(St. Louis, Mo.) – The Webster Gorloks recorded its first 20 win season in school history with a victory over Westminster on Tuesday evening at Webster University. Webster also became the fourth St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference squad to finish a season unbeaten in league play and the first to go 16-0.

    The Gorloks (20-5, 16-0 SLIAC) pretty much led throughout holding the Blue Jays (17-7, 12-4 SLIAC) without a field goal for nearly eight minutes in the first half turning a 10-10 tie into a 20-10 advantage at the seven minute mark. Webster’s defense was stifling in the frame holding WC to just 23 percent shooting (5-of-22) from the field and just 15 points. The Gorloks on the other hand started off sluggish but eventually heated up and finished the stanza knocking down 10-of-28 (36 percent) from the floor and made seven free throws compared to only seven attempts for Westminster as it went to the locker room with a 31-15 lead.

    The Blue Jays scored the first five points of the second half to cut the lead to 11 about a minute in but the Gorloks responded with a 19-5 run to build their lead to 25 points midway through the second half before eventually building its largest of the night at 28 points. By that point Westminster started pulling its starters as did Webster and the rest of the game was a battle of the benches which was pretty evenly matched down the stretch with WU maintaining its lead around the 25 point mark until a three pointer by Jordan Hunter with 0:11 left cut the lead to the final margin.

    The 40 points allowed by Webster was a season low as was the 30.6 percent shooting from the floor (15-of-49).

    Ryan Turk had 16 points to lead the way for WU. Darin Hoggatt was the only other player in double figures with 12. Steve Hrdlicka had a game-high 10 rebounds.

    The Gorloks return to action on Thursday evening hosting the SLIAC postseason tournament as the top seed and will play the fourth seed Maryville (Mo.) University Saints at 8 p.m. The other semifinal match-up pits Fontbonne against Westminster beginning at 6 p.m.