Women’s Basketball Bounces Back From Thomas More Loss, Wins Comfortably Against Geneva
After an 84-52 loss at Thomas More, the Waynesburg women’s basketball team bounced back with a 70-53 win over Presidents’ Athletic Conference foe Geneva at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse Saturday, Jan 14.
What started out as an evenly matched affair turned into a fairly smooth-sailing day for the Yellow Jackets, as after the first quarter, the Jackets held a slim 16-15 lead. In the second quarter, the Jacket defense held the Golden Tornado attack to just three points, outscoring them by a 19-3 margin.
“In the first quarter, we had a few mental breakdowns,” said head coach Sam Jones. “We didn’t follow the [scouting report] as far as how we wanted to guard each individual player. In the second quarter, we did a nice job at following the scout and didn’t have those mental breakdowns. That’s what led to that difference.”
Waynesburg was able to hold Geneva to just 33 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent from three. For this defensive success, Jones also credited the scouting report.
“When the kid’s a really good shooter, like Geneva has a bunch of them, some of which are a little bit one-dimensional, we guard them a certain way,” Jones said. “We did a pretty good job, outside of the first quarter, of guarding them where we wanted to guard them.”
Perhaps Waynesburg’s biggest edge came on the glass, as they outrebounded Geneva by a 56-32 margin. Senior forward Haley Delaney and junior Addy Knetzer combined for 23 of those boards, with Knetzer contributing 13 and Delaney 10.
“I think between the Thomas More game and the Geneva game, we were able to focus more on making the extra pass and working as a team,” said Delaney. “Sometimes we get a little carried away, and we want to work together as a team.”
Delaney has established herself as a key contributor on both ends of the ball for the Jackets, as this was her third double-double this season.
“I think they were pretty equal,” said Delaney when asked of her two-way performance. “I go into most games focusing on the defensive end and rebounding, and I just let the offensive end come to me.”
Out of Delaney’s 15 points, nine of which came from 3-pointers, as she was 3-6 beyond the arc.
“She was shooting from outside,” said Jones of Delaney. “She’s got size and length, which Geneva doesn’t have a lot of, and she did a nice job rebounding and just taking advantage of her size when she had a chance to.”
The Jackets were greeted by a special guest in the locker room before the game. Coach Jones is currently a member of the NCAA rules committee, and through that responsibility, he got to know June Courteau, who is also on the committee.
Courteau’s currently title is “supervisor of officials” for the entire women’s basketball committee. Courteau has 45 years of officiating experience, and just this summer was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor to the game.
“I’ve become friends with June over my time on the committee, and I invited her down to come watch a game, and she wanted to check on some of the officials here at [the Division-III] level, that aren’t necessarily the one’s you’re seeing on TV when [Connecticut] plays Maryland.”
Jones had Courteau speak to his players before the game.
“It was a real special treat for our girls, for sure,” Jones said.
For Waynesburg, the win moves them to 9-6 overall, and 5-3 in PAC play. For Geneva, the loss moves them to 4-11 overall and 1-7 in conference. The Jackets’ next game will be on Wednesday night at rival Washington & Jefferson. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.