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Yellow Jackets bounce back into win column

By Dan Wozniak For The 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – After a crushing 102-80 conference loss to the Bethany Bison Wednesday, the Waynesburg men’s basketball team needed to find a way to rebound quickly. The Yellow Jackets found the winning path again Friday evening against Franciscan-Steubenville University in a non-conference game, defeating the Barons 88-70.

Given the performance from his entire team on Wednesday, coach Frank Ferraro made the decision to change his starting line-up from his usual starting five to his core players from the bench, consisting of juniors Tim Drakley, Jered Gamble, sophomore Dan Happe, freshman Ryan Coureen and senior Shawn Coleman.

“From the other night’s performance, I think the guys we started tonight, actually played pretty well the other night,” said Frank Ferraro. “And they deserved an opportunity (to start).”

Coleman finished with 14 points for the Jackets, while Happe stepped into the game, making a statement as a starter by also finishing the night with 14 points.

Close to the midway point of the first half, Ferarro made the transition back to his usual starting five of four seniors and junior center Josh Parisi. And although the Jackets had the advantage point by defeating Franciscan-Steubenville earlier in the season, the Barons did not back down quietly, keeping the game within reach by only trailing by eight at halftime.

However, the combination of Ferraro’s use of talent and senior leadership, the Jackets were able to easily pull away in the second half, snapping a three-game losing game streak. Senior guard Beau Wilson played a significant role in the second half, hitting four three-pointers out of six attempts.

“Lately we just haven’t been able to hit open shots and tonight, they started to fall little bit,” said Wilson.

The Jackets’ leading scorer finished the evening with 21 points. Fellow senior Mark Lodovico contributed with 13 points respectively. Leading all scorers for the evening was the Barons’ Nathan Stanton with 23 points.

Currently, the Jackets (8-7, 1-4) hold seventh place in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and will have to make significant strides soon to get back to their pre-season first place ranking. Next week, they will begin a set of seven consecutive games against conference opponents, including two match-ups against Thomas More.

Tonight, however, the Jackets head to Latrobe to take on Saint Vincent, and although this is a game that will not count in the conference standings, it plays of high importance in the eyes of the coaches and players.

“We just want to pick up where we left off today and play the game we’re capable of playing,” said Ferraro. “Our goal is to go in, play solid, play hard, try to dictate the tempo of the game as much as we can and hopefully we can come of there positive.”

“Right now, the main focus for us is to take each game and get better, game by game,” said Wilson.

Tonight’s game marks Waynesburg’s seventh game in 11 days.

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