Saturday, Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse played host to the first sporting event at Waynesburg University in almost a year. The men’s basketball team, led by head coach Tim Fusina, opened its 2021 season with an 81-52 loss to the Westminster Titans (3-0).

Waynesburg (0-1) looks a lot different in Fusina’s second year at the helm. Returning only six players from last season’s roster, Fusina believes the team’s youth has advantages and disadvantages.

“I think the negative is the same as the positive we have, which is that we are young,” Fusina said. “We are very young. We are an inexperienced group, we are a talented group, I think we have a group that is obviously trying to find their way.”

The Yellow Jackets jumped out to an early 17-11 lead in the first half before Westminster went on a 25-6 run to take a 36-23 lead into halftime. After an 18-4 run to open the second half, the Titans didn’t look back, securing their third straight win to open the season. Westminster was led by Andrew Clark (17 points, 7 rebounds) and Isaac Stamatiades (16 points, 19 rebounds).

Fusina was happy with his team defensively, specifically its defense of first shots.

“Offensively, we didn’t exhibit a whole lot of patience,” Fusina said. “Defensively I was very pleased. I want us to continue to defend and to be more patient offensively.”

Waynesburg was led by sophomore forward Isaiah Alonzo, who tallied 20 points and six rebounds in the loss. While Fusina was impressed by Alonzo’s addition of new moves to his repertoire in the post, Alonzo said his post game wasn’t the only thing he worked on in the offseason.

“I’ve just tried to be more physical, use my big body down low,” Alonzo said. “Also, I’ve been working on my three point game and my outside game a little bit too. I’m trying to become a complete player and work on everything I can to become the best version of me.”

Saturday’s game also saw the return of junior guard Matt Popeck, who missed a majority of last season due to injury. Popeck scored five points and added four rebounds in his first contest since Nov. 16, 2019 against Allegheny College. Fusina was encouraged by Popeck’s return to action.

“That’s the first step, that he’s on the floor,” Fusina said. “He’s getting his feet wet, just him being on the floor was positive enough for us.”

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Waynesburg fans will not be permitted to attend home games this season. Alonzo said it was different playing in front of empty stands.

“It was a little hard because when we got down in the hole a little bit, it was hard to pull ourselves back out,” Alonzo said. “It took a lot of self motivating within the team to do it. We came back and still played with a bunch of intensity, but it was definitely weird playing out there with nobody.”

Both Fusina and Alonzo were encouraged by the young team’s first performance, despite the outcome.

“We have a lot of young guys. I thought we played really hard, they hit a lot of big shots,” Alonzo said. “Overall I thought the guys played their hearts out and it just didn’t come up for us but we will be back Monday to do a lot better.”

“I think we defended really well,” Fusina said. “It’s easy to look at a score and say ‘yeah you got killed’ but I don’t see it that way. I’m encouraged by what we did, I’m encouraged by who we have. We’re talented, we’re young, I think we’re going to have some really good days, I really believe that.”