WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University used a strong first half here Wednesday evening and then held off a second half rally by Greenville University to post a 94-77 women's basketball victory over the Panthers in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Grant Gymnasium.

The Gorloks, who have now won eight consecutive games overall and 10 straight in SLIAC play, shot 68 percent from the field and held a 54-28 lead at the half, before Greenville outscored the Gorloks, 49-40 in the second half, including scoring 20 or more points in each of the final two periods to cut the final margin to 17 points. 

With the victory, Webster improves its overall record to 12-6 and 10-1 in the SLIAC, while Greenville falls to 11-7 overall and 8-3 in the league. Along with winning its eighth consecutive game, the Gorloks also pushed its home court win streak to six straight games. 

Webster finished the game with four players scoring in double figures as senior guard Jaysea Morgan (Fisk, Mo./Twin Rivers) paced the way with a career high 25 points and added five rebounds, four assists and a career high tying seven steals. With her 25 points, Morgan pushed her career scoring total to 921 points and is now 69 points shy of 1,000 career points and also moved within 11 steals of Laura Stuhlman's school record of 258 steals as Morgan has now collected 247 in her Gorlok career. 

In addition to Morgan's 25 points, sophomore forward Addison Beussink (Jackson, Mo./Saxony Lutheran) added 15 points and nine boards, while junior guard Naomi Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Greenville University) and sophomore guard Hannah Cottrell (Steelville, Mo./Steelville) each had 10 points in the win. Cottrell, who scored  added five assists and five boards. 

Greenville, who has won the last two regular season SLIAC titles and is now two games behind Webster in the standings with seven league games left in the regular season, lost the season series to Webster for the first time since 2016-17. In two games this season against Greenville, the Gorloks averaged 87 points per game and shot 58 percent from the field and 56 percent from the 3-point line.

Much like the first game earlier this season at Greenville, the Gorloks, who led 28-6 after the first period in the game at Greenville on Dec. 9, got off to a strong start in Wednesday's game as Webster led 14-4 just a little over three minutes into the game. After the Panthers used a 6-4 run to pull within 18-10 with 3:53 left in the opening period, the Gorloks closed the first period on a 10-2 run to hold a 28-12 lead. In the first period, Webster shot 86 percent (12-for-14) from the field and forced Greenville into 10 turnovers that led to 15 points. 

The Panthers opened the second period on an 8-4 lead to cut Webster's lead to 32-20 just two minutes into the period. Webster, though, would score 11 of the next 13 points to push its lead to 43-22 with 4:05 left in the period. Seven of those 13 points came from Morgan, including capping the run with back-to-back lay-ups. 

Following a lay-up by Haven Robertson that snapped Webster's run, the Gorloks closed the period on an 11-4 run to take its 54-28 lead at the half. In the opening half, Webster shot 67.7 percent from the field and scored 24 points off of 18 Greenville turnovers. 

The two teams combined for 37 points in the third period as Greenville opened the third period on a 10-3 run to cut Webster's halftime lead to 57-38 with 6:34 left in the period. The Gorloks would respond with a 10-4 run capped by basket from Johnson to push its lead to 67-42. GU, though, would score six of the final 10 points in the period to drop Webster's lead to 71-48 heading to the final period.

Webster struggled taking care of the ball in the fourth period as they committed seven of their 29 turnovers and those seven turnovers led to 12 points by the Panthers as Greenville outscored the Gorloks, 29-23, in the period. In the period, both teams shot over 50 percent from the field, but the Gorloks held off the Panthers rally thanks to an 11-for-12 effort at the free throw line in the final 10 minutes.

Madelyn Stephen led the way for Greenville with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Emily Reinneck added 11 points and Robertson tallied 10 points and five boards. 

The Gorloks finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point line, but shot just 44 percent from the field over the final three periods after making 86 percent of its shots in the opening period. In addition, Webster shot 86 percent (25-for-29) from the free throw line on the night. 

Meanwhile, Greenville shot 40 percent from the floor and 22 percent from the 3-point line in the game and was 14-for-19 (74 percent) from the line. 

The game was marred by turnovers as the two teams combined for 49 turnovers that led to a combined 52 points off those turnovers, including Webster finishing with 29 turnovers and Greenville committing 30 turnovers. 

Webster held a 40-36 edge on the boards as along with Beussink's nine boards, freshman forward Julie Baudendistel (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) had six boards and also had 16 steals. 

The Gorloks will look to make it nine straight wins this coming Saturday, Feb. 1 as Webster travels to Jacksonville, Ill., for a 1 p.m. game at MacMurray College (5-13, 3-8 SLIAC). Webster picked up an 82-46 win over the Highlanders at home on Dec. 14.