WEBSTER GROVES - There is an old saying in postseason basketball about surviving and advancing and here on Friday evening Webster University did just that as they withstood a late rally from Blackburn College to post a 70-68 win over the Beavers in the second semifinal game of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament held at Grant Gymnasium on the Webster campus. 

With the win, Webster improves its record to 20-6 on the season and advances to face No. 3 seeded Eureka College, who defeated No. 2 seeded Greenville University, 163-146 in Friday's first semifinal, on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in the championship game fo the SLIAC Tournament at Grant Gymnasium. The winner of the SLIAC Tournament earns the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament. Blackburn concludes its season with a 13-13 record. 

In Friday's game, the SLIAC regular season champion Gorloks, who have now tied a single season school record for single season wins with 20, led 66-59 following a trey by junior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) with 3:02 left in the contest. That trey seemed to spark the Beavers as they scored nine of the next 11 points to tie the game at 68 following a 3-pointer by Bryson Kirby with 11 seconds left in the game. Kirby's game tying trey came after sophomore guard Elijah Macias (San Antonio, Texas/Medina Valley) hit 1-of-2 free throws with 29 seconds left. 

Webster would answer Kirby's trey with a lay-up with three seconds left by Johnson to give the Gorloks a 70-68 lead. On Blackburn's ensuing possession, Kirby's in-bounds pass would be stolen near half-court by sophomore forward Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) to seal the win and set-up a wild celebration on the court from Webster's students as the buzzer sounded. 

Johnson finished the game with 27 points and added five boards and six assists to pace the Gorloks, The 27 point game was Johnson's team-leading 11th 20-plus point game of the season. In addition to Johnson, Tankins tallied 11 points and six boards and Etienne finished with nine points and a seven boards in the win. 

The Gorloks, who entered the game fourth in the league in free throw shooting at 70.9 percent on the season, won Friday's game despite making just 12 of its 28 free throws and shooting a season low 42.9 percent from the line. in the win, junior guard Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) and Etienne combined to go 8-for-21 at the line as Tankins was 5-for-11 and Etienne went 3-for-10. 

For the game, Webster shot 50 percent from the field and 38 percent from the 3-point line to negate their poor free throw shooting. Additionally, WU's defense held Blackburn to 33 percent from the floor and 29 percent from the 3-point line. Blackburn entered the game leading the league in 3-point shooting at 39.6 percent, but made just eight of its 28 long distance shots. 

It appeared early in the game that the outcome wouldn't come down to Johnson's and Etienne's heroics as Webster jumped out to a 10 point lead at 20-10 just 10-plus minutes into the game. WU's lead stayed around 10 point mark for the next five minutes, before Blackburn used a 7-0 run keyed four straight from Karson Hayes to drop WU's lead to 28-25 with 3:13 left in the half. 

The Gorloks, though, would close the first half on a 10-4 run to take a 38-29 lead at the half. WU's first half closing run began with a trey from Johnson and was capped by another Johnson trey.

WU's run reached 15-4 in the opening 67 seconds into the second half to push WU's lead to 43-29. After Blackburn responded with an 8-4 run to pull within 47-38 with 15:02 left in the game.

A free throw by Etienne and back-to-back lay-up by Johnson and sophomore forward Ethan Hughes (Union, Mo./Park University) pushed the Gorloks lead to 52-38 with 13:37 left. The Beavers, wouldn't go away as they scored 21 of the next 30 points to cut Webster's lead to 61-57 with 4:18 remaining. 

After the two teams took turns scoring to keep the lead at four, Johnson drilled a trey with 3:02 left to give the Gorloks a 66-59 lead, which set-up Blackburn's closing run that tied the game.

Blackburn, who was the reigning SLIAC Tournament runners-up, was paced by 18 points and eight boards from Karson Hayes, while Raushaun Amos added 15 points on 4-for-10 shooting from the 3-point line and Jamaya Wyatt had 12 points for the Beavers.

Both team each had 43 boards, but the Gorloks committed 16 turnovers that led to 12 points by the Beavers. Blackburn had 11 turnovers and collected nine steals. 

The Gorloks tied a season high with eight blocked shots, including six from sophomore forward Nigel Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial). Wilcox also added six points and 11 rebounds to snap his four consecutive game streak of recording a double-double. 

Blackburn, who was the defending SLIAC Tournament runners-up, finished shooting 14-for-19 from the free throw line (73.7 percent).

Webster has now advanced to the SLIAC Tournament Championship game for the fourth time in program history and first time since 2014 when the Gorloks defeated Spalding, 55-41 in the title game held in Louisville, Ky., at Spalding University.