The Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets men’s basketball team played the Thomas More University Saints this past Saturday. The Yellow Jackets (7-15, 6-7) dropped the game to the former member of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, 80-63.
“In a non-league game in February, the goal is to try and keep your rhythm and not get hurt,” said head coach Mark Christner. “I thought that our approach was good though, I thought that we had everyone who played had good moments for us and it’s something we can build off of.”
Waynesburg started off hot with a 10-0 run in the first two minutes of the game. Unfortunately, they were unable to add on to that lead, only scoring 20 more points in the rest of the first half. Thomas More picked up steam and took the lead into the half by a score 35-30.
“I think that we did some good things, we really tried to guard them on the perimeter well, which I think that we did,” said Christner. “I thought that over time their size and offensive rebounding hurt us the most and our turnovers in inopportune moments, but other than that I thought our compete level was pretty good.”
In the second half, Thomas More continued its dominance.
The Yellow Jackets eventually made it a one-point game at 44-43 with 15:29 to go, but then the Saints became basically unstoppable, outscoring Waynesburg 36-20 the rest of the game.
“We can make shots, we have a lot of guys who can make them, but we have to get them,” said Christner. “We also need to get to the free throw line a bit more.”
The Yellow Jackets ended the game with 16 turnovers and allowed 19 points off of them.
“We need to find ways to stop giving up turnovers,” said Christner. “We have been in the 14 to 16 range, which is just too high. We saw it today that when they created separation there was live ball turnovers. We have to be able to take care of [the ball] better.”
Thomas More took the non-conference win, improving its winning streak to nine games and a 15-7 overall record.
“It’s good to play them, it’s a very competitive group there’s no doubt about it,” said Christner. “We have played those guys and those guys compete. They were two-time league champs. We did a lot of things that we talked about wanting to do, when you can hold them below 40 percent from the three-point line I thought we defended collectively and tried to do some things well. I know that the points are the points, but I think that was because of their rebounding more than anything else.”
The Jackets are in the middle of a difficult two-game stretch, according to Christner, having hosted Washington & Jefferson on Wednesday and heading to Latrobe on Saturday to face the team with the best record in the PAC, St. Vincent.
Christner plans to focus in on two things during the stretch: defense and playing tough in every way possible.
“We have to make sure that we are able to execute defensively, they pose some problems because of their lineup stuff,” said Christner. “We got to be able to rebound and we have to be tougher than they are mentally and physically.”