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BOX SCORE)
Sophomore
Scott Restoff torched the Rust Bearcats for a career-high 19 points in helping Webster break its two-game losing skid with a 71-68 victory in a game that witnessed 10 ties and 10 lead changes.
When the Gorloks pulled out to a game-high seven point lead with a shade over four minutes left, the Grant Gymnasium crowd could sense a positive Webster outcome. However, Rust made the Gorlok faithful sweat it out until the last second ticked off the clock.
Utilizing a full court pressure, the Bearcats took advantage of a turnover and long rebound to spark fast breaks - pulling to with one with 15 seconds left. But, a comeback wasn't in the cards for the visitors as WU junior
Josue Whitcomb got a wide open fast-break layup with six seconds.
Rust had one last opportunity to secure the equalizer but senior
Luke Niebrugge deflected the three-point attempt from the corner, and victory was sealed.
Whitcomb picked up his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while senior
Ryan Turk dropped in 11 points. Undersized junior forward
John Ortwerth continues to give Webster quality minutes in the paint, scoring 10 points with four rebounds and three assists.
The road doesn't get any easier for Webster (2-3 overall) as they host #4 Wheaton (6-0 overall) 8 p.m. Wednesday. The Thunder should be ranked as high as two by game-time as two teams ahead of them in the ranking lost this past week.
QUOTES
Head Coach Chris Bunch
on the victory
"I thought our effort was a lot better overall across the board. It might not look like it from the stats, but we got better shots. Thought we might have been a little snake bitten in the first half. I never seen so many shots go halfway down and not go in. ... We shot almost 50 percent in the second half. Scott Restoff was huge on offense, and Josue' (Whitcomb) was big on defense.
on the shortening of the bench
"We just got out there in the second half and played well. We had some timeouts and breaks that allowed us to keep some players out there. ... Josue' is our best rebounder. He has a knack of getting to where the ball is going, that played a part of the decision to shorten the bench.
on playing ranked opponents
"Those are games that are exciting for your program to play. The players get to see how good they are. It's going to be a high intensity game, a good measuring stick for us."
NOTES
- For the first time this season, the team that grabbed more rebounds didn't earn the victory on the scoreboard. Webster was outrebounded by four boards, 41-37.
- It was the fourth different lineup in five games for the Gorloks.
- The 12 points scored by Josue' Whitcomb were more than the junior forward had tallied all season, total.
- Senior Ryan Turk has reached double figures in all five games this season, and is working on a stretch of 12 straight.
- The Gorloks continue to be in the holiday spirit of spreading the wealth as three different players - Ryan Turk, Scott Restoff and Luke Niebrugge - all dished out a team-high four assists. Two other players - Steve Hrdlicka and Robby Meeh - has three each.
- Webster was 8-of-9 from the foul line, while the Bearcats hit on just 10-of-16.
