JACKSONVILLE, Ill. - Webster University Women's Basketball continued its hot play in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action here Saturday afternoon at Bill Wall Gymnasium as the Gorloks cruised past MacMurray College 88-61 to extend its win streak to nine consecutive games.
With the win, Webster improves to 13-6 overall and 11-1 in the league, while MacMurray falls to 5-14 overall and 3-9 in SLIAC action. Along with winning its ninth consecutive game, the victory was also Webster's 11th straight in SLIAC play since suffering an 89-82 overtime loss at home to Spalding University on Dec. 5.
Saturday's win was keyed by a Webster defense that held MacMurray to 32 percent shooting from the field and forced 35 turnovers that led to 29 points. In fact, MacMurray hit just 17 field goals in game, with seven of those 17 field goals coming from the 3-point line as the Highlanders shot 44 percent (7-for-16) from long distance. The Gorloks held MacMurray to 13 or fewer points in three of the four periods.
While MacMurray's offense struggled, Webster's offense finished the game shooting 47 percent from the floor and 76 percent from the free throw line as the Gorloks made a season high 28 free throws and shot a season high 37 attempts from the line. The 28 made free throws is tied for the fifth most made in a game in school history.
Webster's offense put four players in double figures in Saturday's win as freshman forward
Julie Baudendistel (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) led the way with 17 points, while sophomore forward
Addison Beussink (Jackson, Mo./Saxony Lutheran) added 16 points and 11 rebounds for her team leading fifth double-double of the season.
In addition to Baudendistel and Beussink, senior guard
Jaysea Morgan (Fisk, Mo./Twin Rivers) finished with 14 points to push her career scoring total to 935 points, which is eighth on the school's all-time list. Morgan passed former Gorloks Kim Sheets with her 14 points on Saturday as Sheets scored 932 points from 2002-06. Morgan is now 65 points shy of 1,000 career points.
The fourth double-digit scorer was sophomore guard
Hannah Cottrell (Steelville, Mo./Steelville) as she had 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals for the game.
Webster scored the first five points of the game and led 12-2 just a little over three minutes into the contest, before MacMurray used a 6-0 run to pull within 12-8 with 3:34 left in the opening half. The Gorloks, though, would use back-to-back lay-ups from Morgan to push its lead back out to 16-8, but MacMurray would close the period by scoring four of the final seven points as the Gorloks led 19-12 after the opening period.
The Gorloks opened the second period on a 9-3 run to extend its lead to 27-15 and after Savanah Moore stopped WU's run with a 3-pointer with 6:16 left, Webster would close the period on a 19-7 run to take a 46-25 lead at the half. The run began with a trey from Cottrell and was capped by a lay-up right before the buzzer from sophomore forward
Courtney Ragland (New Athens, Ill./New Athens).
MacMurray would outscore the Gorloks, 23-29, in the third period to cut Webster's lead to 65-48 heading into the final period. In the period, MacMurray shot 46 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point line, while Webster shot 43 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the 3-point line.
The Highlanders would open the final period on a 4-2 run to drop Webster's lead to 67-52, but the Gorloks answered 15-3 run to push its lead to 82-55. MacMurray would then score six of the next eight points to drop WU's lead to 84-81, before Ragland would cap the scoring with four straight points.
Moore paced MacMurray with 16 points and six rebounds, while Abby Stotler added 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench and Alexis Doyle chipped in with 11 points in the loss.
The game was slowed by fouls and free throws as a combined 53 fouls were called in game and the teams combined to shoot 53 free throws, including Webster going 15-for-19 from the line in the fourth period. MacMurray was whistled for 27 fouls and had three players foul out, while Webster recorded 26 fouls.
In addition, both teams comibned to commit 60 turnovers as along with MacMurray's 35 turnovers, Webster had 25 turnovers.
Webster held a 37-35 edge on the boards, including a 14-13 advantage on the offensive glass.
The Gorloks also had 17 assists on 28 made baskets and blocked three shots, including two blocks from Beussink.
Webster will put its nine game win streak on the line this coming Wednesday, Feb. 5 as the Gorloks travel up Big Bend Blvd. for its second meeting this season with Fontbonne University (11-8 overall, 10-2 SLIAC) at 5:30 p.m. Fontbonne enters the game in second place in the league standings following its 78-70 win on Saturday at Greenville University. The Gorloks collected an 83-72 win over the Griffins in Grant Gymnasium on Jan. 2. That win over Fontbonne began Webster's current nine game win streak.
