The women’s basketball team hosted their annual Webster Tip-Off Classic over the weekend at Grant Gymnasium, and won the tournament for the fourth consecutive season.
The Gorloks opened the tournament by defeating Macalester by a score of 84-71 on Saturday night. In the tournament’s final game, they faced Hanover College, who had defeated Sewanee 94-59 on Saturday. Webster ultimately triumphed over Hanover 78-69 to capture the tournament title.
“Man, I’m thrilled,” said coach Jordan Olufson. “I thought we showed a lot of grit, which we needed to see in practice. Now that we know we have that in our DNA, we’re excited about the next steps that we can grow with.”
After the first quarter, the Gorloks were down 24-15 to Hanover. Despite this, they outscored Hanover 23-13 in the second quarter, going into halftime winning 38-37.
“I thought our pace was a little bit better after the first quarter,” Olufson said. “I thought the first quarter we came out, we didn’t shoot it well, and then we did a really good job of that the rest of the game.”
While the offense stepped up late, Olufson gave credit to the team’s defense in getting them back in the game.
“I thought it really came down to defense. I thought we did a really good job contesting and making shots tough for them,” he said.
Graduate student Bethany Lancaster was the Gorloks’ leading scorer, recording 33 points — tying her career high — and grabbing 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Lancaster also scored her 1,000th point during the game against Hanover.
“It was so huge, making 1,000 points,” Lancaster said. “Aside from me scoring 33 points, I feel like this was a huge weekend for us. Being able to come out this strong and say, ‘Hey, we’re the same team, we just got better,’ it’s kind of like this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Olufson praised her performance, noting that she brings an exceptional skill set to the floor.
“I mean she just does stuff that you can’t coach,” Olufson said. “She puts so much pressure on the other team’s defender with her pace, she spreads the floor, she finishes. She’s not just been impactful in this game, but her whole career, and she’s just scratching the surface on how good she can be.”
Junior Claire Williams and senior Emily Wilson also contributed in the win over Hanover, each scoring 13 points of their own. Wilson was also named to the All-Tournament team, averaging 16.5 points per game on the weekend.
The team kept their momentum going from the weekend, and they used it to defeat Illinois College 75-58 on Wednesday at home. Wilson led the team to victory with 26 points, 11 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 blocks.
With the season kicking into gear, Olufson made it clear what the team needs to do to stay successful.
“We have to clean up our offense and value the ball a little bit more,” he said. “We just need to get to know who we are. We’ve got new players, so we’ve got to try and figure out our identity.”
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