GROVE CITY, Pa. (Jan. 24) – The Waynesburg men's basketball team stumbled out of the gate during Wednesday's Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) game at Grove City. The Yellow Jackets didn't give up after falling into a big early hole, but couldn't complete the comeback try as they fell 66-54 to the Wolverines.
 
After senior wing Jon Knab knocked down the first shot of the game, a three-pointer, to give Waynesburg (7-11, 3-8) the first lead of the night, Grove City (12-6, 5-6) answered with a 25-5 run that lasted over 10 minutes and gave it a 25-8 lead with 8:42 left to play in the first half.
 
The Jackets answered with an impressive 18-7 surge of their own to close out the first period. By the time the two teams went to their respective locker rooms, the GCC advantage had been trimmed down to just six points (32-26).
 
"I thought our start really hurt us here," said Waynesburg head coach Mark Christner. "We stabilized and played more like ourselves for a bit, but we ran out of time."
 
After Grove City scored the first basket of the second half to bump its lead back up to eight (34-26), freshman guard Matt Popeck almost single-handedly tied the game up by scoring the game's next seven points to make the score 34-33. Unfortunately, that's as close as Waynesburg came to completing the comeback, as the home team went on to outscore the Jackets 32-21 over the final 16 minutes of play.
 
Popeck's big surge early in the second half accounted for the bulk of the scoring in a 13-point night. He connected on six-of-12 from the floor over 32 minutes played. Knab edged his younger counterpart for top scoring honors on the team contributing 15 points on the night.
 
Despite his team being mired in its longest losing skid of the season, which now stands at six games, Christner is not ready to give up on his squad as it makes it way through the second half of the conference schedule.
 
"We need to embrace belief in ourselves and turn from discouragement," Christner said. "The easiest thing to do in the world is to give in, but we will keep battling. We just have to get back to work tomorrow.
 
The Jackets end a stretch of three-straight road games Saturday with a trip to Thiel. Tipoff with the Tomcats is scheduled for 3 p.m.