CLAYTON, Mo. - For the first time in 2020, Webster University Women's Basketball walked off the court with a defeat here Thursday evening as the Gorloks suffered a disappointing 67-58 setback to Fontbonne University in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Game of the Week at the Dunham Student Activities Center. 

Thursday's setback snapped a season high nine game overall and an 11 game SLIAC win streak as Webster falls to 13-7 overall and 11-2 in the league, while Fontbonne improves to 12-8 overall and 11-2 in the SLIAC. The Gorloks and the Griffins are now tied atop the league standings with five games left in the regular season. 

The nine game winning streak was longest for the Gorloks since the 2001-02 season, while the 11 game SLIAC win streak was the longest for the Gorloks since they won 25 straight league games from 2001-03. 

In Thursday's game, Webster shot 35 percent from the field and 20 percent from the 3-point line and committed 25 turnovers that led 29 points for the Griffins. The Gorloks entered the game leading the league in both field goal and 3-point field goal percentage. 

While the Gorloks, who trailed by as much as 23 points just 56 seconds into the fourth period, struggled shooting the ball, they also were outscored in three of the four periods, including being outscored 33-20 in the middle two periods. 

Sophomore guard Hannah Cottrell (Steelville, Mo./Steelville) led the way offensively for the Gorloks as tallied 13 points, including scoring 11 of those in the fourth period to help Webster outscore FBU, 25-17, in the final period. In addition to Cottrell, freshman forward Julie Baudendistel (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) added 10 points and nine boards, while sophomore forward Addison Beussink (Jackson, Mo./Saxony Lutheran), junior guard Naomi Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Greenville University) and senior guard Jaysea Morgan (Fisk, Mo./Twin Rivers) each had eight points in the loss. With her eight points, Morgan pushed her career total to 943 points and is now just 57 points shy of becoming the seventh member of the school's 1,000 Point Club. 

Morgan scored the first points of Thursday's game on a lay-up just 54 seconds into the game, but the Griffins, who snapped a six game losing skid to the Gorloks with Thursday's win, used a 17-6 run to push out to a 17-8 lead with 3:14 left in the opening period. The Gorloks, though, used a trey from sophomore guard Kiara Rhines (Glendale, Ariz./Ironwood) and two free throws from Beussink to cut FBU's lead to 17-15 at the end of the opening period. 

In the second period, Webster tied a season low with nine points as Fontbonne tallied 12 points in the period to take a 29-22 lead at the half. 

The Griffins would explode for 21 points in the third period, including closing the period on a 10-0 run to turn a 40-33 lead into a 50-33 lead after three periods. In the period, FBU made six field goals, of which, five of those were 3-pointers.

FBU would score the first six points of the fourth period to push its lead to 56-33 just 56 seconds into the period. The 23 point deficit was the largest of the season in SLIAC play for the Gorloks. Following that 6-0 run by FBU, the Gorloks would respond by scoring 20 of the next 26 points to pull within 62-53 following two free throws from Cottrell with 3:05 left in the game. Cottrell's two free throws capped a 7-0 Webster run. 

That would be as close as the Gorloks would get as Jillian Venegas and Madison Boaz scored on back-to-back lay-ups over a span of 44 seconds to push its lead to 66-53 with 1:02 remaining. Kourtney White would give FBU a 67-53 lead on a free throw with 41 seconds left, but Webster would game the final five points of the game on a trey from Johnson and a lay-up by Morgan to set the final margin.

Rylee Stafford, who hit five of FBU's 10 treys in the game, paced the Griffins with a game high 19 points, while White added 15 points and Venegas chipped in with 11 points. Raven Venegas, who entered the game averaging 11.6 points per game on the year, tallied four points, but pulled down 10 rebounds. 

While Webster shot 35 percent from the field and 20 percent from the 3-point line, Fontbonne finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field and 31 percent from long distance. 

Webster held a 33-29 edge on the glass, including collecting 15 offensive boards. 

Fontbonne also committed 25 turnovers, but Webster was only able to score 19 points off those turnovers. In addition, FBU had 11 steals, while Webster had just seven steals. The Gorloks entered the game leading the league and sitting 13th in Division III in steals per game.

Both teams were strong from the free throw line as Webster went 9-for-11 (82 percent) and FBU went 7-for-8 (88 percent) from the charity stripe.

The Gorloks, who have won six consecutive games at home this season, will look to start a new win streak this coming Saturday as they host Principia College for a 1 p.m. Senior Day match-up at Grant Gymnasium. The Gorloks, who picked up an 89-45 win at Principia on Jan. 7, will honors its two seniors - Morgan and forward Kaylee Heggemann (Dutzow, Mo./Three Rivers CC) - in a pregame ceremony.