The men’s basketball team fell at home Wednesday afternoon to the Wittenberg University Tigers 80-55.

This 25-point loss is the largest loss at home for Waynesburg University since a 37-point loss to Hood College in 2023.

Waynesburg’s losing streak climbs to seven in a row; their last victory came on Veterans Day, a home win against Penn State New Kensington. Since that victory, Waynesburg has dropped six of its last seven total games at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.

Waynesburg never led in the matchup, falling behind by 10 at halftime. The Yellow Jackets finished the game going two for 14 from the three-point line and shooting 37% as a team.

“The main cause of our losing streak has been injuries and inconsistency on both ends of the floor,” head coach Tim Fusina said. “The plan is to be healthy and be more consistent on both ends, if we can do that, we will be fine.”

Injuries have been a common theme for the Yellow Jackets this season, the constant sidelining of players for long stretches of games has caused coach Fusina to scramble the lineup around.

“We have not played a game without at least two injuries to our top seven or eight players since Veterans Day,” Fusina said. “We have been without four of our starters and one or two of our top bench players for the majority of that stretch.”

Waynesburg senior guard Jalen Goins finished with a team-leading and game-leading 17 points in 34 minutes, including one three-pointer made, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and shot six for seven at the free throw line.

The Yellow Jackets junior forward/guard Jackson Rhodes finished with 15 points, shooting six for eight from the field and three for four at the charity stripe.

Waynesburg surrendered 18 points off turnovers to Wittenberg, 24 points off fast breaks, and a whopping 44 points in the paint

“They are getting to the paint way too easily,” Fusina said. “We need to defend the ball better and force more bad shots from our opponents.”

Wittenberg scored 45 points in the second half to improve to 8-1 on the season with their eighth straight win. The Tigers racked up 45 points from bench players and shot 57% for the entire game from the field.

This is Wittenberg’s first victory in school history against Waynesburg, dropping the previous and only meeting 11 years ago.

The Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets have a couple of days off to regroup and rest up before travelling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday to face the Carlow University Celtics at Oakland Catholic High School’s Donahue Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 pm