Hot Second Half Shooting Helps Missouri Baptist Down Gorloks in Road Non-Conference Action - Webster University Athletics (2024)

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Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 12/4/2018 11:37:00 PM | Ben Greenberg, Sports Information Director

TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. – Webster University Men's Basketball closed out the non-conference portion of its regular season schedule here Tuesday evening by suffering an 85-64 setback to NAIA 8th-ranked Missouri Baptist University at the Carl and Deloris Petty Student Recreation Center on the Missouri Baptist campus.

Webster, who led 39-34 at the half, watched the Spartans hit nine 3-pointers and score 51 points in the second half to cruise to its 11th straight win and move to 11-0 on the season. The Gorloks, who scored 25 points in the second half, fell to 6-3 on the season.

Tuesday's game marked just the third-ever meeting between the two schools and first since 2000. MBU now leads the all-time series, 3-0 after Tuesday's victory.

Junior forward Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) paced the Gorloks offensively as he tallied a career high 23 points. In addition to Tankins, junior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) and junior guard Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College) finished with 11 and 10 points respectively on the night.

Junior guard Jordan Clay (St. Louis, Mo./Blackburn) added eight points, all of which came in the first half. In fact, Clay, Tankins, Johnson and Hopp combined for 33 of WU's 39 first half points.

In the opening half, MBU jumped out to a 18-14 lead just a little under 10 minutes into the game, but that lead would be shortlived as the Gorloks responded with a 12-2 run to push out to a 26-20 lead with 6:07 left in the half. The run began with a basket by sophom*ore forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) and was capped by back-to-back treys from Tankins and Johnson.

Webster's lead would eventually grow to seven points on two different occasions in the half, the final time came following a 3-pointer by Johnson with 59 seconds left in the half. Johnson's trey gave WU a 39-32 lead. MBU's Jahmouri Robinson capped the first half scoring with a bucket with 19 seconds left to drop the Gorloks halftime lead to 39-34.

In the first half, both teams shot 50 percent or better from the field as Webster shot 52 percent from the floor and MBU shot 50 percent from the floor.

WU, though, hit six of its nine 3-pointers in the first half and shot 67 percent from downtown, while MBU shot 33 percent (3-for-9) from long distance in the half.

The Gorloks scored the first basket of the second half on a jumper by sophom*ore forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial) to push its lead to 41-34. MBU, though, answered with 14-5 run that was keyed by four 3-pointers, including two from Kai Woodfall, to take a 48-46 lead with 16:14 left in the game.

Wilcox, who entered the game averaging 10.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, was limited to just six points and four boards in the loss. In addition, Wilcox failed to record a blocked shot for just the second time this season.

Following MBU's run, Etienne tied the game at 48 following his basket with 15:45 left and then Tankins made 1-of-2 free throws at the 15:21 mark to give the Gorloks a 49-48 lead.

After Pablo Hernandez helped the Spartans retake the lead with his two free throws at the 14:57 mark, Johnson would help WU retake the lead on its next trip downcourt.

That would be the final lead of the game for the Gorloks as the Spartans used 20-6 run to push out to a 70-57 advantage with 6:01 left. All of the points during the run by MBU came from Woodfall and Hernandez as Woodfall scored 11 points and Hernandez tallied nine.

Wilcox would stop MBU's run with a basket at the 5:38 mark to drop the Spartans lead to 70-59, but MBU would score 11 of the next 14 points to push its lead to 81-62. The run began with a trey from Jesus Castillo and was capped by two free throws from Woodfall with three minutes remaining.

Tankins would cap Webster's scoring on a jumper with 2:49 left, before Torrance Littles scored the final four points to set the final margin.

Woodfall paced the Spartans with a game high 29 points, including scoring 22 of those points in the second half. Along with Woodfall, Castillo added 18 points and eight boards, while Hernandez finished with 16 points and Callum Barker chipped in with 12 points in the win.

For the game, Webster shot 41 percent from the field and 50 percent (8-for-16) from the 3-point line. MBU entered the game leading the NAIA in field goal percentage defense as the Spartans were allowing 33.4 percent shooting from the floor.

MBU would end up shooting 58 percent from the field and 55 percent from the 3-point line for the game, including shooting 67 percent from the field and 69 percent from the 3-point line in the second half.

The Spartans held a 36-25 edge on the glass and had 21 assists on the night. WU dished out 16 assists, including four each from Tankins and Hopp, but forced 14 MBU turnovers that led to 15 points. The Gorloks committed a season low 10 turnovers.

Webster will now turn its attention back to St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play as the Gorloks host MacMurray College in a 3 p.m. game on Saturday, Dec. 8 at Grant Gymnasium. The Gorloks are currently tied for first place in the SLIAC standings with Greenville and Spalding as each team are 2-0 in the league play.