WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Dec. 9) - Coming into Saturday's matchup with the Thiel. Waynesburg University head men's basketball coach Mark Christner didn't expect a lot of scoring from either side. In its last six games, the Yellow Jackets scored 60 or more points just three times, while the Tomcats failed to break 60 in their four previous contests. As expected, both offenses struggled to put points on the board, but it was Waynesburg (2-5, 2-5) who came out on top, downing Thiel (3-4, 1-2) 56-53. For Christner, the game was a fair representation of both teams.
 
"I thought that if statistics bared themselves out, it would be [low scoring]," Christner said.  "I think if we were a little better from the free-throw line, we would have [scored 60 points], but I did think first to 60 probably would have won today. [Thiel] is hard to play offense against because of its length and because of its defensive ability."
 
It was apparent early on that scoring would be hard to come by. Although Thiel held the Jackets to just over 21 percent from the field (8-37) and 19 points in the first half, they went into halftime up by just two at 21-19. The Tomcats shot just above 17 percent for the half (6-34) and were 0-6 in three-pointers. According to Christner, a central focus going into the second half was the offense improving its ability to cut to the basket.
 
"[Cutting] is something we talk about in practice every day," Christner said. "We talked about kind of reviewing the cues that you want to review and making sure that we kind of stayed right in that moment."
 
Although Thiel scored the first six points to start the second half, the Jackets held their own, and both teams went back and forth. The lead changed four times over the last 20 minutes, with the last one coming with just over six minutes to play when a layup by freshman guard Matt Popeck put the Jackets ahead 47-46.
 
With 2:16 left in the contest, a layup by sophomore guard Frank Bozicevic pushed Waynesburg's lead to 56-49. The Tomcats made it a one-possession game with 1:23 left via a jumper, but a three-point try with three seconds left on the clock fell short of its target and Waynesburg escaped with the win.
 
Popeck led the home team with 13 points and tied for the team lead with seven boards. Senior wing Jon Knab chipped in 11 points to the winning effort. Freshman forward Ben Vitovich finished the game with seven blocks, which was one shy of tying the school single-game record.
 
"He's learning to play without fouling," Christner said of Vitovich. "He's able to play more minutes. His timing and his movement defensively are really effective for us because he has length. We need him to continue to grow offensively, and I know he will put in the work to do that, but defensively he's really continued to take some big strides."
 
The Jackets shot over 46 percent for the second half, finishing the day shooting over 32 percent from the field (22-67) and over 31 percent (7-22) from three-point land.
 
Waynesburg has over a week before its next contest, which will be a non-conference matchup against Hilbert at The Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.