BETHANY, W.Va. (Feb. 20) – Waynesburg University traveled to Bethany on Tuesday for a first-round matchup in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) men's basketball tournament. Despite being decided underdogs, the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets gave the second-seeded Bison a stern test before the host team closed out an 82-73 win.
The night got off to a solid start for the Jackets (10-16), who jumped out to an 8-2 lead thanks in large part to senior forward
Marcus Wallace's six points during that span. Bethany (15-11) answered back in a big way by going off on a 14-0 run that put the Green and White ahead 16-8.
Momentum swung back to Waynesburg's favor in the form of a 12-0 surge that gave the Orange and Black a 20-16 edge. The first-half series of runs continued in Bethany's favor when the Bison outscored the Jackets 14-1 over a five-minute span to move ahead 30-21 with 4:32 left to play before halftime. The home team maintained multi-basket advantages throughout the opening period and a buzzer-beating three-pointer made the score 39-27 at the break.
Despite facing a very steep hill to victory, Waynesburg never gave up over the second half and kept the pressure on the opposition throughout the night. A pair of free throws from sophomore Clay Caper pulled the Jackets to within a single basket of the lead (68-65) with just over four minutes showing on the game clock.
Unfortunately, that's as close as Waynesburg came to moving on to the PAC semifinals, because Bethany was able to successfully attack the hoop and convert the attempts into either layups or free throws to rebuild consistent multi-basket advantages.
Senior
Mike Nugent ended his Yellow Jacket career with the game's final basket, a tip-in off a missed Wallace free throw with 16 seconds remaining in the contest. It was his only field goal of the game.
Speaking of seniors, Wallace led Waynesburg with 15 points on six-of-nine shooting from the floor. Another senior Jacket,
Jon Knab, chipped in 10 points in the setback. The fourth Jacket senior,
Kendall Paige, went for eight points and six rebounds.
"I'm proud of our four seniors. Mike played very well today, as did Marcus. Kendall and Jon are terrific embassadors for our program," said Waynesburg head coach
Mark Christner. "It stinks to lose, but we can be proud of our effort tonight."
On the other end of the age spectrum, freshmen
Matt Popeck and
Ben Vitovich made positive contributions in their own ways. Popeck chipped in 12 points on the night, while Vitovich corralled a game-high nine rebounds.
