LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Playing for the first time in a week here Tuesday evening, the Webster men's basketball team outscored Spalding 41-31 in the second half to turn a 31-25 halftime deficit into a 66-62 victory over the Golden Eagles in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Derek Smith Gymnasium on the Spalding University campus. 

With the win, Webster improves to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the SLIAC, while Spalding drops to 1-3 overall and 1-3 in the league. The win also moved the Gorloks into third place in the league standings. 

Sophomore guard Wynne Brown, Jr. (Memphis, Tenn./Bartlett) paced the way offensively for the Gorloks as he scored a season high 27 points, including 22 points after halftime, while senior forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) added 14 points and pulled down five rebounds.

With his 14 points, Etienne moved into 12th place on the school's career scoring chart with 1,121 points and is now just 79 points shy of becoming the ninth Gorlok in school history to score 1,200 career points. 

After watching Spalding push its lead to as much as 12 points just a little over two minutes into the second half, the Gorloks began chipping away at the Golden Eagles' lead as they used 12-4 run keyed by eight points from Brown, Jr., to pull within 41-37 with 14:18 left in the game. Marcus Montgomery, who scored 18 points in the loss for Spalding, pushed his team lead back out to six points at 43-37, before Webster used 12-3 run capped by a basket from sophomore Connor Diecker (Freeburg, Ill./Bethel University) to take a 49-46 lead. 

The Golden Eagles would respond with a 7-2 run capped by a lay-up from Christian Stewart to push back out to a 53-51 lead with 7:25 remaining. Webster would once again mount a charge as they scored 11 of the next 17 points to push out to a 62-59 lead following a basket by Brown, Jr., with 3:33 left in the contest. Three consecutive points from Troy Amanor retied the game at 62-all with 2:05 left, before Brown, Jr., would score Webster's final four points of the game to seal its win. Brown, Jr., scored eight of Webster's final 12 points. 

Webster's second half rally was necessary as Spalding used a 26-8 run over the final 10 minutes of the first half and the two-plus minutes of the second half to turn a 17-10 Webster lead into a 37-25 lead. The Golden Eagles ended the first half scoring the final six points after the Gorloks tied the game at 25 on a basket in the paint by freshman guard Malcolm Logue (Lebanon, Tenn./Lebanon).

It appeared early in Tuesday's game that the Gorloks wouldn't need a second half rally as Webster scored the game's first six points and led 11-4 just four minutes into the contest. The lead would grow to 17-10 following two free throws by Diecker with 10:19 left in the opening half. 

Dieker's two free throws would ignite the Golden Eagles as they scored six straight point to cut WU's lead to 17-16 and after Etienne and Hughes scored baskets to give Webster a 21-18 lead, Spalding would close the half on a 10-7 run to take a 31-25 lead at halftime.

In addition to Montgomery's 18 points, Amanor also tallied 18 points for the Golden Eagles, while Stewart tallied 15 points and seven rebounds. 

Webster shot 48 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line in the win, while Spalding shot 47 percent from the field, but just 13 percent (1-for-8) from the 3-point line. 

The Gorloks were outrebounded 36-27, but they forced 14 turnovers that led to eight points. Webster committed nine turnovers and blocked four shots. 

Webster only shot six free throws in the game, but made five of those free throws for 83 percent. On the other side, Spalding struggled from the free throw line as they were 7-for-12 (58 percent) at the line. 
 

The Gorloks will next return to action on Monday, March 29 as they host Fontbonne in an 8 p.m. SLIAC game at Grant Gymnasium. Per SLIAC rules, no fans will be allowed to attend indoor sporting events on any of the eight campuses in the SLIAC this season.