Jan 31, 2016 By Kyle Dawson assistant Sports Editor 3 min read

At the 17:38 mark in the second half of Saturday’s Presidents’ Athletic Conference matchup, the Waynesburg men’s basketball team trailed 42-31 to the Grove City College Wolverines.

The next 13 minutes went back and forth in a see-saw affair. Then at the 4:46 mark, Waynesburg senior forward Nate Labishak dribbled in transition and made a pass out to the left corner to junior guard Christian Koroly, who nailed a 3-pointer to put the Jackets ahead 62-60, and they never looked back from there, winning by a final of 75-69 to get back to .500 in PAC play at 6-6.

“We made five threes in the second half and it was a product of penetration,” said head coach Mark Christner. “We were trying to get in the lane and continue to pass. Christian’s corner three was massive and DJ [Ritchie] hit a couple big threes too. But they were open and it was a result of us making good passes and getting in the lane.”

Perhaps overseen on that play was the unselfish pass from Labishak.

“He’s so unselfish,” said Christner. “At times maybe he’s a little too unselfish. You like a guy that is willing to make that pass and he makes it eight times out of 10 so you deal with the two times he doesn’t.”

With the win, the Jackets improved to 6-1 in the PAC at home in the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.

“The friendly confines have been great,” said Christner. “It’s always a good crowd and it’s humbling in a sense when you’re 5-12, now 6-12 that they still come out to support. You want to play somewhere where when you hit a big shot, you get a great reaction and this place is loud.”

Waynesburg was paced offensively in the game by sophomore wing Jon Knab and senior wing DJ Ritchie who chipped in 16 points each. Senior guard BJ Durham had 13 points, while Koroly had 10 points.

“Our ability to spread them out and get by them with single-actions was key,” said Christner. “I’m blessed with a great coaching staff. Coach Altmeyer and I were thinking the same thing at halftime. He said to me ‘we just have to run our through, because we’re just having a hard time getting the ball reversed and where we want.’ I think that was the biggest difference for us. We made some shots in the second half and shot a lot of free throws.”

Grove City senior guard Joe Vermilya scored a team-high 18 points, sophomore forward Cory Huff chipped in 14 points and junior forward Tyler McGrath added 12.

Waynesburg now looks ahead to a matchup with PAC-frontrunner Saint Vincent Wednesday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and the Carey Center, a place that is friendlier by the numbers to the Bearcats, the three-time defending champions in the conference, than the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse is to the Jackets.

Tipoff Wednesday is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.