ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Webster University women's basketball team was back in action this afternoon when they played host to the Principia (Ill.) College Panthers for a SLIAC matchup. The Gorloks defeated the Panthers by a final score of 78-61 to improve to 15-2 on the season and 5-1 in SLIAC play. With the loss, the Panthers fall to 9-5 on the year and 4-2 in conference play.

Prior to the start of the game, the Gorloks honored Julie Baudendistel for scoring her 1,000^th career point last week against Greenville (Ill.) University. She is just the ninth player in program history to reach the 1,000-career point milestone.

Webster went 27-for-66 (40.9%) from the floor and 8-for-21 (38.1%) from behind the arc. They were outrebouned by the Panthers by a final count of 38-32 and pulled down 13 offensive boards. Webster forced Principia to turn the ball over 43 times and turned those turnovers into 40 points on the other end of the floor. The Gorloks scored 30 of their 78 points in the paint and dished out 16 assists.

In the first quarter of the game, both sides came out and exchanged points early. With the score tied at eight, Webster went on an 11-3 run to end the quarter and take a 19-11 lead into the second. The Panthers battled back to start the second and were able to cut the Gorloks lead to two with 6:17 remaining in the half. Webster picked it up as the quarter progressed and went on a 20-7 run down the final stretch of the period to take a 43-28 lead into the locker room.

Webster carried over their momentum into the second half and extended their lead to 20 in the first two minutes of the third quarter. The Panthers answered with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 12, but another run from the Gorloks to end the quarter put them up 64-42 heading into the break. The Panthers were able to cut the lead down to as many as 16 in the final frame but that was as close as they would get as Webster closed them out down the stretch to solidify their 15^th win of the season.

Julie Baudendistel led the way for the Gorloks as she finished with a game high 23 points to go along with four steals. Trinniti Matthews also had a nice game as she finished with a career high 15 points. In addition, Kate Rolfes finished with 12 points while Emily Wilson grabbed a team high six rebounds.

The Gorloks will return to the court on Wednesday, January 25^th when they travel to Carlinville, Illinois, to take on the Blackburn (Ill.) College Beavers for a SLIAC matchup. The game is set to start at 5:30 p.m.