It was a tale of two halves for Waynesburg. After leading 33-28 at the halftime break, Washington & Jefferson outscored the Jackets 27-13 in the next period. The Presidents shot 66% from the field in the third quarter, leading to a 76-59 victory.

This is Waynesburg’s [5-17, 4-9] sixth consecutive loss against the Presidents.

Coach Sam Jones said his team tried to make some changes, but W&J just had better energy in the second half.

“They made some adjustments. We did not adjust well to their adjustments,” Jones said. “We didn’t match their energy in the second half, and we knew they were going to come out flying because that’s who they are. They’re a good team.”

Alli DeLaney also noticed some of the changes W&J made in the second half.

“They were switching everything, playing packed in,” DeLaney said. “When they switch on everything, it’s hard as guards to get any momentum going.”

The Presidents put on a tremendous shooting performance in the second half. They shot 56% from the field. They were also nearly perfect from the free-throw line going 23-25. W&J was also solid on the other end solid defensively in the second half outscoring Waynesburg 48-26 and only allowed Waynesburg to shoot 28% from the field.

“They [W&J] were making it a lot harder to get the ball inside,” Jones said. “They were taking away a couple of the guards that were hitting shots. We’ve seen that kind of thing before, and we’ve adjusted to it. We just didn’t do a good job of it tonight in the second half.”

The leading scorer for Waynesburg was Brooke Fuller with 14 points. DeLaney added 13 points, and Andrea Orlosky collected 11. Alie Seto had 21 points, 15 coming in the third quarter, and Piper Morningstar scored 14 points off the bench for the Presidents.

Jones was impressed with how Waynesburg played defensively in the first half.

“I thought in the first half we played one of our better defensive halves,” Jones said. “I know that it’s in there. They’re a good team; they have some really good players. For us to hold them to 28 [points] and play that well defensively, I think that is something we can learn and grow from.”

After this game, DeLaney knows her team must be mentally tougher.

“We learned a lot this game. We saw where we can be if we played well,” she said. “We went to halftime with a five-point lead. We just must become ready to go on Saturday. It’s going to be another tough game that we are capable of winning.”

Waynesburg will look to avoid the season sweep Saturday as they host the first-place St. Vincent Bearcats. Tip-off is at 1:30 in the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.