Vinnie Heller This past Wednesday, both the Waynesburg University women’s and men’s basketball teams traveled north to play Presidents’ Athletic Conference foe Chatham University, with Waynesburg losing in both games.
WBB:
The women’s team entered into Wednesday’s game on an 11-game losing streak against Chatham that goes back seven seasons, with Waynesburg’s last win over the Cougars coming in 2019.
Chatham left the first quarter outsourcing Waynesburg 18-12. The Yellow Jackets shot one of eight from three-point range while the Cougars capitalized on six of the nine free throws they were awarded.
Junior guard Kara McFadden said the team was able to play a full 40-minute effort and never gave up on the game.
“We played well. We played as a team and our energy stayed good throughout the whole game,” McFadden said. “We also never gave up and were able to battle back from being down by more than 10 and come back within a few points.”
Waynesburg was able to turn the second quarter in their favor, finishing the quarter outsourcing Chatham by five, and leaving the first half down 29-28.
Both teams however had an offensive resurgence in the second half. Waynesburg shot 42% from the floor in the second half, although Chatham was able to shoot 52% in the third quarter, making a double digit amount of baskets.
Chatham went on a 7-0 run to start the first two minutes of the second half. Waynesburg climbed back and came close to tying the game back up.
McFadden said that something that contributed to the deficits and eventually the loss was the 22 turnovers the team committed in the game.
“Some things that didn’t happen was taking care of the ball, we had too many turnovers that led to easy points for Chatham,” McFadden said. “We also didn’t get back and let them get too many wide open transition layups.”
The Cougars walked away with the 71-65 victory, winning their first conference game of the season, and extending their win streak over Waynesburg to 12 games.
McFadden led all Yellow Jackets in points with 14 and also had four rebounds and three three-pointers.
Senior Clara-Paige Miller was the only other lone Yellow Jacket to score 10+ points with 13 and eight rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets now have a 2-1 road record, but McFadden believes that playing on the road doesn’t provide anything extra than if they were to play at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.
“It just comes down to the little things that we did or didn’t do the whole game and it looks like we just tend to do more of the things we needed to do right in the away games,” McFadden said. “So Saturday against Allegheny we just need to do the little things for the full 40 minutes.”
Waynesburg is now 5-7 overall midway through its season and is 2-1 in PAC play.
MBB:
The men’s team went into the contest losing 15 of their last 20 matchups against the Cougars. In that time, Chatham scored 70+ points in seven of those games.
Chatham kept up its offensive dominance. The Cougars were winning 20-4 in the first four minutes of the game. 13 of those 20 points were scored by Cougar senior guard Lovenson Xavier.
Junior guard Jackson Rhodes believes a part of the issue lied in the lack of communication from the team on the defensive end.
“Communication on defense was below par, transition defense killed us,” Rhodes said. “We settled too many times on the offensive end.”
The Yellow Jackets cut the lead down to as low as 12 points multiple times, however they did not get any closer in the first half. Chatham led 45-33 at the half.
Waynesburg went into the half shooting 37% to Chatham’s 50%.
The Yellow Jackets managed to shoot 51% from the field in the second half, made seven three-point shots and collected 33 bench points. Unfortunately though, the second half stayed the same for Chatham as the Cougars offense shot 65% from the field in the second half and added another seven three-pointers to go along with it.
Rhodes said that even with the loss the team showed fight and positive signs towards the future.
“We showed glimpses of how we want to play and when we stick to that we can compete,” Rhodes said. “It has to be for a full 40 minutes.”
Chatham walked away from the game winning 98-73. Waynesburg falls to 4-8 overall on its season and 0-3 in PAC competition.
Rhodes walked away with nine points and four rebounds while Casey Keesee led the team with 13 points. Scott Bilovus had 12 points with three made three-pointers.
Today, both basketball teams travel to Meadville for a PAC-double header between Waynesburg and Allegheny College. The women’s game tips off at 1 p.m. and the men’s to follow at 3 p.m.
Rhodes said no matter who the team plays, the team that plays their brand of basketball will win the game and can be a great chance for the team to build a good second half of their season.
“Allegheny is a good program but this conference is competitive and any team can win on any given night,” Rhodes said. “The team that comes more prepared and plays their brand of basketball will win. This game is huge for us to build some momentum going into the latter half of the season.”
Photos by Vinnie Heller:
