FULTON, Mo. - Webster University moved closer another game closer to earning its second consecutive regular season St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title here Thursday evening as three Gorloks scored over 20 points in its hard-fought 95-91 victory over Westminster (Mo.) College at the Historic Gym on the Westminster campus. 

With the victory, Webster extended its win streak to seven consecutive games and improved their overall record to 14-8 and its league mark to 13-2, while Westminster fell to 8-13 overall and 7-8 in the SLIAC. Thursday's win helped the Gorloks clinch a spot in this year's SLIAC Tournament and move within one win of clinching at least a share of the regular season title for the second consecutive year.

The Gorloks are two games in front of second place Greenville (11-4) and three games in front of third place Blackburn (10-5), who the Gorloks face on Saturday in Carlinville, Ill., with three games left in the regular season. Webster is seeking to become the second straight school to repeat as regular season champion as Greenville won the regular season titles in both 2016-17 and 2017-18. 

Senior forward Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) paced the Gorloks offense with his 21st career double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds, while senior guard Jordan Clay (St. Louis, Mo./Blackburn College) continued his hot play as he tallied 22 points and added nine boards and senior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) added 21 points in the win. The fourth Gorlok in double figures was junior forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) had 15 points and pushed his career scoring total to 889 points and now just 111 points of the 1,000 career point mark.

With his 24 points, Tankins pushed his career total to 954 points and is now just 47 points shy of becoming the 13th member of the school's 1,000 Point Club, while the 11 rebounds pushed his career total to 599 career boards, which is third on the school's all-time rebound charts, while Clay has now scored over 20 points in two straight games and three times in his last four games and Johnson pushed his career scoring total to 1,142 points, which is 10th on the school's all-time list as he passed Webster Hall of Famer Scott Spinner, who was 10th in career scoring with 1,133 career points. 

The three 20-plus point scorers by the Gorloks were needed on Thursday as the Blue Jays put five players in double figures, including Jaxon Althaus tallying a game high 34 points. Along with Althaus, Landon Harrison added 18 points and eight boards, while Ethan Thompson tallied 14 points in the loss. Emil Spriggs and Makygh Galbreath scored 12 and 10 points respectively.

In the first half, both teams shot over 50 percent from the field as the Blue Jays shot 53 percent from the field and made six treys, while Webster shot 55 percent from the floor, but made just one 3-pointer as Webster held a 50-46 halftime lead. 

Clay and Tankins combined to score 23 of Webster's 50 first half points, while Johnson and Etienne each had eight. 

The 'Jays opened the second half on a 9-0 run to cut Webster's lead to 55-50 just a little over two minutes into the half. Following Westminster's run, the Gorloks responded with an 18-10 run to push its lead to 73-60 with 13:42 remaining. The run began with a trey from Tankins and was capped by a trey from Johnson. 

Westminster, though, wouldn't go away as the 'Jays used a 24-11 run, including 11 of those points coming from Althaus, over a span of nearly 10 minutes to force a tie at 84. On WU's ensuing possession, Johnson drilled a trey to give the Gorloks an 87-84 advantage, but 21 seconds later Ethan Thompson retied the game at 87 following a trey of his own.

That would be the final tie of the game as Clay recorded a three-point play with 2:20 mark to give WU a 90-87 lead, but Althaus would hit two free throws with 2:06 left in the game to cut the Gorloks lead to 90-89. Johnson, though, hit a trey with 40 seconds left to give Webster a 93-89 lead. 

Tankins would hit two free throws with 10 seconds left to give the Gorloks a 95-89 lead, before Galbreath capped the scoring with a bucket with three seconds left. 

For the game, Webster shot 58 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point line and the Gorloks have now shot over 50 percent in four of its last five games. 

The Blue Jays shot 49 percent from the floor and 37 percent (11-for-30) from long distance. 

Webster, who has now swept the season series from the Blue Jays for the second straight year, held a 34-31 edge on the boards and recorded 21 assists on 41 made baskets, including freshman guard Wynne Brown, Jr. (Memphis, Tenn./Bartlett) dishing out a career high tying six assists. 

The teams combined for 31 turnovers as Westminster had 16 turnovers and the Gorloks committed 15 turnovers, but held a 23-15 edge in points off turnovers. Webster also held a 50-32 edge in points in the paint.

Webster will return to action in less than 48 hours as they travel to Carlinville, Ill., for a 3 p.m. SLIAC game on Saturday, Feb. 15 against Blackburn College (11-11 overall, 10-5 SLIAC). The Gorloks collected a 77-58 win over the Beavers in Grant Gymnasium on Jan. 15.