LATROBE, Pa. (Feb. 3) – The Waynesburg University men's basketball team traveled to Saint Vincent College on Wednesday night to face off with the three-time defending Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) champions. The Yellow Jackets got a measure of revenge for a loss to the Bearcats in last year's PAC title game by downing SVC 73-64.
 
With its latest win, Waynesburg (7-13, 7-6) may have earned a new nickname: the giant killers. The Yellow Jackets have gone 5-1 in their last six games, with the last three victories coming against three of the top four teams in the conference. Wednesday's triumph was the first in Latrobe for Jacket head coach Mark Christner at the Carey Center, and the first for Waynesburg since before joining the PAC in 1990.
 
The first half was an entertaining 20 minutes for the gathered crowd. Both teams held multiple leads over the period, with the Jackets pulling ahead by as many as seven points (30-23) with four minutes left to play before halftime. Saint Vincent (15-5, 11-2) tallied the final five points before the break to pull to within two points of the visiting squad at 30-28.
 
After the Bearcats regained the lead at 31-30 on a trio of free throws to open the second half, Waynesburg responded with an 8-0 run that matched what had been the team's largest lead of the game to that point. That scoring spurt turned out to be the turning point in the contest.
 
The Jackets never trailed by less than two baskets for the remainder of the win, and built its advantage up to as many as 11 points on multiple occasions, before putting away the Green and Gold on its home gym. The win moved the Orange and Black to within a single game of fourth place in the conference standings.
 
Waynesburg was stellar on both sides of the court. The Yellow Jackets shot an efficient 54 percent from the floor and connected on a respectable 36 percent of their three-point attempts. Defensively, the Jackets held what was the number-one scoring offense in the PAC to 12 points below its season average.
 
Victory was claimed by the road team, despite a massive disparity in free throw shooting. While Waynesburg struggled in making just six-of-14 attempts from the charity stripe, Saint Vincent was almost exclusively kept in the contest by a 22-of-28 effort at the foul line. The Jackets' passing ability helped keep the offensive humming, as they dished out 19 assists to SVC's nine helpers.
 
Senior D.J. Ritchie led the charge to victory with a team-high 19 points on eight-of-13 shooting. Classmate B.J. Durham helped out with 17 points, the majority of which came on three successful three-point attempts. Junior Christian Koroly came off the bench to chip in 12 points on six-of-seven shooting.
 
Waynesburg will try to stay hot and go for a sixth win in its last seven contests when it travels to Washington & Jefferson on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.