WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (January 2, 2021) – In what was its first of 15 straight Sun Conference games to finish off the regular season, the Webber International University men's basketball team kicked off 2021 with a hard-fought outing on the road at Keiser University, but in the end, the Warriors fell 87-80 on Saturday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Webber, which never led in the contest, fell to 6-10 overall and 2-4 in The Sun Conference while Keiser improved to 6-4 and 3-2 with a win in what was its first game since December 5 at Thomas University, a span of exactly four weeks.

Webber trailed by 15 at 26-11 with eight minutes to go in the first half, and then trailed by 14 at 35-21 with 3:17 left in the half before closing out of the period on a 12-5 run to get within seven at 40-33 on a layup by Loro Natana. In all for the first half, Keiser shot 62.5 percent from the field and was 55.6 percent (5-9) from three.

In the second half, Webber stayed within 10 points of the Seahawks until two 3-pointers by Keiser made it 69-55 with 8:13 left to play. Keiser was 12-of-22 from three to that point in the game.

Those two threes were the start of a 10-0 Keiser run to make it 73-55 with 7:10 left to play before two free throws by Jaylon Myles with 6:30 left stopped the run.

Myles scored again to make it 73-59 with six minutes to go, and then Eddie Davis made it a 12-point game at 73-61 with 5:31 remaining on the fourth assist of the game by Herman Robinson.

Then after two free throws by Robinson and an and-one by Kris Goettert made it an 11-point margin at 77-66 with four minutes left, a layup by Rasheem Etienne on the fifth assist by Robinson got it back to single digits at 77-68 with 3:39 on the clock.

Eitenne proceeded to score on each of Webber's next three possessions as well to get it down to a six-point game at 80-74 with 2:08 left to play.

With 1:29 left, a pair of free throws by Goettert made it 80-76, and then a dunk by Goettert off the steal from Etienne and the pass from Marcus Massey made it 83-80 with only 32 seconds to go.

It was a 25-10 Webber run over six minutes to turn an 18-point deficit into a three-point game, but it would not be enough in the final 30 seconds as Keiser answered with a dunk of its own with 28 seconds left, and then a blocked shot followed by an offensive foul on Webber's next two possessions all but put the game away for the Seahawks.

Head Men's Basketball Coach Gabriel Rutledge said, "It was a tough road loss tonight. Coach Bryant and the Keiser staff had their guys ready to play from the beginning of the game. I thought out guys showed a lot of heart and perseverance to battle back at different times in the game. We made winning plays late, but just ran out of time. We will continue to grow and build our program together. Go Warriors."

Goettert finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field and 8-for-10 shooting from the free throw line while also adding a team-high six rebounds. Etienne finished with 16 points, Myles had 15 points, Davis had nine points, and Natana had eight points and five boards.

Next up, Webber will continue its long season-ending stretch of TSC games by returning home to the Sabbagh Athletic Center for its first home game of the New Year as the Warriors host Ave Maria University at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 7. Earlier this season on November 12 in Ave Maria, Florida, the Warriors defeated the Gyrenes by a final score of 82-80 to earn what was Webber's first conference win of the season at the time.