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Box Score
PITTSBURGH (Feb. 23) – In the final regular season game for the Waynesburg University women's basketball team, freshmen
Celina Gomez and
Elisha Jones combined to score 32 points Saturday afternoon in a 67-55 loss at Chatham University in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play.
The Yellow Jackets conclude the regular season with a 1-24 overall record and a 0-14 mark in league action. Meanwhile, the Cougars finish their first year as a conference member at 10-15 overall and 5-9 in conference play.
Elisha Jones recorded her third double-double of the season with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 10 rebounds (three offensive). Gomez added 14 points on four-of six attempts from the floor and five-of-eight from the free-throw line.
Fellow freshman
Marquis Demniak finished with eight points and four rebounds off the bench, while junior forward
Michaelene Jones (pictured) collected eight rebounds.
In the first half, the Cougars led by as many as 12 points, 28-16, before the Yellow Jackets closed the opening period on a 9-2 rally capped by a three-pointer from Demniak with one second left before halftime, 30-25.
Waynesburg scored the first basket of the second half on a Gomez jumper, cutting the lead to 30-27 before Chatham made a run to increase its lead to 39-30 with 15:11 remaining. The Yellow Jackets kept the game close, working the lead down to four points, 39-35, after a jumper by
Elisha Jones with 13:34 left in the game. However, the Cougars responded with an 11-0 run over the next three minutes to seize control of the game. Over the final 10 minutes of the contest, Waynesburg trimmed the lead to as low as 11 points, 50-42, before suffering a 67-55 loss.
Freshman Lizz King led the Cougars in scoring with 14 points off the bench, while junior Allason Holt finished with nine points and five rebounds. Eleven different Chatham players scored in the contest.
The Cougars shot just 33.3 percent (19-of-57) from the floor, but 11 of their 19 field goals were from beyond the arc (11-of-29). Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets made 40.0 percent of their shot attempts (18-of-45) for their third-best shooting performance of the year.
Waynesburg out-rebounded Chatham by a 38-33 margin, but committed 29 turnovers that the Cougars converted into 35 points.
The Yellow Jackets return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 26 when they compete as the eighth seed in the opening round of the PAC Championship Tournament. Waynesburg will travel to Crestview Hills, Ky., to face top-seeded Thomas More College, who is ranked No. 3 in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 poll.
