WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University continued its strong play in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play here Saturday afternoon by outscoring MacMurray College 44-31 in the second half en route to posting a 79-63 men's basketball victory over the Highlanders at Grant Gymnasium. 

With the victory, Webster improves to 7-3 overall on the season and is move to 3-0 in the SLIAC, while MacMurray falls to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the SLIAC. Webster is one of just three undefeated teams in the SLIAC as Greenville and Spalding are also 3-0 in the league play following their home wins on Saturday over Blackburn and Iowa Wesleyan respectively. 

The 3-0 start in league play is the first for the Gorloks since the 2014-15 season and just the fourth 3-0 start in league play in school history. 

Webster's strong second half was keyed by a combined 22 points from junior guards Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) and Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College) and 22-11 edge on the glass, including picking up seven offensive rebounds that led to nine second chance points after halftime. Johnson scored 12 of his game high 22 points in the second half, while Hopp scored 10 of his 12 points after halftime.

After leading 35-32 at the half, Webster opened the second half on a 13-8 run to take a 48-38 lead following two free throws by Hopp with 14:29 left in the game. Hopp scored six of Webster's 13 points during the run.

MacMurray, though, responded by scoring five straight points to pull within 48-43, but a lay-up by junior guard Blake Ferrell (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South) and basket by Johnson pushed the Gorloks to 12 at 55-43 with 12:29 remaining in the contest. 

The Highlanders, who has now lost four straight games to the Gorloks, made one more push as they used a 9-4 run capped by a lay-up from Judah Renfro to pull within 59-52 with seven minutes left. 

Webster, who is now 3-1 at home this season, put the game out of reach as they used a 14-4 over the next five minutes to push its lead to 73-56. The run began with two Hopp free throws and was capped by a lay-up from junior guard Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) with 2:12 left in the game. 

Tankins finished the game with 13 points and added seven rebounds and eight assists, along with a career-high tying three blocks and junior forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) added 10 points and eight boards in the victory. 

The Gorloks would hit 6-of-6 free throws over the final 90 seconds of the game to keep the Highlanders at bay as they scored seven of the game's final 13 points. 

Blake Drue led way for MacMurray with 13 points off the bench. In addition to Drue, Logan Dorethy chipped in with 11 points off the bench and Wade Fox finished with 10 points and seven assists in the loss. 

Webster's defense held MacMurray's leading scorer Connor Vincent to just eight points as he was 3-for-10 from the field, including a 2-for-7 effort from the 3-point line. Vincent entered the game averaging 15.5 points per game. 

In addition, the Gorloks also held the Highlanders to nearly 10 points under its season scoring average as they entered Saturday's game averaging 72.3 points per game. 

MacMurray opened the game by scoring the first four points and led 14-13 when the Gorloks used a 6-1 run to take a 19-15 lead with 7:34 left in the opening half. After MacMurray scored five straight points to take a 20-19 lead, Webster would use a 9-5 run to push out to a 28-25 lead with 3:34 left in the first half.

Vincent, though, would score five of MacMurray's next seven points to give the Highlanders a 32-30 lead with 1:06 left in the opening half. Webster would close the half with a lay-up by Ferrell and a trey from Johnson to take its 35-32 lead at the half. 

The Gorloks shot 46 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line in the win, while MacMurray shot 47 percent from the floor, but just 33 percent (5-for-15) from long distance. 

Webster held a 36-24 edge on the glass and dished out a season high 18 assists on its 26 made baskets. The Gorloks also blocked six shots, as along with the three from Tankins, sophomore forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial) added two blocks to push his career total to 81 and is now just seven shot of Evan Milligan's school record 88 career blocks. Wilcox added 12 rebounds and six boards in the win. 

The Gorloks were also strong at the free throw line as they shot a season high 92 percent at the line as they made 23 of its 25 free throw attempts, including Johnson going 11-for-12 at the line.

Webster will now take a week off before returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 15 with a 2 p.m. game in Louisville, Ky., against Spalding University (3-4 overall, 3-0 SLIAC). The Spalding game will mark the final game of the first semester for the Gorloks.