On Feb. 3, 2018, the Waynesburg men’s basketball team found itself in a 15-point deficit in the second half against a challenging 15-5 Westminster Titans team.

The season for the Yellow Jackets leading up to this game was filled with many ups and downs in the win/loss column. In the month of December Waynesburg found itself on a hot streak winning six games in a row, but when the calendar turned to January 2018 the Jackets dropped eight straight games before facing Westminster.

“We were searching for a win, searching for a little momentum,” former head men’s basketball coach Mark Christner said.

After the end of the first half at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse Waynesburg was only down 44-41 against Westminster, but a second half surge from the Titans gave Westminster a convincing 62-47 lead.

The potential thought of a ninth-straight loss loomed over the heads of the Yellow Jackets, but with 14:32 remaining in the second half Waynesburg started to turn on the jets.

“It was an entertaining game,” Christner said, “It was a game where you didn’t feel out of it, even though you were down [by] double figures.”

Junior Waynesburg guard Matt Popeck was a freshman during the 2017-18 season. In that game he recalls this message from the bench. 

“Just keep chipping away and keep playing, get stops,” Popeck said. 

This mentality would serve the Jackets well for the rest of the game.

Waynesburg eventually obtained 10 straight points to cut the Westminster lead down to four, but the Titans would not back down that easily. Westminster would keep Waynesburg in check for a majority of the game with comfortable leads, but with 2:30 remaining in the game, the Titans only held an 84-79 advantage.

Senior guard Jon Knab, who finished that night with 24 points, and Popeck led the way on both ends of the floor. After a defensive rebound from Knab, Popeck nailed a dagger three that gave Waynesburg an 86-84 lead with 39 seconds remaining on the clock.

“I just remember us needing to get a win,” said Popeck.

With a tie ball game at 86-86, senior forward Marcus Wallace scored the game-winning layup that gave the Jackets an 88-86 lead and Westminster only 4 seconds to work with on the clock. An ensuing Titans turnover sealed the narrow victory for Waynesburg.

The freshman Popeck was the leading scorer for the Yellow Jackets, ending the night with his first of three 30-point games in his career so far.

“I’ve never been a part of a team like the team that I was a part of whenever I first came here,” Popeck said. “I was the youngest player out there; but what was more important to me was that we came back from that deficit and got the win. I couldn’t have done it without the team.”

It was a difficult eight-game losing streak for Christner, but it was moments like these that made coaching worthwhile.

“One of the things that you love to have over and over again as a coach is games that seem rather ordinary,” said Christner, “but the investment level in that game just seemed higher than possibly some other games.”