WEBSTER GROVIES - Webster University hot play in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference continued here Saturday afternoon as the Gorloks used a 45 point second half against Westminster (Mo.) College en route to earning a 78-58 men's basketball victory over the Blue Jays at Grant Gymnasium. 

With the win, Webster improves to 10-3 overall and remains undefeated in SLIAC play with a 6-0 record, while Westminster falls to 5-8 overall and 4-2 in the league. 

The 6-0 start in league play is the best for the Gorloks since the 2011-12 team opened league play with an 8-0 record. In addition, the 10 wins in its first 13 games is the best start 13 game start in the program's history. 

After both teams even for about 23 minutes, the Gorloks used a 12-3 run over a span of four-plus minutes to turn a 35-all game into a 48-35 advantage. The run began with a basket from junior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) and was capped by a free throw from junior guard Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College). 

The Blue Jays, who had its three game win streak against the Gorloks snapped with Saturday's loss, answered with a 5-0 run to pull within 48-43 with 11:20 left in the game. That would be as close as Westminster would get, though, as the Gorloks used a 15-5 run to push its lead to 63-48 with 7:24 remaining. The run was keyed by seven points from Johnson, who finished  with 18 points in the game. 

Westminster wouldn't get any closer than 13 points the remainder of the game as the Gorloks lead eventually grew to 20 points following a trey from sophomore guard Lance Hatten (Greenacres, Fla./Berean Christian) with 1:14 remaining. Hatten's trey made the score 76-56. The 20 point lead was the largest of the game for either team. Webster outscored the Blue Jays, 45-28 after halftime.

Junior forward Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) led the way offensively for the Gorloks as he finished with 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for his team-leading fourth double-double of the year. 

In addition to Tankins, who scored 14 of his points in the first half, and Johnson, WU's third double-digit scorer on the day was sophomore forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial), who tallied 10 points and six rebounds. 

The game also marked a career milestone for Wilcox as he established a new Webster career mark for blocked shots thanks to his block on a shot by Romo Tabb with 2:35 left in the game. The block was Wilcox's 89th career blocked shot, which bettered the old school mark of 88 set by Evan Milligan from 2015-17. Wilcox would finish the game with two blocks and has now recorded 90 in his brief career. 

Tabb led the Blue Jays with a game-high 24 points and also had six boards in the loss. In addition to Tabb, Kobe Wands finished with nine points as he was held seven points under his season scoring average of 16.0 points. Wands' brother, Carter, had eight points and five boards, while Stu Hollandsworth added seven points off the bench.

In the first half, Webster jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first three-plus minutes and led 17-9 when the Blue Jays used a 10-6 run to drop WU's lead to 23-19 with 6:42 left in the opening half.

After Tankins drilled a trey with 6:27 left in in the half to give the Gorloks a 26-19 lead, Westminster answered with an 11-0 run to take a 30-26 lead. The Blue Jays run was aided by eight points, including two treys from Tabb. Tabb scored 12 of his game high 24 points in the opening half. 

Following Westminster's run, the Gorloks would close the half on a 7-0 run to take a 33-30 lead at halftime. 

For the game, Webster shot 53 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line and has now shot over 50 percent from the field in two consecutive games and four times this season. 

Webster also outrebounded the Blue Jays, 41-24 as along with Tankins' 11 boards, junior guard Jordan Clay (St. Louis, Mo./Blackburn College) pulled down seven board and added eight points off the bench. WU's bench outscored Westminster's 19-14 as along with Clay's eight points, junior guard Blake Ferrell (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South) tallied a season high eight points. 

The Gorloks also had a season high 22 assists and Hopp and Wilcox each had five in the win. 

Westminster shot 36 percent from the field and 35 percent from the 3-point line. 

Both teams were strong at the free throw line as they combined to go 18-for-21 at the line in the game as Westminster was 8-for-9 (88.9 percent) at the line, while Webster was 10-for-12 (83.3 percent) from the charity stripe. 

The Gorloks will put its perfect league record on the line this coming Wednesday, Jan. 9 as they hit the road for the first time in the New Year as they travel to Carlinville, Ill., for a 7:30 p.m. contest against Blackburn College.