GREENVILLE, Ill. - Webster University opened its 37th season of men's basketball competition here Wednesday evening as they shot a single game school record 72 percent from the field and topped the century mark in its 140-129 loss to Greenville University in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at H.J. Long Gymnasium on the Greenville campus. 

Wednesday's contest was the first men's basketball game for the Gorloks in 354 days since completing the 2019-20 season with a 77-73 loss at seventh-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan in the first round of the NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament. 

"It was good to see the guys out there playing tonight. We weren't really sure at one point this year that this day would come around," Webster head coach Chris Bunch said following Wednesday's game. 

In Wednesday's game, Webster tied a school record with 56 made field goals and set new single game school records for field goal percentage (71.8 percent), points allowed (140) and the most combined points in a game (269). The 56 made field goals matched a school record of 56 field goals set in 2015 against Greenville, while the 71.8 field goal percentage bettered the old mark of 68.3 percent set against Greenville in 2015, the 140 points scored by Greenville bettered the old mark of 134 set by Greenville in 2018 and the 269 combined points were 16 points better than the old record of 253 set against Greenville in 2016.

With the loss, Webster opens the season 0-1 overall and in the SLIAC, while Greenville improves to 1-7 overall and 1-0 in the league. In addition, the loss was just the fourth for the Gorloks against Greenville since the Panthers adopted the Grinnell system in 2015 as Webster is now 8-4 against Greenville and the system. 

Despite the setback, senior forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) made history in Wednesday game as he became the 14th Gorlok to score 1,000 career points as he entered the contest needing just 14 points to join the 1,000-Point Club and Etienne officially scored his 1,000 career point on a lay-up with 13:12 left in the game. That lay-up brought the Gorloks within nine points at 92-83. 

For the game, Etienne finished with 28 points to push his career scoring total of 1,014 points, which is 14th on the school's all-time charts. In addition, Etienne, who has been an All-SLIAC selection the past two seasons, shot 13-for-14 from the field and added nine rebounds. 

"I was very happy to see Rodson get his 1,000th point, we're all so very proud of him," Bunch added. 

In addiiton to Etienne's game-high 28 points, sophomore guard Wynne Brown, Jr., recorded a double-double of 20 points and a career-high 11 assists, while sophomore forward Connor Diecker (Freeburg, Ill./Bethel University) added 18 points in his Webster debut and freshman guard Markus Becton (Bellwood, Ill./Westchester St. Joseph) tallied 17 points in his collegiate debut. Two other Gorloks scored in double figures as freshman guard Jason Coleman (Memphis, Tenn./Overton) and senior forward Ethan Hughes (Union, Mo./Park University) had 14 and 12 poins respectively. 

Wednesday's game was a tale of two halves as Greenville forced the Gorloks into 20 turnovers and scored 30 points off those turnovers en route to scoring 71 points and taking a 71-57 lead at halftime, while in the second half, the Gorloks outscored Greenville, 72-69 and shot 80 percent from the field and had just 13 turnovers that led to 17 Greenville points. The Gorloks missed just eight of their 40 field goal attempts in the second half. 

"We turned the ball over too much, especially in the first half," Bunch added. "I thought we played a little better in the second half, but still had too many mental mistakes defensively."

Webster dished out 37 assists on its 56 made baskets as 10 of the 12 players that saw action in Wednesday's game had at least one assist as along with the 12 from Brown, Jr., sophomore guard Javane Nugent (Kingston, Jamaica) had seven assists and added a career-high 13 rebounds and scored nine points. 

The Gorloks shot 63 percent from the field and did not attempt a three-pointer in the first half as they trailed by as much as 20 points as the Panthers hit nine 3-pointers and made 30 field goals that helped contribute to its 14-point halftime lead. 

After trailing by 14 points at the half, the Gorloks opened the second half on a 24-19 run to cut Greenville's lead to 90-81 with 13:33 left in the game following a free throw by Becton that completed a 3-point play.

The Panthers pushed its lead to 92-81 at 13:25 on a lay-up by Henry Johnson and after Etienne's lay-up that gave him 1,000 career points, the Gorloks responded with a 17-14 run to cut Greenville's lead to 106-100 with 8:51 left. The Gorloks' 100th point was scored by Etienne as he scored 18 of his 28 points after halftime.

Greenville would answer with a 13-8 run over the next two minutes to push its lead out to double digits at 119-108, but the Gorloks once again answered the Panthers, who snapped a two-game losing skid to the Gorloks with Wednesday's win, with an 8-4 run to cut GU's lead to 123-116 with 4:55 remaining. The began with a lay-up by Hughes and was capped by two free throws from Etienne. 

That seven point margin would be as close as the Gorloks would get as Greenville would outscore Webster, 17-13 over the final four-plus minutes of the contest. 

Phillip Curtis paced eight Panthers in double figures with 24 points, while Johnson and Ralph Jalnaiz each added 18 points in the win. In addition, Tyler Jelks tallied 14 points, while Kenneth Cooley, Romello Ball and Travis Dickey each had 13 points. Dustin Bankowski was the eighth double-digit scorer as he scored 12 points. 

Webster held a 46-35 edge on the boards, but committed 33 turnovers that led to 47 Greenville points. The Panthers also had 28 steals and blocked three shots.

The Gorloks recoreded six blocked shots, including a career-high three from Hughes and two from Becton.

While Webster shot 72 percent (56-for-78) from the field, they were just 1-for-4 (25 percent) from the 3-point line and was just 16-for-26 (61.5 percent) from the free throw line.

Meanwhile, Greenville shot 51 percent from the field, 35 percent (14-for-4) from the 3-point line and was 16-for-18 (89 percent) from the free throw line. 

Webster will now take a week off before returning to action on Wednesday, March 3 as they play host to Spalding in a 7:30 p.m. game at Grant Gymnasium. Per SLIAC rules this season, no fans will be allowed at indoor sporting events in the league this season.