W&J plays at Waynesburg’s pace, wins on points
For 40 minutes of basketball, Round 2 of Washington & Jefferson/Waynesburg looked a lot like Round 1 that was played last month.
And just like Round 1, the Presidents claimed a hard-fought victory.
Nick Gearhart’s late clutch three gave him 23 points and essentially iced the 68-63 win over a game Waynesburg squad Wednesday night in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference contest at Salvitti Family Gymnasium.
Washington & Jefferson (12-2, 17-4) took the first meeting 61-52 on Waynesburg’s home floor Jan. 12 in a contest that nearly mirrored this one in terms of intensity and scrappy defense.
J.R. Mazza contributed 13 points to the Presidents cause as the hosts still shot 51 percent even as Waynesburg’s half-court defense hounded them all night.
Bryson Wilt paced the Yellow Jackets with 16 points while Jansen Knotts and Nijon Kirkman chipped in with 15. Washington High School product Matt Popeck scored 11 for the Yellow Jackets.
After a somewhat sluggish opening half, the Presidents came out quick and scored two field goals that opened up a 35-29 lead and forced Waynesburg to call timeout 55 seconds after halftime. The Presidents eventually stretched the lead to 10, but a Knotts old-fashioned three-point play stemmed the tide and sliced the hosts’ advantage to 39-32 at the 17-minute mark of the second-half.
Waynesburg (8-6, 12-9) drew even closer when Popeck scored on a floater in transition to cut the lead to 41-39. The Yellow Jackets took a 44-43 lead with a Wilt three from the wing. Popeck extended the lead to four with a three that pushed the advantage for Waynesburg to 47-43 midway through the half.
The Yellow Jackets seemed poised to assume control when Nijon Kirkman powered in for bucket that swelled the Waynesburg lead to 51-46 at 10:30 left in the contest, but Kyran Mitchell answered with lay up and and foul shot to pull the hosts within two.
Both squads traded body blows as the contest wore down towards the end as Mazza knocked in two free throws to tie the score at 53 with 5:48 remaining.
Gearhart gave the hosts a 58-55 lead by virtue of a clutch three-pointer that brought the home crowd alive with 3:30 left. Kirkman though answered for the Yellow Jackets with two free throws to cut the lead to one. A Ryan Felberg free throw tied the score at 58, but Gearhart struck again with a driving layup to give W&J a 60-58 lead with 2:06 remaining.
With 1:35 left to go, Isaiah Langston pushed the Presidents’ lead to 62-58 with two free throws. After a Waynesburg miss, Gearhart came down the floor and called game with a three-pointer that made it 65-58.
“It gave me all the confidence in the world knowing we were going to run the clock down a little bit and let me make a play,” Gearhart said.
The high-tempo Presidents, averaging 88.4 points per game this season, spent much of the first half playing at Waynesburg’s suited pace as the Presidents scrapped their way to a 31-29 lead.
Washington & Jefferson struggled to get much going early against Waynesburg’s sticky half-court man-to-man defense while the Yellow Jackets plodded along dragging the Presidents to a slower-paced game.
“They do a really good job of forcing you to make guarded shots,” Presidents coach Ethan Stewart-Smith noted. “They tend to sag off and have four guys surrounding us in the lane.”
But the Presidents eventually broke free and got to their game, a Michael Bigley lay up in transition gave the hosts a 13-12 lead midway through the first half, their first lead since 3-0 in the game’s opening minutes.
A Mazza three pushed the Presidents lead to 23-16 with 7:20 left in the half. But the pesky Yellow Jackets finished the frame on a 13-8 run to close within two points at halftime.