Waynesburg University’s men’s basketball team had won six in a row until their loss on the road at Westminster, a matchup against last year’s conference champions.

“They’re a conference champs for a reason and we have to learn to play with an edge that they play with,” said head coach Mark Christner after the 80-67 loss Wednesday night.

The game featured both teams hovering around 50 percent shooting with Waynesburg scoring 11 points off turnovers. At half, the two teams were tied 33, but partway through the second half the Saints had an 11 point lead. According to Christener, his team played well but some key plays cost the team the game.

“Some momentum turnovers you know those type of things you know pretty even game in terms of numbers,” said Christner. “But they took eight more shots and that translated into points.”

Waynesburg gave up 15 offensive rebounds in the game – 11 more offensive rebounds than Waynesburg had in the game.

Senior Jon Knab led the way in scoring for the Jackets with 23 points on 8-9 of shooting from the field and 5-5 for three.

Knab was the standout star, Christner pointed out post game, for the strong performance he had against the conference champions.

“I think [Knab] is really going for it, we need more guys to play at his level of aggressiveness and assertiveness,” said Christner.

This game marked the second to last game during break for the men and this puts them at 3-4 record in the PAC, but midway through the season Christner is starting to see some detrition from his team in the energy column.

“We’ve hit a little bit of a fatigue wall I think,” said Christner. “We again did some good things like Saturday at Westminster, but we struggle in the energy department in my opinion.”

As the days count down to the second semester of school, the evaluation of how the team has come along has been an excellent opportunity in player development.

“We had a really good break, solid. We had a nice streak, we won the tournament at Defiance we played a couple different styles,” said Christner. “I’m pleased with our growth so far.”

This loss marks the fourth straight loss to Thomas More in the last three years for Waynesburg. The next time they meet will be Feb. 10 in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. But first the men finish off the break at Geneva on Saturday.