gophers to within 48-42.
Two possessions later, he broke the record when he connected from long range for the 72nd time this season.
Russo's fifth three-point basket of the contest midway through the second half provided the Gophers (18-8) with their first lead since 6-5.
With the score tied at 62-62, Russo nailed three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, providing Goucher with a 68-62 advantage with 6:17 left to play.
Russo's seven three-point field goals ties the single-game school record originally established by Chad Beeten against Gallaudet on Feb. 24, 1994.
Goucher took its biggest lead of the contest on Russo's lay-up with 4:39 remaining that made the score 74-63, but when Junghans and John Dewey made three-point baskets just :08 apart in the final minute of play, the Seahawks suddenly found themselves down only 83-80 with :29 showing on the clock.
The Gophers converted three free throws to build their lead back up to six points, enough to withstand a successful three-pointer by Dan Englestad at the buzzer.
Russo, who was 7-for-10 on three-pointers, led all scorers as he finished with 26 points. Garrett Smith contributed 13 points and eight rebounds to the victory, which allowed him to break the school record for most rebounds in a season. The former mark of 250 was set in 1996-97 by Predrag Durkovic.
Trevor Quinn and Jermaine Saunders had double-doubles for Goucher. For Quinn, it was 11 points and 10 rebounds; for Saunders, 10 points and 11 boards.
For the Seahawks, Junghans produced 25 points before fouling out late in the contest. Turner was held to six points in the second half, but still wound up with 17 for the game.