(St. Louis, Mo.) – After a tight 30 minutes the Webster Gorloks used a 27-7 run sparked by Josue’ Whitcomb’s 11 straight points to pull away from the Maryville Saints 91-67 on Wednesday evening at Webster. With the win Webster won its 12th straight SLIAC regular season contest and gained sole position of first place in the SLIAC conference with Westminster’s loss to Fontbonne.
The Gorloks (10-5, 7-0 SLIAC) stormed out of the gates taking a 5-0 lead about a minute into the but the Saints (6-9, 4-3 SLIAC) battled their way back cutting the deficit to one three minutes later. WU held its lead right around the double figure mark for most of the first half before Maryville went on a late surge cutting the lead to three with 0:44 remaining in the half. Ryan Turk’s three 0:19 later gave Webster a 42-36 advantage at the break. Both teams shot the ball well in the frame with the Saints knocking down 13-of-29 (45 percent) from the field while WU shot 41 percent (15-of-37) from the floor, but the Gorloks out rebounded the Saints by a 28-17 margin turning the advantage into nine second chance points. Each side held onto the basketball despite the full court pressing only turning it over 11 times in the frame.
Brad Robinson, Darin Hoggatt and Turk each scored eight points in the half to lead the Gorloks. Robinson had 11 rebounds in the stanza.
The game was back and forth for the first three minutes of the second half before Webster took control with another three from Turk and lay-up by Robinson pushing the lead to 54-45 just over four minutes into the frame. Maryville pulled back within five points but then the Gorloks began their run and wouldn’t look back as the Saints got no closer than eight points the rest of the way. The big blow during the run came when Whitcomb scored 11 straight points for Webster in a three minute stretch which saw the lead grow from 59-51 to 72-55 with nine minutes to play. WU would build its to 23 points with more than five minutes to play and coasted the rest of the way to the final margin. Webster turned 16 Maryville turnovers into 20 points while dominating the paint with a 40-26 advantage in scoring and 25-6 in second chance points.
The Gorloks offensive balance continued in the second half finishing the game with four players in double figures scoring led by Hoggatt with 19 points. Turk contributed 18, Robinson finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds while Whitcomb chipped in with 13.
