The Waynesburg University women’s basketball team tested its I-79 rival, the conference-leading Washington & Jefferson Presidents, on Wednesday night. 

Things went well early for the Yellow Jackets (4-16, 4-10 PAC), but the Presidents (17-4, 14-1) easily handled Waynesburg 75-49 to take the season sweep.

“I thought we had a good plan going in,” Waynesburg head coach Sam Jones said. “I thought we executed kind of what we wanted to do fairly well in the first quarter.”

At the end of the quarter, the Waynesburg University women’s basketball team was only down 18-15.  

Then it happened. 

The flood gates opened for W&J, leaving the Yellow Jackets in the dust. Waynesburg only scored six points in the second compared to the Presidents’ 18.

Senior forward Brooke Fuller picked up two early fouls and had to sit out a good portion of W&J’s run.

“When she went out, it hurt us more defensively than offensively,” Jones said.

A similar third quarter, in which Waynesburg was outscored 19-9, put the Yellow Jackets down by even more. 

“Not sure how to even explain it,” Jones said. “Disappointed is the word I would use.”

Waynesburg, however, did put up 19 points in the fourth while W&J put up 20 points.

In terms of shooting, there seemed to be a lid on the hoop for the Lady J’s. 

The team shot 26.2% from the field and 23.3% from three. Waynesburg knocked down seven triples but took 30 attempts.

Three-point shooting was a heavy emphasis for the team heading into the game along with heavily pressuring the Presidents on defense.

“We had to set a lot of screens,” sophomore guard Avery Robinson said. “ We tried to get ourselves open and put up as [many] threes as possible to open up space.”

Robinson had 14 points and knocked down four three-pointers. Fuller had 14 as well along with 8 rebounds.

The three leading scorers for W&J were sophomore center Sarah Berardelli, senior guard Aleena McDaniel, and junior forward Maddi Gutierrez, all chipping in 12 points, respectively. 

In terms of depth, the Presidents significantly outweighed the Yellow Jackets in this category. W&J’s bench outscored Waynesburg’s 50-9. 

Glimpses of hope, however, were noticed by the veteran Yellow Jacket head coach.

“Through all that, we were keeping pace and we did it right a couple of times,” Jones said.

Next up for Waynesburg is a night game on Saturday, Feb. 12 against the Westminster Titans. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m.