The Waynesburg University women’s basketball team traveled to Crestview Hills, Kentucky Saturday, Feb. 10, to take on the No. 4 team in the nation, the Thomas More Saints.

Thomas More showed its dominance in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference yet again with a 107-62 victory over the Yellow Jackets.

“It’s a tough place to play and they got on a nice little streak and got momentum,” said head coach Sam Jones. “We had some silly turnovers and did not take care of the basketball. We had 29 turnovers and you are not going win a lot of games with 29 turnovers.”

The Yellow Jackets started off down 6-2, then came back and went up 8-6. Thomas More then went on a 14-0 run to close out the first quarter making it 20-8.

“I was disappointed with our overall passion and fire for the game,” said Jones. “We played hard, but not continuous. At no point was I like ‘wow we are playing great’ so, it was not our best night.”

One positive out of the tough matchup, though, was senior Addy Knetzer becoming the first player to get 1,000 rebounds in the history of Waynesburg basketball.

“It’s pretty special you know,” said Jones. “She is the first kid in the history of the school to do that and it’s a testament to her ability, but also her hard work and determination over the last four years.”

The Yellow Jackets could not compete with the Saints when it came to points in the paint. The Saints had 52 points in the paint while the Yellow Jackets only had 20.

“I’d like to have those numbers meet in the middle maybe,” said Jones. “We need to get better defensively in the paint and we need to execute better on the offensive end.”

The Yellow Jackets had 29 turnovers in the game, which Thomas More took advantage of, scoring 32 points off the 29 turnovers.

“You have to not give them easy baskets,” said Jones. “You have got to bear down on defense every possession and you cannot have dumb turnovers that lead to uncontested layups on the other end.”

This is the fifth time the Saints have scored 100 or more points this season. Despite the defeat, Jones said he was content with some of the efforts off the bench.

“We decided to rest some people late in the game and I was pleased with some of our players who came off the bench who haven’t got a lot of minutes performed,” said Jones, “I thought they did a nice job.”

The Waynesburg Yellow Jackets are now in fifth place in the PAC with a 9-7 conference record. The team’s next match up is this Wednesday at Washington & Jefferson College. The last time the two teams went head to head the Presidents won 83-72.

Jones kept it simple when it came to finding a way over W&J.

“We got to be better than we were last time,” said Jones.