Box Score Facing the reigning champs on their own floor, the Webster University men's basketball team wrestled away the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship with a 55-51 win over Spalding University.  The Gorloks will now head to the NCAA III Tournament for the second time in four years.

Kevin Miller (Belleville, IL/Belleville East HS), was a dominant force in the middle as he has been all season, and was named the SLIAC Tournament MVP.  Miller finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the win.  Miller averaged 20 points and12.5 rebounds per game in the Gorloks' two tournament wins.

The Gorloks were down, 50-49, with 3:05 remaining but a Hunter Ward (FR, St. Louis, MO/Kirkwood HS) three-pointer gave them a lead, 52-50, Webster would not relinquish over the final few minutes.  A slashing drive and layup by senior Hollis Edwards (Nashville, TN/McGavock HS), made it 54-50 with 1:25 on the clock.

Edwards was a question mark for the contest after dislocating a big toe during the semi-final win over  MacMurray, but he answered the bell, entering the starting lineup in the final.

Despite missing several free throws in the game's final minute, the Gorlok defense shut down the Golden Eagles offense.  A desperation three-point attempt by Spalding to tie the score with :01 remaining missed the mark and Webster held the championship.  Spalding only managed to hit 27.9% (17-61) of its shots for the game.

Webster was down 27-20 with 2:40 left in the first half, but a 9-0 run, on a pair of Miller layups and five free throws by the Gorloks, gave them a 29-27 lead heading in the locker room.

The Gorloks' dominance in the middle was reflected in the game stats as Webster outscored Spalding 18-4 in the paint.  In addition to Miller, Ward was also selected to the SLIAC All-Tournament Team.  Ward finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and a team-high three steals.  Ward averaged 18.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3 steals per game for the tournament.

Ahmad Smith (JR, St. Louis, MO/Clayton HS) had 11 points, putting him at 990 career points, just 10 away from becoming the 10th player in Webster men's basketball history to crack the 1000 point mark.

Spalding had gone 19-2 in its previous 21 games, with one of the losses coming at Webster on January 23.  Webster has won 15 of its last 17 contests and is 20-7 on the season.  The Gorloks will now wait and see what regional they land in and who their first round opponent will be.