(St. Louis, Mo.) – The Webster University Gorloks shook off a sluggish opening 20 minutes and shot 75 percent (18-of-24) from the floor in the second half on its way to an 87-73 win over MacMurray on Saturday afternoon at Grant Gym. Ryan Turk scored 20 of his season high 29 points in the second half to pace WU.

            Despite scoring the first five points of the contest the Gorloks (7-5, 4-0 SLIAC) struggled to shot the ball in the early making only three of its first 12 shots which allowed the Highlanders (1-11, 0-5 SLIAC) to hang tight in the opening minutes. Webster went back and forth during a six minute stretch in the frame which saw two ties and six lead changes. Trailing by a point with 8:41 to play in the stanza WU started to take control scoring 15 of the final 22 points in the half to head into intermission up 33-26. Turk led the way for the Gorloks with nine points followed by Steve Hrdlicka’s seven. After its early struggles Webster went 8-of-15 the rest of the period to shot a respectable 41 percent (11-of-27) from the floor.

            The second half saw a lot of offensive play and very little defense as the two sides combined to shoot 66 percent (33-of-50) from the field. WU stretched its lead to double digits three minutes into the second stanza but the outside shooting from MacMurray kept them close. Everytime the Gorloks would push the lead to 15 points the Highlanders would either knock down a three point bucket or make an old-fashioned three point play. Webster had its biggest lead of the contest at 67-50 with 6:25 to go but again MC would not quit actually cutting the lead to nine points almost five minutes later. The Gorloks however would make its free throws down the stretch to preserve the victory.

            WU outscored the Highlanders 34-14 in the point and got 18 points from the bench compared to only 11 for MacMurray. Webster finished the game shooting 57 percent (29-51) from the floor while MC was 24-for-50 (48 percent) from the field.