As students cleared the parking lots of Waynesburg University for Thanksgiving Break, the women’s basketball team had their home opener against the Bridgewater Eagles.

For the Yellow Jackets, they were able to outscore Bridgewater 49-32 in the second and third quarter to clinch the first victory of the season.

Senior forward Addy Knetzer was pulled by head coach Sam Jones for most of the first quarter and all of the second because of two fouls. With Knetzer being of the senior leaders on the team, Jones trusted in the rest of the team to fill in her absence.

“We went into halftime up five so [we played] just fine,” said Jones.

For Bridgewater, as the game went on, the Eagles had trouble stopping Yellow Jacket scoring while the Jackets shot over 40-percent from the field and from 3-point range. The barrage of 3-pointers was led by sophomore guard Erin Joyce and senior guard and forward McKenna Drazich.

“Well [Joyce] been shooting the ball well all year and [Drazich] has the last two games, first couple games other than those two we struggled from outside,” said Jones, “It was nice to get some other contributors, but for those to keep pouring it in was pretty good.”

Late in the game, Bridgewater brought the game within 10 points while Jones had taken his starters out then the lead fell to just six. The starters were put back in and the Jackets momentum was unstoppable for the Eagles.

Jones said at no point he worried about the game slipping away, but wanted to avoid any possibility.

“We pulled them because we were up 14 with two minutes left and I though ‘hey we have a couple kids that haven’t played much today let’s get them out there and a couple minutes,’” said Jones. “Then they made it close enough I decided ‘hey let’s get them back in,’ then the momentum swung too far because if you wait too long, even though the starters were in, momentum had swung. Honestly, it was disappointing, I would have not liked to do that, but it had to be done.”

Waynesburg led by 14 with under a minute left in the game, but after some quick baskets the game ended 76-72, and the Jackets won their first game of the season.

Bridgewater fell to 1-3 after the loss, but head coach Sarah Matthews was happy with the effort her team gave in the hard fought match up.

“We played hard to the very last possession so I was pretty proud,” said Matthews. “I liked the way we pushed it, we got some stops which we needed earlier on in the game, but got a couple steals then pushed the ball. I’m pretty happy they never hung their heads.”

The Yellow Jackets pick the season back up again Saturday at the Rudy Marisa Field House against Hiram college, then have their first PAC game at home against Grove City college the following Wednesday.