Gorloks Come Up Short Against #7 Nebraska Wesleyan

Webster University had the ball down three with about 30 seconds left in the game here Friday evening against 10th-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan in the first round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament and put the ball in the hands of senior guard Josh Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton) and Johnson put two shots up from beyond the arc in the final 10 seconds that would've tied the game, but both shots were missed and those missed helped the Prairie Wolves seal its come-from-behind 77-73 win on its home court at Snyder Arena. 

Johnson, who was named the Player of the Year this season in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, took his first trey 10 seconds left and after he rebounded his own miss, he put another trey with five seconds left that was corralled by Dylan Dikes and Dikes would hit 1-of-2 free throws with three seconds left to cap the scoring. Johnson capped his collegiate career with 18 points to push his career scoring total to 1,255 points, which is fifth on the school's all-time scoring chart. 

"Obviously, the first half was kind of back-and-forth, and then we made 2 or 3 long threes there at the end of the half and were up eight and we felt like we were in a good spot, but we knew they weren't going to score 29 points in the second half and we knew they were going to come back and make some adjustments," Webster head men's basketball coach Chris Bunch said in the post-game press conference. "I told our guys when they made their run and went up 52-51, we just kept making plays to stay in it. We just kept hanging around and I kept saying, keep hanging around. They definitely had the upper hand in the second half, but at the end of the day, we had our best shooter with two shots to tie it and that's all you can ask for."

It marked the second straight game in the NCAA Tournament for the Gorloks that had gone down to the final possession as in their previous appearance in 2014, Webster fell 71-70 at Illinois Wesleyan. Friday's NCAA Tournament appearance was just its fifth in school history and first in six years. Webster closes the 2019-20 season with a 19-9 overall record. 

"Two times in a row in the national tournament, the game has come down to the final possession," Bunch added. "It's hard to win that game, but I was so proud of our guys and how they executed the game plan."

Nebraska Wesleyan (25-3), who claimed the 2018 Division III National Championship and was hosting the first two rounds of the tournament for the second straight year, who scored just 29 points in the first half, rallied to score 48 points after halftime to post the comeback victory and advance to face 16th-ranked WashU in Saturday's second-round match-up at Synder Arena. WashU opened the tournament with a 102-68 win over Bethany Lutheran. 

The Prairie Wolves, who played Friday's game without leading scorer and one of the top players in Division III, senior guard Nate Schimonitz, turned its offensive production over to senior forward Clay Reimers on Friday in Schimonitz's absence and Reimers single-handily willed NWU to its comeback in the second half as he tallied 19 of his game-high 29 points after halftime. Schimonitz is averaging 26.1 points and 5.8 assists per game on the season.

Reimers' play inside forced all three of Webster's starting inside players to foul out - senior forward Enrique Tankins (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland) and junior forwards Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) and Ethan Hughes (Union, Mo./Park University), who was starting in place of senior guard Jordan Clay (St. Louis, Mo./Blackburn College), who suffered a broken foot in last Saturday's SLIAC Tournament title game win against Greenville University.

"That's the first time all year that I can remember a game where we had someone foul out and we sure haven't had three guys foul out in a game all year," said Bunch, who repeated as the SLIAC Coach of the Year this season. "Reimers is really good and is really good at drawing fouls. We've known all year that we've been undersized and have had to play bigger than we are and tonight was no exception. It was a tough match-up for us. We had to decide what we wanted to take away and give us the best chance to win. We forced a really good shooting team to go 5-for-23 from the 3-point line and that was the trade-off, but he (Reimers) was a handful there, especially in the second half."

On the night, Reimers made 16 trips to the free-throw line as he was 11-for-16 at the line, including a 7-for-12 effort at the line in the second half. For the game, NWU was 18-for-27 from the line, while Webster went 8-for-10 at the line. 

"The big guy, (Clay) Reimers, was a beast tonight and I tip my hat to him," Johnson said when asked about Reimers' performance. "We just tried to slow them down. They average close to 90 points per game. The offense is incredible and our goal was to run them off the three."

In addition to Johnson's team-high 18 points, Etienne and freshman guard Wynne Brown, Jr. (Memphis, Tenn./Bartlett) added 15 points, including scoring nine of those points in the first half to help give Webster a 37-29 lead at the half. 

In the first half, Webster shot 52 percent from the field and 43 percent from long distance. 

Webster jumped out to an 8-4 lead just a little over four minutes into the contest, but NWU came back and responded with a 15-6 run to take a 19-14 lead with 10:58 left in the half. The Gorloks, though, came right back and used a 13-4 run capped by a lay-up from Brown, Jr., to push in front 27-23. 

After the Prairie Wolves scored four straight points to tie the game at 27, the Gorloks would close the first half on a 10-2 run capped by back-to-back treys from Brown, Jr. and Johnson to give the Gorloks its eight-point halftime lead. 

"We started off really well. Our goal coming in was we're coming in to win the game. We're not here just to make the tournament, we're here to win," Johnson said about his teams first half. "We really came out strong in the first half, just played together and stayed patient. They run a crazy 3-2 zone defense, it's confusing and it makes you be patient. Makes you pass a lot and you have to find those openings and in the first half we were patient and got the ball where we wanted it and made some shots."

In the second half, Webster also made their shots as they shot 48 percent from the field and 36 percent from the 3-point line, but NWU also got hot as they shot 64 percent from the field and 44 percent from the 3-point line. 

Perhaps the one thing that kept the Gorloks in striking distance in the second half as NWU's free throw shooting as they shot 57 percent (12-for-21) from the line. 

After trailing for the first six minutes of the second half, NWU used a 7-0 run to take a 52-51 lead. On the ensuing possession, Johnson would hit a jumper to help Webster retake the lead at 53-52.

From that point, neither team would take control as there were five ties over a span of five-plus minutes before the Prairie Wolves used a 7-1 run to push out to a 74-68 lead following a lay-up by Reimers with 2:07 remaining. The Gorloks, though, responded by scoring five of the next six points to cut NWU's lead to 75-73. 

Nate Bahe would make 1-of-2 free throws to push the Wolves in front 76-73 before Johnson's two potential game-tying shots. 

In addition to Reimers' 29 points, Bahe added 16 points, six rebounds, and eight assists, while Jack Hiller and Dylan Dirks tallied 14 and 12 points respectively. 

The Gorloks were outrebounded, 34-31 and committed 14 turnovers that to 16 NWU points. The Prairie Wolves finished with 13 turnovers and had 20 assists. 

Friday's game marked the final one for Webster's five-member senior class and this year's seniors are Johnson, Tankins, Clay, guard Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College) and guard Blake Ferrell (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South). 

"Our seniors have meant a lot to our program. I told them, I've coached high school and college for 32 years and I don't think I've ever had a team that I've enjoyed as much as this bunch," said Bunch. "They went 31-5 in the league the last two years and won it back-to-back. Josh and Enrique are all over the record books and have meant a lot to this program. I told them (the seniors) after the game, how proud I was of them and how much I've enjoyed them and how much we all love them because this one game doesn't define who they are and their impact on our program is immeasurable."

 STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION