FULTON – When Tyler Tiemann’s three-pointer from the corner rattled off the rim at the buzzer, Webster felt something it hadn’t since February 9, 2007.

Over that span, the Gorloks had vanquished St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opponents in 20 consecutive regular season games, including all 16 a season ago.

However, the Westminster Blue Jays provided the winning formula posting the 85-82 victory Wednesday at the Henry P. Iba Court.

It wasn’t as if Webster were without plenty of chances to keep the streak alive, but the inability to grab the critical rebounds at opportune times proved too much for the Gorloks to overcome. On three straight possessions of a one-possession contest, Westminster took advantage of second chance opportunities to pull more room between its and the Gorloks.

Behind the powerful post play of junior John Ortwerth, Webster trimmed its 12-point second-half deficit to three. The forward scored nine of the team’s 11 points during the  16-4 spurt that senior Ryan Turk capped with a game-tying three-pointer just seven minutes into the second half.

Webster forced two more ties, but could never overtake the home team.

Turk finished with a game-high 26 points and four assists, while Ortwerth career-high  19 points. He added three rebounds, while freshman Kevin Miller had a team-high four rebounds in just four minutes of work. Miller left the game with an apparent lower leg injury.

Sophomore Scott Restoff added a career-high 11 points in the loss.

Webster (1-2 overall, 0-1 SLIAC) will host MacMurray 3 p.m. Saturday in its home SLIAC opener.

NOTES
•    For the third straight game, the winner of the rebounding battle also was victorious  on the scoreboard as Westminster held a 32-30 advantage.
•    Senior Doug Stiegemeier, after missing the first two games with an injury, saw his first action of the season.
•    Ryan Turk’s 26 points were a season-high and just three points off his career-high 29 set last season against MacMurray.
•    Junior Josue Whitcomb recorded his first start of the season.
•    Webster played 14 players in first half.
•    Turk and Luke Niebrugge both doubled their season assist output with four assists. The duo are now tied for the team lead with eight assists.
•    Turk needs one more made free throw to break in the school’s career top 10.

QUOTES
Head Coach Chris Bunch
Initial comments
     “We gotta play better defensively. We gotta rebound better and it doesn’t help when they shoot 32 free throw and we shoot just 15. That is not an indictment on the officiating. We put them on the free throw line early in double halves. If we play better defensively, they don’t get 32 free throws. … We can’t allow 85 points, get outrebounded and have 16 turnovers and expect to win. We have to play better.”

On others stepping up
     “We can’t rely on Ryan and Luke to score 20 points a night. We gotta start getting stuff out of more people. Last season, we’d have five/six guys in double figures.”

On what’s next
     “Hopefully some guys can work through this and know how hard we have to play to win. They can’t play hard just part of time, it has to be an all-time thing.”