GREENVILLE, Ill. –  Webster University closed out the 2017-18 regular season here Saturday afternoon by falling 79-71 to Greenville University in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Conference regular season finale game at H.L. Long Gymnasium on the Greenville campus.
 
With the setback, Webster saw its season high seven-game win streak snapped and they closed the regular season with an 18-6 overall record and a 12-4 mark in the SLIAC. Greenville, who won the regular season SLIAC title for the first time in two decades following its road win Wednesday at Spalding, improved to 20-5 overall and 15-1 in the league.
 
Thanks to Webster's loss and Eureka's 78-50 home win over Fontbonne on Saturday, the Gorloks earned the No. 3 seed in next week's SLIAC Tournament and will face No. 2 seeded Eureka (18-7, 13-3 SLIAC) in the semifinals on Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. in Greenville. Greenville, who is serving as the tournament's host, will face No. 4 seeded Westminster (14-11, 9-7 SLIAC) at 8 p.m. on Feb. 23. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.
 
In Saturday's setback, three Gorloks finished in double figures as senior forwards Aley Lucas (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) and Megan Brandt (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) each had 16 points, while Aley Lucas added 11 rebounds for her second double-double this season. In addition to Lucas and Brandt, the third double-digit scorer for Webster was senior forward Taylor Lucas (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) who scored 13 points and pulled down eight boards.

Saturday's game featured two of the top offensive and defensive teams in the league and both teams entered the contest scoring over 76 points per game and each team was allowing under 64 points per game to their opponents. 

After trailing 34-31 at the half, Webster came out flat to start the third period as the Panthers scored nine of the period's first 10 points to push its lead out to 11 at 43-32 with 7:25 left in the period. In fact, Greenville led 47-37 with 6:38 left in the period when the Gorloks woke up and used an 11-7 run over a span of three minutes to cut GU's lead to 54-48 following a trey by sophomore guard Jaysea Morgan (Fisk, Mo./Twin Rivers). The Gorloks, though, couldn't get any close as GU used a 7-2 run to extend its lead back out to 11 at 61-50 with 1:02 remaining in the period. 

Brandt, who scored six of her 16 points in the third period, would then score five straight points to bring Webster back within six at 61-55, before Morgan St. James capped the scoring in the period on a basket with nine seconds left to give the Panthers a 63-55 edge heading into the fourth period.

Webster would keep chipping away at Greenville's lead in the early moments of the fourth period as the Gorloks opened the period by scoring six straight points, including back-to-back baskets by Brandt, to bring WU within a basket at 63-61 with 9:04 left in the game. On the ensuing possession, Greenville turned the ball over and the Gorloks had a chance to tie the game, but Aley Lucas turned the ball over and they jump started a 4-0 run by the Panthers that pushed its lead to 67-61. 

The Gorloks would once again answer with a 6-3 run to pull within 70-67 with 4:19 left in the game. The run began with a bucket by junior forward Natalie Busscher (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) and was capped by a bucket from Aley Lucas. Aley Lucas scored eight of her 16 points after halftime.

That would be as close as Webster would get as the Panthers would close the game on a 9-4 run to post its fourth straight win over the Gorloks.

Wesley Woodard led the way offensively for Greenville with 20 points, including scoring 17 of those points in the second half. Along with Woodard, Meredith Crosier added 14 points and Laura Goodnight added 11 points and seven boards in the win.
 
After scoring the first points of the game on a trey by Brandt, Greenville would score nine of the next 12 points to push out to a 9-5 lead with 4:33 left in the opening period. Webster, though, would respond with 5-0 run to take a 10-9 lead following a trey from Busscher with 2:58 left in the period.

Greenville, though, would answer by an 8-0 run to push out to a 17-10 lead with 1:51 left in the period, before Webster closed the opening period by scoring five of the final seven points to trail 19-15.

Webster would finally get into a rhythm offensively in the early part of the second period as they opened the period on a 13-5 run to take a 28-24 lead following a trey from freshman guard Kylie Shoot (Ashland, Mo./Southern Boone) with 4:17 left in the period. That would be the final lead of the game for the Gorloks as Greenville answered by closing out the period on a 10-3 run to take its 34-31 lead at the half. 
 
In the first half, Webster struggled to shoot the ball as they connected on just 33 percent of its shots, but hit 40 percent (6-for-15) of its 3-pointers. On the other side, Greenville shot 54 percent from the floor and forced seven turnovers that led to nine points.
 
For the game, Greenville shot 63 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line, while Webster finished the game shooting 36 percent from the floor and 28 percent from long distance. In the second half, Greenville shot 74 percent from the field, while Webster shot 38 percent from the field. 

One of Webster's biggest strengths this season has been their ability to force turnovers as they entered the fourth in Division III in both turnover margin (+12.4) and turnovers forced (28.8 per game). In Saturday's game, Webster forced just 19 turnovers, but scored just 17 points off those turnovers. Greenville turned 17 of Webster's turnovers into 25 points. 

The Gorloks finished with 16 steals as Aley Lucas tied her career high with five, while Brandt tied her season high with four. 

In addition, both teams struggled at the free throw line as Webster was 14-for-22 (64 percent) at the line, while Greenville finished 13-for-22 (59.1 percent) at the line.