Box Score

WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Jan. 24) – The Waynesburg men's basketball team struggled during Saturday' night's Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) showdown with Thiel.

The Yellow Jackets fell behind early and were never able to recover, as they fell by the final of 74-54. The loss dropped the home team to 6-11 over and 2-5 in PAC play. The Tomcats snapped a 13-game losing streak with the victory that moved them to 2-15 overall and 1-6 in conference action.

The Tomcats scored the game's first four points in just 38 seconds and never trailed for the rest of the game, as they were able to build up a 36-20 advantage at halftime.

The second half wasn't much kinder to the Jackets, as Thiel built up a 51-26 lead with 10:43 to go in the game. However, the Jackets' bench, which out-scored the starters 31-23, managed to help make the game more interesting as the backups were able to trim the deficit down to 12 (55-43) with 5:52 left.

The Tomcats were able to connect on some late free throws to build their lead back up to as many as 20 (74-54).

The visitors dominated in the paint, out-rebounding their opponents 47-31. They also made a big  impact at the free throw line, out-shooting Waynesburg 20-of-37 to seven-of-17, and in the field, hitting on 46 percent of their shots from the field (25-54), as opposed to the Jackets' 35 percent (20-57) performance.

Though it came in a losing effort, senior guard Zack Engel tossed in a team-best 15 points on five-of-nine shooting. Senior guard Dan Happe added 10 points before fouling out, and junior guard Ryan Courneen led the Jackets with seven rebounds.

The Tomcats were paced by a pair of 16-point scorers in junior guards Cory Chaffee and Sean Devinney.

Waynesburg will try to get back on the winning track on Wednesday, Jan. 28, when they host Bethany.