Entrance- and Exit-Channel Effects and the Suppression of Neutron Emission fromNi64+Zr92→Er*156

High-angular-momentum components have been found in the cross section for ${}_{}{}^{64}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ni}$ + ${}_{}{}^{92}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Zr}$ → ${}_{}{}^{156}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{E}\mathrm{r}*$ by $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy. They are expected to influence the known low evaporation-neutron multiplicity. The feeding pattern rules out significant trapping in superdeformed states at low spin, an explanation previously advanced. Simple coupled-channels calculations are consistent with the observations. The statistical model with high-$l$ fusion enhanced consistently with observation reproduces the neutron multiplicity satisfactorily.