Jan 28, 2016 By John Lydic staff Writer 5 min read

A late game shot sends Waynesburg head coach Mark Christner to a career first and the Yellow Jackets back to .500 in the President’s Athletic Conference with an 83-80 overtime victory against Thomas More College.

Senior wing D.J. Ritchie’s 3-pointer with two seconds left on the clock in overtime not only pushed Waynesburg (5-12, 5-5) to a .500 record in conference play, but gave Christner his first ever win against Thomas More.

Senior forward Nate Labishak said it was great to finally reward Christner against Thomas More.

“The feeling was great. He’s an outstanding coach, and we were happy as a group to come together and get him the win being that we have always been so close to beating them but just came up short,” said Labishak. “He prepared us and put us in the right spots to execute and that’s what we did.”

But it was not only the three-pointer from Ritchie that served as key buckets for the Jackets. With the score at 66-64 in favor of Waynesburg, senior guard BJ Durham nailed a three to answer one from Thomas More’s Damion King. The three sent the Waynesburg bench and crowd into a frenzy.

Then with the score 72-69 in favor of Thomas More after an 8-0 run by the Saints, freshman wing Dylan O’Hara, with the shot clock close to expiring, threw up an off-balanced shot and was fouled in the act of the shooting.

The ball found the net and allowed the game to be tied at 72, heading into overtime.

Durham also hit two big threes in overtime before the Ritchie bucket won it at the end of the game for Waynesburg.

But the outcome of the game was in doubt for both teams way before that, and the game was truly back-and-forth.

The first half of the contest was an offensive onslaught by both teams, with each team shooting better than 50 percent from the 3-point arc.

“I thought that was important from our guys, certainly the game is such you want the ball to go in,” said Christner. “I think for us it was less a matter of how they’re making really difficult shots, I didn’t think they were. I think it was important for us to get a rhythm offensively and kind of continue that, which I thought we had the last couple of games.”

The teams traded chances in the first half, but it was Thomas More’s 70-percent shooting from the field that led to a 44-36 halftime.

Christner told his team heading into half that defensively they needed to do a better job with hands up on defense.

“We talked about doing what we were supposed to do and making sure that when you challenge at the three point line your hand has to be up,” said Christner.

“It can’t be down, it can’t be halfway, and it has to be all the way up. I thought continuing with our communication. I think offensively we made sure the ball got swung and reversed.”

The second half saw Thomas More’s shooting come down and Waynesburg storm back. The Yellow Jackets went on a 9-0 run to start off the second half and take a 55-52 lead.

The lead would not stand, however, as Thomas More tied the game and two chances at the end for Waynesburg were not enough to avoid overtime with the game tied at 72.

It was the Ritchie 3-pointer, though, with Waynesburg trailing by two with less than two seconds to play that gave Waynesburg the game winning lead.

“It was a good play; we were trying to get him on the block, just a little cross screen, down screen on the block and they did a good job of staying up,” said Christner. “Then you rely on two guys that are smart and have played a lot of basketball to be able to make a smart play. “

Overall, Waynesburg was led on offense by Durham’s season-best 29 points, 18 of which came from 3-point land. He was followed up offensively in terms of scoring output by Ritchie who had 13 points and seven rebounds and sophomore forward Jon Knab who pitched in 13 of his own.

The win served as the third straight for the Yellow Jackets, but Labishak said the team isn’t satisfied because of it as they are always focused on the next game ahead.

“A win like this is great but really any win is a good one in our conference,” said Labishak. “Before the game we were just saying around the locker room to take it one play at a time and get things going from there. Having a three-game win streak is huge as well and we look forward to using that.” Waynesburg will face Grove City Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse as part of a PAC doubleheader.