WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College men's basketball team erased a double-digit halftime deficit and rallied to beat Waynesburg 71-65 on Wednesday evening.
The win moves the Presidents to 13-10 overall and 8-6 in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) action. Waynesburg falls to 4-18 and 4-9 in league play.
With Waynesburg leading 40-28 early in the second half, the Presidents embarked on a 14-4 spurt with contributions from
Cameron Seemann (Loveland, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller),
Jonathan DeVito (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic),
AJ Blue (Kensington, Md./Sidwell Friends (D.C.)),
Primo Zini (Morgantown, W.Va./Trinity Christian) and
Alexander Skowron (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) to get back within two (44-42) with 13 minutes to play in regulation.
Up until the final 30 seconds of regulation, neither team held an advantage greater than two possessions the rest of the way.
Zini powered to a three-point play to give W&J its first lead of the evening at 57-46 with 11:53 remaining. Waynesburg responded with nine of the next 12 overall points to regain a 55-50 edge with under nine minutes to play in regulation.
Skowron put in a pair of layups to keep the Presidents in striking distance, but Waynesburg again responded to stay ahead by five (59-54) with seven minutes left.
From the 6:33 to 2:25 mark, W&J reeled off eight-straight points while holding Waynesburg without a basket.
Okikiola Agbale (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler) made four free throws and Seemann and
Zach Queen (Jeannette, Pa./Hempfield Area) each added a basket. When the run concluded, W&J held a 62-59 edge.
Waynesburg's Ryan Felberg snapped the scoreless spell for the Jackets with 1:40 left in regulation, trimming the Presidents' lead to 62-61.
Zini closed the game by scoring seven-straight points for W&J, including a three-point play with 1:12 left, a jumper and two free throws to put W&J up 69-62 with 25 seconds left.
Waynesburg made a final effort with Brennan Smith banking in a three, but Seemann connected on a pair of free throws in the final seconds as W&J escaped with a 71-65 win.
The Presidents were playing catchup from the very begging as W&J did not lead for a second of the first half while Waynesburg enjoyed a lead for 18:51 of the period.
The Jackets opened an 8-3 advantage in the game's opening minutes before a three by Seemann and a Skowron layup evened the score at eight with 16 minutes to play in the half.
Waynesburg responded with a 12-4 spurt over the game's next three minutes of action to lead 20-12. The Presidents responded with six-straight points, two each from DeVito, Agbale and
Adam Alexander (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland).
The Jackets pushed their lead to 30-20 with 4:36 to play in the first half with a 10-2 run. Five different Jackets contributed to the rally while W&J turned the ball over four times during the run.
Waynesburg pushed its lead to as many as 13 (35-22) with under 2:30 to play in the first half, but DeVito kept the Presidents within striking distance with back-to-back three-point makes to trim the deficit to seven.
Waynesburg's Brennan Smith knocked down a three as the first half's final basket and the Jackets carried a 38-28 lead into halftime. DeVito accounted for 12 and Skowron had seven of the Presidents' 28 first half points.
To begin the second half, W&J committed five consecutive turnovers without attempting a shot. However, Waynesburg was unable to make the Presidents pay as the Jackets were only able to extend their 10-point halftime lead to 12 in the early stages of the second half.
Both teams shot at least 46 percent from the field in the first half, but Waynesburg held an edge by shooting six-of-12 from three in the game's first 20 minutes. In the second half, W&J shot 48 percent to Waynesburg's 39 percent, and the Jackets were held to two-of-10 from deep and one-of-seven from the free throw line while W&J was 14-of-16 from the charity stripe.
Despite giving up some size inside, W&J owned a 40-30 rebounding edge, including a 26-12 advantage in the second half.
DeVito led the Presidents with 18 points and four rebounds in 39 minutes of action. He knocked down four of W&J's six threes on the evening.
Skowron added 13 points on six-of-eight shooting along with a pair of blocks.
Seemann and Zini each poured in a dozen points, while Agbale had a team-high 10 rebounds.
W&J is idle Saturday and returns to action next Wednesday when the Presidents host Bethany at 8:00 p.m.
