Haley Delany Leads Dominating Victory For Women’s Basketball
After a 68-61 defeat at the hands of PAC rival St. Vincent last Saturday, Waynesburg University’s women’s basketball team bounced back this Saturday with an 80-60 triumph over Pitt-Greensburg at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse this past Saturday. A lot of the Jackets success was due to a career afternoon for senior forward, Haley Delany.
Delany turned in arguably the best single-game performance from a Waynesburg player this season, posting 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks. The game high 25 points were the most for a Waynesburg player this season and a career-high for Delany. Neither Delany nor head coach Sam Jones were surprised.
“I’ve been playing pretty well the past few games, so I just keep trying to continue that,” said Delaney.
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised because I’ve always known it was in there,” Coach Jones said. “It’s just kind of all coming together for her this year, so I’m just really excited. She’s always had these talents, and now she’s got it put together, and she’s doing a good job for us.”
Delany posted 17 points in Waynesburg’s previous contest against St. Francis. Prior to that, she put up 14 points in an 83-55 victory over Bethany. For the season, Delany is second on the team in scoring 11.8 and rebounding 6.6, trailing junior forward Addie Knetzer in both categories.
It was finals week at Waynesburg, so the team was focused in on a lot of things that were unrelated to basketball. Nonetheless, the combination of academic stress, as well as a long layoff, did not seem to slow the Jackets down too much, as they got off to a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We talked about keeping the pace up,” said Jones. “We actually should have had more [1st quarter points], but we turned the ball over at the start of the game. We try and pay fast, and we talked about playing at that pace, knowing that (Pitt-Greensburg) only had seven kids.”
Knetzer turned in a usual solid performance, posting 17 points to go along with six rebounds. Waynesburg’s shooting was a big reason for their success on Saturday, as they were 6-11 on three-point attempts and shot 55-percent overall from the field. Delany led the way, going 10-13 from the field and 3-4 from behind the arch.
As a student-athlete, Delany had to make time to focus on basketball in the heat of finals. “[The team] had days off, thankfully, so I focused those days on studying, and I tried to get in the gym when I could,” said Delany. “Friday, once all the finals were done, we had practice, and it was time to focus on the game, getting ready to get one more win before break.”
Waynesburg’s defense turned in a solid performance, holding UPG to 60 points total and just 22 in the first half.
“I think we’ve done a nice job progressing,” Jones said. “We’ve talked about working on some specific things, and we did a nice job working on those specific areas. For the first half, the defense was on point, and they did a really nice job.”
Waynesburg’s defense regressed somewhat in the second half, allowing 38 points.
“Second half, we let it slip, and I was barking at them a bit. I’d like to see that laser focus the whole time,” Jones said.
Waynesburg was able to limit UPG to just over 30.8-percent from the field and 36- percent from 3.
With the win, Waynesburg moves to 6-3 overall and stays at 3-1 in the PAC. Waynesburg’s next contest will be on Dec. 29, against Albion College (6-2), which will be followed the next day with a tilt against Otterbein University (4-4), as part of the Smokey Ballenger Classic.