NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (Feb. 1) – The Waynesburg University women's basketball team traveled to Westminster to face off with the Titans Saturday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets nearly pulled off the upset over one of the two teams tied for first place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, but ended up coming up just short of a victory, losing by a score of 76-72.
 
With the loss, Waynesburg (4-16, 3-8) now sits in seventh-place in the PAC standings and hold on to a postseason berth with five conference games left to play. Eight of the nine teams in the conference make the league tournament.
 
Westminster (17-3, 10-1) held the upper hand in the early minutes of the game, starting on a 7-0 run. Waynesburg cut into that deficit quickly, however, eventually tying the game at 10 with 3:10 remaining in the first quarter.
 
The Yellow Jackets got their first lead of the day with 1:12 left in the opening 10 minutes thanks to a three-pointer from freshman forward Leighton Croft (Morgantown, W.Va. / Trinity Christian). That trey put the Orange and Black ahead 15-12, which was also the score at the end of the opening period.
 
The two teams traded leads throughout the second quarter, and with 2:40 left in the half, Waynesburg and Westminster were tied at 29-29. However, an 8-2 run to end the half by Westminster gave the home team a 37-31 advantage over the Yellow Jackets with 20 minutes left to play.
 
Waynesburg scored five of the first six points in the third quarter to get back to within two (38-36) of Westminster. The Titans again pulled ahead by building up to a 10-point lead on multiple occasions in the third quarter. To their credit, the Yellow Jackets kept fighting, slowly inching back to within four points (56-52) by the end of the third quarter.
 
With an upset still in mind, the Jackets traded baskets with the Titans over the first 4:30 of the fourth quarter. Waynesburg trailed by just one (62-61) after senior guard Alli DeLaney (Belmont, Ohio / Union Local) drilled a three-pointer with 5:42 left in regulation.
 
Westminster again pulled away to a nine-point lead (72-63) with 49 seconds left in the game, but Waynesburg did not go down without a fight. DeLaney made layups on back-to-back Yellow Jacket possessions, sandwiched by a Westminster free-throw, to bring the score to 73-67 in favor of the Titans.
 
Following a free throw from senior guard Erin Joyce (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Bishop Canevin) and layup by sophomore center Brooke Fuller (Allison Park, Pa. / Hampton), Waynesburg found themselves trailing just 73-70 with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter.
 
The Titans hit a pair of free throws to go up by five again, but DeLaney connecting on a jumper in the closing seconds to bring the score to 75-72. Westminster drew a foul right after that basket and hit one of its final two free throws to bring the game to its final result.
 
DeLaney paced the Jackets in scoring, pouring in 16 points in the loss. Fuller added 14 points and 12 rebounds to record her seventh double double of the year. Sophomore guard Kacey Kastroll (South Park, Pa. / South Park) chipped in 15 points off the bench, with all of those points coming on five successful three-point attempts (five-for-nine).
 
Waynesburg is back in action Wednesday, Feb. 5 when it hosts Geneva at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.