Turnovers, rebounding crucial to women’s basketball Saturday
The Waynesburg University women’s basketball team will be looking for its first set of consecutive wins on the season and second Presidents’ Athletic Conference win when it hosts the Westminster Titans Saturday.
Waynesburg is coming off a victory over Grove City this past Saturday, 55-43. Heading into Saturday’s contest, the Yellow Jackets swept the Titans last season by the scores of 79-69 and 73-47. This year, the teams have some different faces on the court compared to last.
In last year’s games, then senior guard Rebecca Kerr was one of the top point scorers for the Yellow Jackets. Kerr scored 22 in the first game and followed that up with 15 in the next game.
For Westminster, last season’s team was led by Allison Borts. Borts led the team in both games for scoring. Since then she has graduated and moved on with her professional career.
Waynesburg will be looking for some home cooking Saturday when it plays its second home game of the season.
Since the 2002-03 season, the Yellow Jackets are 76-65 at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse. However, the Titans have been one of the tougher opponents for the Yellow Jackets in that time span. Waynesburg has a 5-8 record at home against Westminster since 2002-03.
Waynesburg is coming off a 55-43 victory in Grove City in which senior guard Maura Booby scored a game-high 13 points. Junior guard Katie Gehlmann finished second to Bobby with her first collegiate double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Westminster is looking for their first win of the season. The Titans hosted the number one team in Division III, Thomas More and lost 93-47. Westminster sophomore forward, Kristine Fromknecht, had the team-highs in scoring with 11 and rebounds with eight.
The Yellow Jackets are focusing on two aspects of their game heading into Saturday.
Against Grove City, Waynesburg out rebounded the wolverines 54-39. It is the second time all season that Waynesburg grabbed more rebounds than the opposing team since its game against Case Western Reserve.
“I’m just glad we finally accomplished that aspect,” said Waynesburg head coach Sam Jones. “We have talked about it and we went out and did it. Now I just want us to keep it up for the rest of the semester.”
The other part was working on the number of turnovers Waynesburg commits during a game. This season so far, the Yellow Jackets are averaging 19 turnovers per game. When they faced Grove City, the Yellow Jackets committed 27 turnovers.
“We are going to commit turnovers. It’s part of our game,” said Jones. “We like to push the pace and turnovers are going to happen. I just want us to limit how often they occur.”
Waynesburg hosts Westminster this Saturday inside the friendly confines of the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse where it is looking for its second consecutive PAC win.
The Yellow Jackets were 6-3 at home in conference play last season.
Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.