GROVE CITY, Pa. (Dec. 1) – The Waynesburg University men's basketball team traveled north on Wednesday for a showdown with Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rival Grove City. After falling behind at halftime, the Yellow Jacket defense flexed its muscle, while the offense found its rhythm in the second half to score a 62-52 victory over the Wolverines.
 
With the win, Waynesburg improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in PAC play. The victory gave the Jackets their best six-game start to a season since the 2013-14 campaign. The last time the Orange and Black won its first two league contests was all the way back in the 1999-2000 season. Wednesday night's victory also ended a four-game losing streak to the Wolverines (3-3, 0-2).
 
After a tightly contested first half ended with Grove City holding a 28-24 edge, the Wolverines built their largest lead of the night at 39-31. However, it was at this point that the Yellow Jackets took off on their most impressive run of the season that not only gave the visitors control of the contest, but looked to turn it into a blowout.
 
Waynesburg exploded for a 26-1 run that lasted over 11 minutes and turned that eight-point deficit into a 57-40 lead. The Jackets knocked down four three pointers during the surge, which featured five different individuals tallying at least one basket each. Amazingly, Waynesburg didn't attempt a single foul shot over that time and shot 11-of-20 from the floor (55%).
 
While the Jacket offense found its rhythm, the defense held GCC to just nine-of-36 shooting from the floor (25%) and one-for-six (17%) from three-point range in the second half.
 
To the Wolverines' credit, they didn't give up the fight down the stretch and they scored 10 of the final 12 points of the game to turn an 18-point deficit (60-42) into the night's final tally.
 
Senior guard Matt Popeck (Washington, Pa. / Washington), the current PAC Men's Basketball Player of the Week, tallied a game-high 16 points in the win. He added six rebounds, four assists and two steals to a productive night's work.
 
Graduate student forward Nijon Kirman (Cleveland, Ohio / John Hay) posted his second double-double of the season after pulling down a contest-best 14 rebounds and scoring 11 points. Junior guard Ryan Felberg (Twinsburg, Ohio / Twinsburg) led Waynesburg's offensive efforts from long range by going three-for-five from beyond the card. He totaled 15 points in the win.
 
The Jacket defense, which moved into first place in the PAC at 57.8 points per game, did not allow a double-digit scorer for a second-straight contest. Waynesburg also showed tremendous ball control by giving up just seven turnovers and forcing the Wolverines to cough up the rock 15 times.
 
Waynesburg is back in action on Saturday, Dec. 4, when it hosts Franciscan. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.