St. Louis, MO—The Panthers traveled down to St. Louis to take on the Webster University Gorloks in a SLIAC matchup this afternoon. Knowing this would be a tough test against a good Webster team, the Panthers hoped to play well on both ends of the court and steal a conference game on the road. Unfortunately for the Panthers, poor execution on offense resulting in a slow start would prove too much to overcome as Webster would take this game by a score of 72-83.
Senior
Brennan Paulson would get the scoring started for the Panthers this afternoon as he buried a jumper from the short corner to give the Panthers the lead on the first possession of the game. Fellow senior
TreVaughn Goodman would follow that up with a slashing lay-up to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead, but Webster would respond immediately and go on a 10-0 run which would force the Panthers to call a timeout and focus back in on the defensive end of the court. Coming out of the timeout, Sophomore
Clark Davidson would make a lay-up and fellow sophomore
Payton Sellers would connect from 3-point range to get the Panthers right back into the game, and some much-needed momentum as the half wore on. For the next few minutes of the half, Webster would take advantage of some sloppy defense from the Panthers and push their lead to as many as 14 points with thirteen minutes left in the half. For most of the first half, it seemed like the Panthers just couldn't string together stops on defense and good looks on the offensive end, and the Webster lead would continue to grow as the first half ticked along. The Panthers did make one last push as the half came to a close when
AJ Byrd finished a tough lay-up to bring the Panthers within 14 as the teams would head into the locker room.
In the early going of the second half, the Panthers struggled to cut into the Gorloks lead as the teams would trade baskets up until the 13:35 mark when the Gorloks would push their lead to 21 points, their largest of the game. After that however, the Panthers would start to make a big push and would slowly but surely start to trim the lead down and get back into the game. With 9:14 left in the game,
Payton Sellers would knock down another 3-pointer, followed by a lay-up from
Clark Davidson, and a jumper from
TreVaughn Goodman to bring the Panthers to within just five points with 8:04 left in the game. Unfortunately for the Panthers, their defensive woes would resurface after that run, and the Gorloks would stretch their lead back to 11 just 3 minutes later, and the Panthers would not be able to make another run before time expired. As the final horn sounded, the Panthers would wind up falling to the Gorloks by a score of 72-83.
Good to Know—
TreVaughn Goodman led the way for the Panthers this afternoon as he recorded 22 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 4 assists.
Clark Davidson also turned in a nice game for the Panthers finishing with 16 points, and
Payton Sellers finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
Up Next—The Panthers will be home this Tuesday to take on the Spalding University Golden Eagles at 7:30 pm.
