WEBSTER GROVES – Webster University and Eureka College battled it out for 40 minutes here Saturday evening in the championship game of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament at Grant Gymnasium and when the final buzzer sounded Eureka had garnered a hard-fought 70-69 victory over the Gorloks to win its first-ever SLIAC Tournament title and also earn its first trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament. 
 
Saturday's game came down to the final possession as junior guard Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) misfired on spinning jumper in the lane with about 1.5 seconds left that Eureka's D.J. Hardaway, Jr., rebounded to seal the Red Devils' victory and end the Gorloks' season in disappointment. 
 
"It was a great year and a disappointing end. I told them (the team), they (Eureka) scored one more point than we did tonight," Webster head coach Chris Bunch said following the game. "Both teams played hard, both teams made mistakes, both teams made plays."
 
Bunch said that his team was in that situation like tonight a lot this season and were able to pull out a win, but tonight wasn't the case.
 
"We've been in that situation all year, how many games have we won where it was tied with 3 or 4 minutes to go and we made 3 or 4 plays and won, so it just stands to reason that every now and then, one of those go against you and this was just a bad time of the year for that to happen," said Bunch, who earned his fifth SLIAC Coach of the Year honor this season. "I told them last night, it was a close game and we won and made plays at the end and made one more play than Blackburn did to get here and it worked against us tonight."
 
With the loss, Webster, who claimed its league-best ninth regular season title, concludes the season with a 20-7 overall record, while Eureka improved to 13-14 and will learn their destination in the NCAA Tournament on Monday morning when the NCAA unveils the 64 team field. 

Saturday's loss also snapped Webster's 10 game win streak at home as the Gorloks closed out the season with a 12-2 record on its home court. 
 
Webster's 20-7 record marks the program's best final record since the 2010-11 team finished the season with a 20-7 record. The best record is 20-6, which was achieved by the 2007-08 team. This year's 20 win campaign was just the fourth in the program's 35 year history. 
 
"It is a disappointing end and I told them, you aren't going to be defined by this, you'll look back in a month, a year, whatever it was a great year, tied the school record for wins, but the thing I was the proudest about was with just how much better we were this year than last year, and not just as a team, but individually, how much better our young men were as people and how much better they handled adversity," Bunch added. 
  
The Gorloks entered Saturday's game looking to win its third all-time SLIAC Tournament championship and earn the program's fifth all-time NCAA Tournament berth. 
 
Webster, who trailed 39-38 at the half, used a 20-10 run over a span of eight minutes to turn a 49-45 deficit into a 65-59 lead following a lay-up from sophomore forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial). WU's run was keyed by eight points from Wilcox and five points from junior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton). Both Johnson and Wilcox were both named to the SLIAC All-Tournament Team. 

Following Webster's run, Eureka used an 8-0 run capped by a lay-up from Alex Wiegand to take a 67-65 lead with 5:29 left in the contest. The Gorloks would tie the game at 67 on its ensuing possession thanks to a lay-up by junior guard Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College). Hopp finished the game with 12 points, four rebounds and six assists. 

The two teams would combine to score just a total of five points over the final five-plus minutes of game, including Eureka answering Hopp's basket with a free throw from Austin Juergens with 3:39 left to give the Red Devils a 68-67 lead. Eureka's lead eventually grew to 70-67 following a lay-up on the break from Dakota Bennington with 2:01 left.

Johnson would bring the Gorloks within a point after he hit two free throws with 42 seconds left. Johnson, who finished the season scoring 450 points to stand 11th on the single season scoring chart, finished the game with 15 points and added seven boards in the loss. Johnson's free throws would be the final points of the game.

In addition to Johnson's 15 points, Wilcox added 14 points and just missed a double-double by one rebound as he pulled down nine boards, while Tankins finished with 10 points and six assists to give Webster four players in double figures for the ninth time this year. 
 
Hank Thomas, who was named the MVP of the SLIAC Tournament, paced the Red Devils attack with 23 points, including scoring 13 of them in the first half to help Eureka take a 39-38 lead at the half. In addition to Thomas, Bennington was also named to All-Tournament Team after scoring 17 points in the title game before fouling out late. The other two members of the All-Tournament Team were Greenville's Johari Dix and Blackburn's Karson Hayes.
 
Two other Eureka players finished in double figures as Jordan Dehm had 13 points and eight boards, while Alex Wiegand recorded a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. 

Thomas, who scored eight straight points over a span of a minute helped Eureka take its 49-45 lead after the Gorloks had taken a 43-41 just three minutes into the second half on a lay-up by Hopp. 

Eureka jumped out to a 19-10 lead in the opening seven minutes of Saturday's game and led 22-12 following a trey from Thomas with 12:08 left in the half. 

Thomas' trey seemed to light a fire under the Gorloks as they responded with a 20-8 run to take a 32-30 lead following two free throws from Wilcox with 4:37 left in the half. The lead was the first of the game for the Gorloks. 
 
Following Wilcox's two free throws that gave the Gorloks the lead, Eureka would close out the half by scoring nine of the final 15 points to take a 39-38 lead at the half. 
 
Webster finished the game outshooting the Red Devils as they shot 46 percent from the field and 56 percent from the 3-point line. Eureka, who began the game by hitting 7 of its first 10 shots, ended the night making just 22 of its final 58 shots and shot 43 percent from the floor and 39 percent from the 3-point line. 
 
The Gorloks were outrebounded by, 39-38 and committed 12 turnovers that led to 16 Red Devil points. Eureka had 11 turnovers for the game. 
 
Much like last night's semifinal game against Blackburn, Webster struggled at the free throw line as they were just 8-for-14 (57 percent) from the line in Saturday's game and finished the tournament going 20-for-42 (47.6 percent) from the foul line. 
 
Eureka went 5-for-7 at the line as each team committed just 12 fouls each in the contest. 
 
The Gorloks, who had only one senior on its roster this season, is expected to return all five of its starters from Saturday's game as three of them were juniors and the other two were sophomores.  
 
"I told them it's a rare occurrence where you end with a disappointing game, but then you have everyone back the next year, but the thing is, who knows what the future brings and you can't just count on it, so we need to continue to work and get better," Bunch said. "I am proud of our team and I'm pleased with what they've done and who they've become. We just have to recharge and come back next year and be a little better."