Box Score

WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Feb. 19) – Wednesday's first-round Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) women's basketball playoff game between Waynesburg and Westminster wasn't always pretty. However, there are no style points when it comes to postseason competition, and after the final buzzer sounded, the Yellow Jackets had advanced to the PAC semifinals with a 61-53 win over the Titans.
 
The victory allowed the fourth-seeded Jackets to move on to the next round of the postseason tournament, where they will square off with the tournament's top seed and the number-six team in Division III, Thomas More. The win completed a three-game sweep of fifth-seeded Westminster during the 2012-13 campaign.
 
The Yellow Jackets (14-12) got things off to a quick start by knocking down two of their first three shots on the night to go up 4-0 after just over a minute of play. The Titans (11-15) responded with eight-straight points to take an 8-4 lead with 13:15 showing on the first-half clock. However, Waynesburg didn't allow its opposition to enjoy the lead for long, and took off on a 13-2 run over the next 3:41 to build up a 17-10 advantage with 9:34 left to play in the opening half.
 
The Jackets led for the remainder of the first period, but Westminster pulled to within two points on multiple occasions before the first-period buzzer sounded. When the two teams broke for their respective locker rooms, Waynesburg was clinging to a 27-24 edge over the Blue and White.
 
Offense was hard to come by in the opening portion of the second period, as neither team was able to put any points on the board over the first two minutes of action. Freshman Heather Davis finally broke her team out of the drought with a three-pointer that moved Waynesburg's lead to 30-24 after 2:07 of play in the half.
 
The Titans responded to the opening score by racking up the next six points of the game over almost five minutes of play to knot the score up at 30-30. Sophomore guard Rebecca Kerr quickly regained the lead for her team with a pair of free throws at the 12:28 mark of the second period. A Kerr layup with 12:04 showing on the clock doubled Waynesburg's advantage to four points (34-30), before Westminster gained its one-and-only lead of the second period by out-scoring the host team 7-2 over a span of 1:13.
 
After the Titans claimed their 37-36 edge with 10:51 left to play, the Jackets turned up their intensity and put the game out of reach with a 17-7 run that gave Waynesburg its biggest lead of the game at 53-44 with 3:47 left in the contest. Westminster pulled to within four points of tying the game up at 57-53 with just 26 seconds remaining in the game, before two free throws each from junior Elaine Hasek and senior guard Brittany Spencer brought about the final score of 61-53 and punched the Jackets' tickets for the next round of the PAC playoffs.
 
Waynesburg picked up the victory despite not boasting a double-digit scorer. To make up for the lack of a true go-to offensive threat, nine different Jackets scored at least five points in the victory. Hasek led the group with a team-high nine points, while freshman forward Heather Davis chipped in eight. Senior guard Brittany Spencer and freshman guard Lauren Blair added seven points each on the night.
 
The Yellow Jackets scored the win despite being out-rebounded by a considerable 47-to-32 margin. Waynesburg helped balance out that difference by forcing Westminster into 29 turnovers, as compared to 16 for the home team. The Jackets also out-performed their opposition from three-point range, knocking down six treys in 19 attempts, as compared to a two-for-14 showing by the Titans.
 
The Orange and Black faces a daunting task on Friday, when Waynesburg heads to Crestview Hills, Ky. to take on Thomas More. The Saints haven't lost since an overtime defeat to number-three Calvin back on Nov. 23, a span of 20-straight games. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. Thomas More rolled in its first-round PAC playoff game by downing Bethany 97-58.