The women’s basketball team has had a Jekyll and Hyde spring semester thus far, picking up wins against Thiel and Bethany and suffering two close losses against Washington & Jefferson and Saint Vincent.

This weekend Waynesburg [4-15, 3-7] looks to pick up their fourth Presidents’ Athletic Conference win against Westminster [16-3, 9-1].

The first time these two teams faced each other earlier this season, Dec. 16. The game started off slow for the Jackets in the first, but picked up in the second and third quarters, going back and forth. It ended with Westminster pulling away midway through the fourth to win, 81-69.

In the beginning of the game the Yellow Jackets struggled and went into halftime down by 8-points. Head coach Sam Jones summarized the first meeting.

 “At the beginning of the game we came out very flat and out confidence was very low,” Jones said. “Over the last few weeks we have come out with a lot of confidence against some of the best teams in the conference. “We have to bring that type of confidence to each hand every game that we play, this game we just didn’t come out with the confidence that we should have.”

In the team’s last game against Chatham, the Jackets had the score tied at 35 going into halftime, but struggled defending the paint in the second half, as they were outscored 23-12 in the third with more than half of Chatham’s points coming from inside the paint. It proved to be  the difference, as Waynesburg was outscored 33-18 in the second half.

“We were in the game until probably mid-way through the third quarter.” Jones said. “After halfway through the third, we couldn’t hit any shots. They were falling in the first half but they stopped falling at that mark, we just have to keep confident and keep shooting.”

The Jackets mounted a comeback, being down 13 points with three minutes remaining in the third, with under two minutes left.

Freshman Anika Dansby added two free-throws and back-to-back three pointers off the fingertips of senior guard Alli DeLaney and sophomore Kacey Kastroll to bring the Jackets to within five points, 49-44.

That was the closest the Jackets would get. Westminster built a lead to 16 points as the game became final, 81-69.

 Tipoff for Saturday’s game is at 1:30.