Men’s basketball winning streak halts at three
The Waynesburg University men’s basketball team took its three game winning streak on the road on Wednesday, January 27, to Westminster College. After losing the first matchup, 73-65, the Titans rebounded and defeated the Yellow Jackets, 66-65.
“It’s never easy to win on the road,” Waynesburg head coach Mark Christner said. “Especially in our conference, you have to ready to play no matter the opponent.”
The entire game was a close contested event but Waynesburg seemed to be on the outside looking in. Westminster jumped to an early lead and held on for most of the first half with their largest lead being five points. Waynesburg took the lead (14-13) six minutes into the game but the Titans took it right back and held on till the buzzer went off for halftime.
Westminster lead Waynesburg 33-32 as the Titans sophomore Deontay Scott led all scorers with 14. Waynesburg senior guard, Ty Negley, led all Yellow Jackets with 8 points.
“We didn’t communicate on defense,” Christner said. “We weren’t assertive in the areas we needed to be and we didn’t get enough deflections on passes that we have in our past games.”
In the second half, Westminster went on a 6-0 run early in the half and took the largest lead of the game (11). From there the Yellow Jackets battled back and took another lead with just under eight minutes to play in regulation.
The Titans did not quit and fought back to regain the lead. They held on as Waynesburg tried everything it could to amount a comeback. Senior Waynesburg guard BJ Durham hit two late free throws with 12 seconds remaining to bring the game within one.
After Westminster missed two free throws of their own, the Yellow Jackets had one more chance to win the game. The team looked to someone who they have in these situations in the past two years, Durham. Durham pulled up from behind the 3-point arc and tried to win the game for Waynesburg but it just missed as Westminster grabbed the rebound to end the game.
“The last 10 minutes of the game was some the best we played all game,” Christner said. “We took better looking shots and made them. Also, we were better on the defensive end in those last 10 minutes.”
Scott led all scorers for the entire night by finishing with 22 points and he also grabbed 11 rebounds. Waynesburg freshman winger Brennan Smith led the Yellow Jackets with 14 points coming off the bench.
Waynesburg will host the Wolverines of Grove City on Saturday, January 30. It will be another rematch of a close contest as Grove City won the last matchup 75-71.
“They [Grove City] are a disciplined team and they use a lot of actions with their guards,” Christner said. “We have to be ready to accept the challenge they bring with them. We also need to do a better job of rebounding and causing more turnovers.”
The game is slated to start at 3:30 p.m.