WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Dec. 12) – Through its first six games of the season, the Waynesburg University men's basketball team came painfully close to victory five times. The Yellow Jackets played in two overtime tilts and suffered a handful of losses by seven points or less.
On Saturday, the Jackets welcomed Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rival Westminster to the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse looking to finally break free of its frustrating open to the 2015-16 campaign. After trailing for the majority of the contest, the Yellow Jackets broke out to score nine of the day's final 10 points and send Westminster to a 73-65 defeat.
Waynesburg (1-6, 1-2) opened the scoring on a fast break layup from senior point guard
Timmy Kaiser, which wound up being his only basket of the game. The Titans (2-6, 2-1) rebounded to score the next nine points and build a seven-point advantage after 2:36 of action.
Waynesburg trailed for the remainder of the first half and found itself behind by as many as 11 points on multiple occasions. By the time the two teams broke for their respective locker rooms, the visitors held a 33-27 edge.
The home team got period number two off to an 8-2 start that tied the game at 35-35. Sophomore
Jon Knabb, senior
D.J. Ritchie and senior
B.J. Durham all scored for the Jackets during the offensive surge.
The Titans responded to the Waynesburg challenge with back-to-back baskets that moved the Titans back ahead 39-35. Once again, however, Waynesburg answered the call the opposition's challenge, this time with an 8-2 surge that put the Orange and Black in the lead at 43-41 early in the half.
The lead was traded back-and-forth as the second half wore on. Waynesburg was finally able to lock down a victory with 1:42 showing on the game clock. With the game tied at 64-64, the Jackets didn't allow a field goal to the Titans for the remainder of the day. Ritchie and senior forward
Nate Labishak dropped in the game's last two baskets to lead the way to victory.
Leading 68-65 with 45 seconds left to play, Ritchie buried five of his final six free throw attempts to close out the victory. Westminster on the other hand, was unsuccessful on its final four field goals of the contest.
As he has done all year, Ritchie was the catalyst of the Waynesburg offense. He poured in a game-high 22 points and just missed out on a double-double by yanking down nine rebounds. Knab added a personal collegiate-high 16 points on seven-of-nine shooting from the floor. Labishak pushed his double-digit scoring streak to three games by chipping in 13 points on the day. Kaiser made a noticeable contribution in his first collegiate start by dishing out a game and personal collegiate-high seven assists.
The Jackets ultimately won the game at the free throw line, where they converted an impressive 81 percent (21-of-26) of their foul shots. Westminster, meanwhile, sunk just seven-of-nine attempts at the stripe.
Waynesburg will try to carry its momentum from the victory over to Saturday, Dec. 19, when it returns to non-conference play with a road trip to Pitt Greensburg. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
