Webster Women's Season Ends at DePauw

Webster University saw its 2019-20 season come to a close here Friday evening as the Gorloks was held to a season-low 45 points and was outrebounded 38-19 in a 71-45 setback to No. 3 ranked DePauw University in the first round of the 2020 NCAA Division III Women's Tournament at  DePauw's Raymond "Gaumey" Neal Fieldhouse. 

The Gorloks, who were making their fifth-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and second in the last three seasons, got down 6-0 in the opening two minutes and trailed by as much as 27 points late in the fourth period en route to ending its season with a 20-8 overall record. It marks just the fourth 20 win campaign in program history and the first since the 2017-18 squad finished with a 20-7 record.  

"The Gorloks are pretty darn good," DePauw head coach Kris Huffman said. "The way they change up defense they put a lot of pressure on us."

Along with ending the season with a 20-8 overall, the Gorloks lost just two games since the beginning of the 2020 calendar year as they suffered a 67-58 loss at Fontbonne on Feb. 6 and a month later lost to DePauw. The Gorloks closed the 2019-20 campaign by winning 17 of its final 19 games. DePauw improved to 27-1 with the win and will face 14th-ranked Loras in Saturday's second-round contest for the right to advance to next week's Sectional Round. 

"I thought DePauw played really well. We knew they were good coming in, we knew they were physical and did a great job rebounding," Webster head coach Jordan Olufson said in the postgame press conference. "We kind of got down and scrapped, which is something we've done all year, but tonight we just couldn't seem to close the gap enough, but I am super proud of our players and what we did tonight."

Along with scoring a season-low 45 points, which were the fewest scored by the Gorloks in a game since scoring 43 points in a 70-43 loss last season at Spalding. In Friday's game against DePauw, the Gorloks scored a total of 30 points over the final three periods, including tallying a season-low tying nine points in the third period. 

"I thought early on, we weren't us, but I thought midway through the first period, we kind of settled and got it back to seven and our pressure kind of turned up a little bit, which is kind of been the backbone of what we do," said Olufson, who is now 187-130 as Webster's coach. "We turned them over 20 times, probably a little less than what we would want, but we kind of settled in, then lost it again and went back-and-forth from there."

Friday's game also marked the final contest in the Blue and Gold for Webster's lone senior - Jaysea Morgan (Fisk, Mo./Twin Rivers), who played in her 107 career games, which is tied for second-most in the program's history and led the Gorloks to four consecutive winning seasons, including two 20 win seasons in 2017-18 and 2019-20. Morgan finished her collegiate career with a team-leading 12 points. With her 12 points, she closes her Webster career with 1,063 points, which is seventh-most in school history. Along with scoring 1,063 career points, Morgan also leaves as Webster's career leader in steals with 277 and free throw percentage (82.9 percent) and sixth in career assists with 278. 

"It is a sad night tonight because losing someone like Jaysea (Morgan) is irreplaceable," the Webster coach added.

In addition to Morgan's 12 points in her final collegiate game, sophomore guard Lauryn Freeman (Fort Worth, Texas/Timber Creek) added 11 points, six rebounds, and three assists before fouling out, while the third double-digit scorer was sophomore forward Addison Beussink (Jackson, Mo./Saxony Lutheran), who tallied 10 points and added five boards.

One aspect that this Gorlok team throughout the season was its determination and grittiness to get the job done and that is something Morgan, who was named this year's SLIAC Defensive Player of the Year, says makes her happy looking towards next season. 

"The determination and the work ethic with this group have been incredible and make my heart happy knowing they are going to be perfectly fine moving forward," Morgan said following Friday's season-ending loss. 

In Friday's game, DePauw, who was making its 17 consecutive and 21st all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, scored the games first six points and led 12-6 just five minutes into the contest. 

The Gorloks, though, would respond with a 5-0 run capped by a made 3-pointer on the break by Morgan to pull the Gorloks within 12-11. The Tigers would close the opening period on s 10-4 run to take a 22-15 lead after 10 minutes. 

In the second period, DePauw would outscore Webster, 17-10 to take a 39-25 lead at the half. 

The Gorloks struggled in the third period as they scored just nine points and shot 23 percent from the field and were outrebounded, 15-4 in the period as DePauw pushed its lead to 58-34 heading into the final period.

Webster would open the fourth period by scoring the first six points to pull within 18 at 58-40, but that would be as close as the Gorloks would get as DePauw, who won Division III national titles in 2007 and 2013, closed the game by scoring 13 of the next 17 points to push its lead to 27 at 71-44 following two free throws by Maeve Summerville with 2:12 left.

Junior guard Kiara Rhines (Glendale, Ariz./Ironwood) would cap the scoring by hitting 1-of-2 free throws with 1:08 remaining. 

Mya Shannon led the offensively for DePauw off the bench as she tallied 22 points in 18 minutes of action. In addition to Shannon, Sydney Kopp added 19 points, but she held to nearly three points under her season average of 22.7 points per game and Hayley Cange and Clarie Keefe had 11 and 10 points respectively. Cange also added 10 boards. 

For the game, Webster shot 36 percent from the field and was 3-for-12 (25 percent) from the three-point line and was 10-for-14 (71.4 percent) at the free-throw line. 

Meanwhile, DePauw finished the game shooting 47 percent from the field and 44 percent from downtown and was 9-for-12 (75 percent) from the free-throw line. 

While DePauw had 20 turnovers, the Gorloks committed 21 that led to 16 points for the Tigers.

Olufson will return four starters and most of his key reserves from this year's team next season and he expects this group of returners to come back and hopefully build off this year's successes.

"We made a big jump from last season to this season and I expect we will have another big jump next season as these underclassmen are another year older," the Webster coach added.

STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION