WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University Men's Basketball extended its home court win streak in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play to 16 straight games here Saturday afternoon as the Gorloks posted a 78-65 win over Westminster (Mo.) College in SLIAC action at Grant Gymnasium. 

Saturday's game was a match-up between two of the three teams that were tied for for first place in the SLIAC standings and following Saturday's results, Webster now sits alone atop the SLIAC standings with a 5-1 record as along with Westminster, the other team that was tied for first in the league, Eureka, suffered a 114-110 loss at Fontbonne. 

Along with extending its home win streak in SLIAC to 16 straight games with Saturday's victory, Webster also extended its overall win streak on the season to four consecutive games and moves it record to 6-7 overall. Westminster, who had won four straight games entering play on Saturday, falls to 5-7 overall and 4-2 in the league. 

Webster, who was tabbed the preseason favorite to repeat as the regular season SLIAC champions, continues to show the league why they were picked as the favorites to repeat as the Gorloks shot 52 percent from the field and forced 18 turnovers that led to 17 points en route to improving to 20-4 in league play since the beginning of last season.

Senior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) led the way offensively once again for the Gorloks on Saturday as he tallied 21 points to push his career scoring total to 987 points and move within 13 points of becoming the 12th Gorlok to score 1,000 career points. With his 21 point performance, Johnson pushed his season scoring average to 19.5 points per game. Johnson has now scored in double figures in 10 of 11 games this season and 32 times in his last 36 games dating to last season.

In addition to Johnson, senior forward Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) added 17 points and eight rebounds and seven assists, while freshman guard Wynne Brown, Jr., and senior guard Jordan Clay (St. Louis, Mo./Blackburn College) each added 13 points. Clay also chipped in with seven rebounds and three assists in the win. The 13 points by Clay were a new career high for the former Vashon High School product. 

The two teams got off a to hot start in Saturday's game as Webster started the game 7-for-7 from the field, while Westminster opened the game by making five of its first six shots as Webster jumped out to a 16-12 lead just a little over four minutes into the contest. 

Following that hot start offensively both teams cooled off tremendously the rest of the first half as Webster made 11 of their final 31 shots (35.5 percent) in the half and Westminster made six of their final 22 (27.2 percent) shots. In the half, Webster shot 47 percent from the field and the Blue Jays shot 39 percent from the floor. 

Webster, who led 39-32 at the half, opened the second half on a 13-2 run to push its lead to 18 points at 52-34 with 15:47 left in the game. The run began with a lay-up from Tankins and was capped by a lay-up from junior forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach), who scored four points during the run and finished with eight points and six boards. 

The 'Jays, though, would respond with a 12-6 run capped by a trey from Steven Brandt to drop Webster's lead to 58-46 with 12:06 remaining. Webster would then score six of the next eight points to push its lead back out to 16 points at 64-48 following a basket from senior guard Blake Ferrell (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South). 

Westminster would make one more run as they used an 11-2 run capped by a basket from Jaxon Althaus with 4:35 left in the game to pull the 'Jays within 66-59. That would be as close as the visitors would get as Tankins scored 28 seconds later that began an 8-4 run for the Gorloks that pushed its lead to 76-63 with 38 seconds left. 

Tankins and Ethan Thompson would each hit two free throws in the final 34 seconds of the game to cap the scoring. 

Johnson and Tankins combined to score 21 of Webster's 39 second half points. 

Landon Harrison paced the Blue Jays with a game high 22 points, while Thompson added 14 points and seven boards and Althaus chipped in with 10 points in the loss. 

The Gorloks finished the game with 40-35 edge on the boards and both teams each had 15 assists and the Gorloks blocked three shots. 

Webster also had a 15-7 edge in second chance points and outscored Westminster, 44-26 in the paint. 

The only area where Webster struggled was at the free throw line as the Gorloks were just 4-for-8 (50 percent) from the line, while Westminster shot 88 percent (14-for-16) at the line. 

Webster will seek to push its win streak to five straight games as they conclude its two game homestand on Wednesday, Jan. 15 with a 7:30 p.m. SLIAC match-up against Blackburn College (5-8 overall, 4-2 SLIAC).