For the third straight year Waynesburg University’s women’s basketball team took the court against the Westminster Titans in the first round of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament. For the first time in that three year stretch, Waynesburg University was eliminated.

Waynesburg fell to the Titans 88-80, despite taking the lead into the second half. Head coach Sam Jones concluded his 11th season as the head coach of Waynesburg in Monday’s loss, but he did have some positives as his team went into the locker room at halftime with a nine-point lead.

“We only had six turnovers in the first half. So, I was pleased with how we took care of the ball,” Jones said. “I thought we had pretty good ball movement on offense and they shot 13 percent in the first half. So, our defense did a really nice job making adjustments against their zone.”

Moving into the second half, the Yellow Jackets held the lead for some time, but a 7-0 run coupled with a few bad turnovers, according to Jones, let the Titans climb back into the game, taking a lead in the contest, 47-45.

“Unfortunately, we had some real silly turnovers that led to some easy hoops and that got the ball rolling for them offensively and we struggled to adjust,” Jones said.

Westminster’s scoring success carried over into the final frame, stretching the lead to 61-50. Waynesburg pulled back within four, but that would be as close as it came as it would lose in its first game of the PAC Tournament for the first time since Feb. 25, 2015.

Senior point guard Monica Starre ended her career on a high note, scoring 21 points and grabbing eight rebounds, a part that Jones believes will be missed the most about his standout floor general.

“Monica is one of the more complete players to come through here,” Jones said. “Obviously, she can score and [has] a bunch of assists. What set her apart from other point guards is her ability to rebound, she’s pretty close to being, as far as offensive rebounders, one of the best in the program.”

With just nine women on the roster after the dust settled with injuries and transfers, the team still found a way to snatch a few highlights wins to show the growth they were able to make as a small squad in a tough conference. Jones found typical trends of any team that finds themselves in a growth year.

“It was a typical growth pattern for a young team, two steps forward and one step back,” Jones said. “‘Are we better than where we were a couple weeks ago?’ Probably, but we didn’t quite get to where I was hoping we could.”

Six of the nine women on the team will return next year, including sophomore Andrea Orlosky and a host of freshmen in Haley Porter, Brooke Fuller and Kacey Kastroll, who was sidelined for the first half of this season with an injury. All three bring something different to the line-up for Jones.

“We do have a good solid base coming back,” Jones said. “I do think we learned some important lessons that will bode well for us in the future.”