The Webster Gorloks and Fontbonne Griffins men’s basketball squads will renew its rivalry in a key St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match-up on Wednesday evening at Webster University’s Grant Gym beginning at 8 p.m. Both sides carry long winning streaks into the game with Fontbonne having won 12 in a row while Webster is riding an eight game winning streak and is 9-1 in its last 10 games. With a win WU will move one step closer to clinching its second straight SLIAC title and third in the last four years.
The Gorloks (13-5, 9-0 SLIAC) and Griffins (15-3, 9-1 SLIAC) last met on December 5th at Fontbonne with WU using a 27-5 run late in the first half to pull away for an 84-62 win. Webster out rebounded the Griffins by a 53-37 margin in that first meeting including 21-9 on the offensive end. Fontbonne played without its leading scorer and one of its top rebounders Brian Fogerty in the match-up but Webster head coach Chris Bunch wasn’t sure how much of an impact his absence had in that contest.
“I thought we played really well the first time so it was hard to tell,” Bunch said. “However I think it will have a huge impact on Wednesday night’s game he’s probably having the best year of anybody in the conference numbers wise and is a really good player who can score from inside and out. I think it’s going to be a huge difference,” he added.
Wednesday’s game will feature two of the top teams in almost every statistical category in the conference. Fontbonne is the top scoring team in the conference averaging 76 points a game, but Webster is right behind them scoring 72.4 per contest. The defenses on both teams have put up some impressive numbers as well with the Griffins allowing only 65.4 points to its opponents while WU has given up 66.3 per contest.
“It’s kind of a weird match-up because we’ve beaten them three times in a row at their place and they have beat us two of the last three times here,” Bunch said. “We are very similar; we are the two biggest teams in the conference and we’ve got the two leading rebounders in the league in Brad (Robinson) and (Justin) Storandt playing against each other as well as the leading scorer in the conference this year Fogerty against the guy that’s been the leading scorer in the league the last two years in Darin (Hoggatt). I think it’s going to be a good match-up and a very even game that will come down to who does what they want to do and who executes the best,” he said.
Both squads head into the contest a little bit shorthanded with injuries to important players and their availabilities are not yet to be known. Bunch is uncertain about the status of one of his guards Luke Niebrugge who went down about midway through the second half with an injury in the win over Principia on Saturday afternoon while Fontbonne could be missing the services of guards Brian Rapp and Patrick McCoy.
“I think having him (McCoy) and (Josh) Branch out there on the floor at the same time is a hard match-up because you have got two guys that can score from the perimeter or on the drive,” Bunch said. “They have got some other players that can step in and fill the void but maybe not at his (McCoy) caliber. If he can’t go it will probably change our match-ups a little bit but not a great deal,” he said.
The action will tip off at 8 p.m., following the women’s game which begins at 6 p.m.
