This is a game that will be over analyzed and obsessed over for months. By the Webster Men’s Basketball team, by Coach Bunch, by the Webster faithful, and even by the MacMurray fans. In a thrilling game, the Gorloks could not hold onto their lead at the end. In a startling loss, they fall to the #4 seed, MacMurray, 68-62.These two teams have had classic games before, but never anything quite like this. Not with the stakes so high. Not with such an unbelievable comeback where the Highlanders could do no wrong. Not with such an unbearable collapse late in the second half where the Gorloks looked like they had forgotten how to play the game.
Just last Saturday, the Gorloks and Highlanders got caught up in a 2OT thriller that Webster eventually won. No one thought another matchup would live up to that. But this game was even more startling.
It’s an overused cliche, but this was simply a game of two completely different halves. At halftime, the Gorloks had a 37-26 lead. MacMurray was continually shooting themselves in the foot (They turned the ball over 22 times in the game). In the second half, Webster kept MacMurray at bay for about the first 12 minutes, but then the Highlanders went on an unprecedented run and the Gorloks had no answer.
After being outscored by 11 in the first half, the Highlanders outscored the Gorloks 42-25 in the second half.
In the first half, the Gorloks shot45% from the field and 43% from behind the arc. In the second half, those numbers dropped to 29% and 27%.
In the first half, the Highlanders shot 55% from the field and 37.5% from behind the arc. In the second half, those numbers rose to 65% and 60%.
Like I said: a tale of two halves.
The taste of this game will not go away easily for the ‘Loks. They had the game in their hands, and they let MacMurray take it right back. They were the best team in the conference. They were the reigning SLIAC champs. They had the SLIAC Player of the Year in Stefan Whittingham. They had home court advantage.
But on a night filled with shock, the Gorloks ended their season with something they did not expect with 8 minutes left to go in this game.
A loss.