WASHINGTON, Pa. (Feb. 27) – The Waynesburg University men's basketball team leaned on junior forward Isaiah Alonzo (Chandler, Ariz. / Tri-City Christian Academy) early and often against Washington & Jefferson Saturday afternoon. The 6-10 standout dominated on both sides of the ball, accumulating a game-high 16 rebounds and tying for the game lead with 23 points to help the Yellow Jackets hold on to a 61-55 win.
 
"It's always tough to win on the road. It's especially difficult to go on the road and play a team that was playing as well as anyone in the league," said head coach Tim Fusina. "I thought our defensive performance over the 40 minutes was outstanding."
 
From a team standpoint, Waynesburg (3-4, 3-4) held W&J (5-2) to just 28.6 percent shooting from the field (18-of-63). W&J's 55 points were the fewest it has scored in a game this season.
 
The Presidents got off to a fast start and jumped out to an 8-0 lead 4:05 into the game. Waynesburg finally got its first basket of the game from freshman Bryson Wilt (Oakland, Md. / Southern Garrett) with 13:48 showing on the clock of the opening half.
 
The Yellow Jackets slowly chipped away at the Presidents' lead, eventually tying the game at 18 with 3:42 left in the half thanks to a successful three-point play from junior guard Matt Popeck (Washington, Pa. / Washington). By the time the clock struck zero in the first half, W&J held a 21-20 advantage over the visiting Jackets.
 
"Our defense allowed us to stay in the game early when we were having problems making shots," Fusina said.
 
Alonzo gave Waynesburg its first lead of the afternoon to open the second half with a three-pointer that made the score 23-21. The two teams passed the lead back-and-forth until 12:51 remaining in the second half when freshman forward Jansen Knotts (Ridgeley, W. Va. / Frankfort) drilled a three to give the Yellow Jackets a 34-32 edge.
 
Waynesburg never trailed over the remainder of the contest, but W&J kept things close until the final buzzer. The Yellow Jackets built up a 10-point advantage (49-39) with 4:32 left in the game, but the Presidents slowly dug into that over the final few minutes.
 
With just under a minute to play, W&J hit a fast-break layup to cut the Waynesburg advantage to 53-47.  A few seconds later, the Presidents fouled sophomore Ryan Felberg (Twinsburg, Ohio / Twinsburg), who hit one-of-two free throws. W&J came right back down and scored again to bring the score to 54-49 with 39 seconds remaining.
 
Alonzo got fouled shortly thereafter and hit both free throws to push the advantage back to seven. W&J answered and knocked down a three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining to cut the advantage to 56-52. Then, following a missed free-throw, the Presidents hit another three pointer with about 11 seconds remaining to cut the lead to one point.
 
Knowing they were going to get fouled and have chances the put the game away at the free-throw line, Popeck and Alonzo stepped up over the final seconds and connected on five-of-six total attempts to seal the victory.
 
"Our young guys got stops when we needed them and deserved the victory against a veteran group," said Fusina. "This was a huge step forward for us as a program."
 
Popeck joined Alonzo as the only other double-digit scorer for the Yellow Jackets, tallying 13 points and adding a game-high two steals. Knotts contributed prominently on the stat sheet by tallying nine points, five assists and four rebounds.
 
While the Yellow Jackets struggled to get their shooters going in the first half, the team locked down defensively and held the Presidents to 22.6 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Overall, Waynesburg shot 38.9 percent from the field (21-of-54) and finished seven-of-19 from beyond the arc, most of which came in the second half (six-of-11).


The Yellow Jackets will be back in action on Saturday, March 6, when they travel to take on Thiel. First tip is set for 1 p.m.