GROVE CITY, Pa. (Dec. 3) – The Waynesburg University men's basketball team traveled north on Saturday to face Grove City in a road Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) matchup. The Yellow Jackets snapped out of a three-game losing streak and picked up their first conference win of the year by downing the Wolverines 57-49.
Waynesburg (2-4, 1-1) fell behind 7-6 after the first 5:20 of action, but bounced back with a big early run to take a 15-7 advantage. Junior
Marcus Wallace sparked the offensive surge with seven points in the 9-0 run. Junior guard
Kendall Paige also contributed a basket during the spurt. The Jackets led by as many as 14 points (28-14) in the first 20 minutes of action, before settling in for a 31-21 advantage.
The visiting team maintained multi-basket advantages through the second half until halfway through the period, when a three-pointer pulled Grove City (1-4, 0-2) to within a point at 41-40. Junior wing
Jon Knab responded a minute later with a layup that made the score 43-40. Paige followed with a pair of free throws to make the score 45-40.
A three-pointer by freshman
Nick Valentic boosted the Jacket lead to 50-43 with just over three minutes showing on the clock. Waynesburg maintained multi-basket advantages for the remainder of the evening and capped the victory with a pair of free throws from senior guard
Timmy Kaiser with 23 seconds remaining in the contest.
Wallace put together maybe his best game as a Yellow Jacket and his first collegiate double-double by pouring in a game-high 13 points and a contest-best 13 rebounds. Knab added 11 points to run his season-long streak of double-digit scoring efforts to six games.
Paige and Valentic contributed nine points each off the bench, while Kaiser dropped in eight and handed out a game-high three assists.
Brennan Smith did plenty of dirty work in the paint, going for 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Waynesburg did an excellent job on the glass, out-rebounding the host team by a sizeable 55-41 margin.
The Jackets will look to make it two wins in a row on Wednesday, Dec. 7, when they travel to Thiel. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
