The Waynesburg University men’s basketball team traveled to Thiel this past Saturday for a Presidents’ Athletic Conference showdown.

Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, they came out on the wrong end of the 73-68 final score.

The Jackets (7-12, 3-9) started off hot and fell slightly behind before they scored 14 unanswered points to build a 10-point lead, 24-14.

The team finished the half on a positive note, going into halftime with a 39-31 lead.

Senior wing Jon Knab and sophomore guard Frank Bozicevic paced the Jacket offense with 12 points each.

Another bright spot for the team was senior forward Marcus Wallace, who made his second straight start after missing the Jan. 20 game at Bethany. Wallace scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds.

Head coach Mark Christner was pleased to see Wallace return to the lineup.

“He allows us to play a little bit more traditionally, how we need to with some length in terms of keeping Knab in an off -guard spot,” said Christner. “I think he is a good player, he does some good things for us on the defensive end, he’s our leader in drawing charges and he is certainly capable offensively.”

Looking on the more positive side, the Jackets bench contributed 30 points.

The leading scorers off the bench included Bozicevic, with 12, and junior wing Nate Gearhart, who added nine points.

“One of the things we wanted to do year-long is to be able to develop our bench, we have a lot of young guys who are coming off the bench,” said Christner. “I thought our bench gave us a good lift and I think that’s when we are trying to play our best with those guys producing.”

Coming out in the second half, the Tomcats went on a run of their own to bring the game within one point.

A big reason for Thiel being able to comeback was that they had excellent free-throw shooting throughout the game, and also because of senior guard Tyreik Burton scoring 22 points.

“[Burton] got to the line more than we probably would have liked,” Christner said. “They shot 42 percent [from the foul line], but we out rebounded them by 10 so, I think it really comes down to us making one more shot.”

While Thiel made 26-of-33 free throws, the Jackets made just 15 free throws on 23 attempts.

“It’s one of those things, we believe in our guys, we work on it every day, so hopefully it is an area that as we move forward here in the next three weeks or so we can improve upon,” said Christner. “I thought we got there, I thought we were assertive, and I think getting there has been an issue for us over the course of the year.”

While Waynesburg suffered a tough loss, Christner still believes in his team and thinks they are responding well to previous contests on the road.

“The mentality of our group was good, certainly in a response to the three previous road games, we were a little hesitant, I thought we were much more assertive and gave ourselves a really good opportunity to win,” said Christner.

The Jackets return to action on Wednesday past publication date before moving on to face Westminster on Saturday.