MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa – Webster University saw its three-game win streak snapped here Saturday afternoon as Iowa Wesleyan used a 55-point second half to rally from a 17 point halftime deficit to post an 88-83 come-from-behind victory in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Ruble Arena on the IWU campus.
 
Saturday's game was a tale of two halves as the Gorloks outscored the Tigers by 17 points in the first half to take a 50-33 lead at the half, but IWU would rally to outscore the Gorloks by 22 points (55-33) in the second half to post the victory and snap a two-game losing skid.
 
With the setback, Webster falls to 11-10 overall and 8-6 in the SLIAC, while IWU improves to 5-16 overall and 5-9 in the SLIAC.
 
IWU's second half rally was aided by 10 3-pointers, seven Gorlok turnovers that led to nine Tiger points and 64 percent shooting from the field by the Tigers. In the first half, the Gorloks hit six treys and shot 54 percent from the field to help them to its halftime advantage.
 
Webster was led offensively on the day by 17 points apiece from freshman guard Christian Crespo (Royal Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) and freshman forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial). In fact, those two players combined to score 23 of WU's 33 second half points as Crespo had 13 and Wilcox scored 10.
 
In addition to Crespo and Wilcox, freshman guard Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) added 10 points, including tallying nine of those in WU's 50-point first half.
 
Trailing by 17 at the half, IWU opened the second half by scoring 16 of the first 22 points to pull with seven at 56-49 following a trey from Mitchell Drey. The Tigers run was keyed by four 3-pointers, including two by Drey, who finished the game with 24 points and was 4-for-8 from downtown.
 
Following Drey's 3-pointer, the Gorloks responded with a 14-5 run to push its lead back out to 17 at 70-54 with 13:41 left in the game. All 14 of WU's points were scored by both Crespo (8) and Wilcox (6).
 
But once again, the Tigers rallied as they used a 16-2 run to drop the Gorloks lead to 72-70 following a trey by Jake Neubauer with 8:21 remaining in the game. The Gorloks, though, would use baskets by Wilcox and senior guard Michael Dunn (Tallahassee, Fla./Florida A&M) to push its lead to 76-72 with 5:48 remaining. Dunn finished the game with eight points.
 
The Tigers would respond following Dunn's basket by drilling two consecutive treys to take a 78-76 lead with 4:52 left. Gorlok sophomore guard Blake Ferrell would then score four straight points to help the Gorloks retake the lead at 80-78 with 4:03 remaining. Those would be the final two made field goals for the Gorloks in the game as WU's final three points came at the free throw line by Crespo with 20 seconds left.
 
After Ferrell's basket gave WU its 80-78 lead, the Tigers would score 10 of the game's final 13 points to seal the win.
 
Along with Drey's 24 points, IWU was led in scoring by Brock Butler as he finished with a game-high 27 points and added nine boards. Butler, who scored 15 of IWU's 33 first-half points, hit five of his team's 15 treys in the game. The third double-digit scorer for the Tigers was Neubauer as he tallied 17 points.
 
In the first half, IWU scored the game's first basket on a trey from Drey, but the Gorloks would use 22-12 run over the next seven-plus minutes to push out to a 22-15 lead. WU's scoring spurt was keyed by six points apiece from Dunn and sophomore guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton).
 
Following a trey by Elijah Johnson that dropped WU's lead to 22-18, the Gorloks would use a 19-6 run over the next six minutes to push out to a 41-24 lead. The run, which was capped by a bucker from Etienne, was keyed by three treys from freshman guard Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) and 10 points from Etienne.
 
The Tiger would answer by scoring the next four points, before WU closed the half by scoring seven of the final nine points to go into halftime leading with its 50-33 advantage.
 
For the game, Webster shot 51 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line, while IWU finished shooting 50 percent from the floor and 43 percent from downtown.
 
The Gorloks held a 38-27 edge on the glass, including Wilcox collecting 10 boards for his team leading fifth double-double of the season. WU finished the game with 13 turnovers and forced nine from the Tigers and both teams had 18 assists.
 
Webster will now return home to Grant Gymnasium this coming week for two games as they host Spalding at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and then welcomes MacMurray for a 3 p.m. Senior Day game on Saturday, Feb, 10.