Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets men’s basketball team tipped off their first game of the season in a 73-62 loss to Stevenson on the road.

The jackets shot 21 of53 from the field, and were outrebounded by Stevenson 47 to 18.

“We did not do much well on Saturday.  We were outrebounded by 29 on the glass and did not guard well in the second half.  We did not play hard,” head coach Tim Fusina said.

“Our rebounding wasn’t good last game, so we need to improve there,” junior guard Scott Bilovus said.

Bilovus added, “In the second half, I thought we got lazy on defense, and they made us pay. It all comes down to us playing harder and more together.”

Bilovus and junior West Liberty transfer, Grant Barnhart lead offensively for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 14 points each.

“The most important thing was making my first shot. Whenever I do that, I know I’ll have more confidence for the rest of the game,” Bilovus added, “Casey was doing a good job finding me in transition and off some down screens as well.”

Bilovus was referring to Casey Keesee. Reece transferred to Waynesburg this season, with his time  prior to Waynesburg being spent at Earlham College for two seasons.

PJ Suggs was second in scoring for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 12 points and shooting five of 13 from the field.

Suggs sounded optimistic following the loss, saying, “We got all our nerves out. We have a lot of new players, and we are still getting used to playing together against another team.”

“It gave us more motivation to play harder,” Suggs later said.

On the other hand, Fusina seems to have concluded this loss is more of a one-off.

“That’s not who we are,” Fusina stated after the loss.

“I feel like we can play a lot harder, and we could play together more,” Suggs said.

“We need to play harder and limit touches for Mathew Marinchak, and we cannot allow the paint for Trent Rozich and Michael Bigley. We have a tough test in front of us,” Fusina commented as he and his team looks forward to their next game against Pitt Greenburg.

Bigley is a familiar face to the Yellow Jackets, having spent his first two seasons with Washington and Jefferson University Presidents.