Jackets look for first win of season in Great Lakes Classic
Following an overtime loss Saturday on the road against non-conference opponent Muskingum University, the Waynesburg men’s basketball team will take part in the Great Lakes Classic this weekend when it hits the road to Delaware, Ohio.
The Jackets will do battle with Calvin College on Friday before playing Alma College the next day.
Seniors BJ Durham and DJ Ritchie, who led the team in points on Saturday with 24 and 25 respectively, will look to lead the Jackets to a solid performance over the weekend before the team plays its home opener next Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Last season, Waynesburg, Calvin and Alma met up for the Calvin Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which saw Waynesburg drop the tournament opener to at the time, nationally-ranked Calvin 89-71, before defeating Alma 82-78 the next day.
There will be a fourth team at the event this weekend and it’s the host, Ohio Wesleyan, but Waynesburg will not play them.
The Alma win served as Waynesburg’s first win last year and a win in one of the games this weekend would be the first for this new-look Waynesburg basketball squad.
In last year’s game against Calvin, then junior BJ Durham led all scorers with 30 points on 11-17 shooting from the field. Six of those makes were from 3-point land. Calvin’s top scorer from the game last season graduated, but Jordan Daley, who netted 18 points in Calvin’s win, returns to the Knights this season, among others.
In the Jackets’ win over Alma last season, the team was paced by then seniors, now Waynesburg alumni, Jason Propst, Jacob Fleegle and Kenny Klase who had 23, 13 and 11 points, respectively. Three Alma players scored 18 points or more in last year’s game all of which return to the Scots this season: Chase Fairchild, Scott Nikodemski and DJ Beckham. The three combined for 65 of Alma’s 78 points.
After setting up an agreement with Calvin and Alma a few years back, head coach Mark Christner who is an alum of Calvin, values the Classic as a way to compete regionally.
“Of course we want to compete in our conference and we’ve done that in the past few years,” said Christner. “But we want to compete regionally as well. This regional stuff is important basketball. We played well in Calvin. They do a lot of things there similar to what we do, because we played those styles there [referring to his time at Calvin].”
The game against Calvin will tip at 5:30 p.m. Friday night while the Jackets play Alma Saturday at 1 p.m.