News Release

WAYNESBURG — The Yellow Jackets closed out the non-conference portion of their schedule on Tuesday night at the Marisa Fieldhouse with an 82-65 loss to Hood College. Waynesburg struggled from the perimeter in an attempt to break the Blazers' 2-3 zone, resulting in a season-low 65 points. With the loss, the Yellow Jackets fall to 11-8 overall and return to conference play tomorrow night at Thiel College.

The game opened to a 10-10 tie after five minutes of play with a showdown between juniors Santo Provenzano and Jeff Nero. The two combined for 17 of first 20 points scored in the game with Provenzano scored the first 10 Hood points of the game.

The Blazers broke the tie with a three-pointer and held a narrow lead for most of the first half, expanding it six points once. Waynesburg struggled from the field for the better part of the half, making just 6 of its first 24 attempts before connecting on six of its last seven attempts. With the late-half success, the Yellow Jackets trimmed a six-point Hood lead to one point with 11 second before the Blazers hit a three-pointer with three second prior to the break to take a 35-31 lead into halftime.

Provenzano finished the half 15 points and six rebounds, while Nero countered with 12 points and three boards.

The momentum from the late three-pointer carried over for Hood, who started the second half on an 18-4 run over a seven-minute stretch. During the run, Waynesburg struggled from the floor, making just two their first 10 second-half attempts.

The Blazer run allowed them to take a 53-35 lead with 13 minutes remaining, a lead which the Yellow Jackets trimmed to 12 points, 55-43, after a three-pointer by Tim Drakeley.

Hood responded with six points from forwards Jeff Willison and Jesse Gutekunst, both of whom are 6-7-plus.

The duo combined for 33 points and 13 points in the win and contributed the Blazers' dominance on the glass, 46-35.

The loss overshadowed the performance of junior reserve Jeff Linden, who scored a career-best 21 points. The guard scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half and added five rebounds, two steals and two assists in 24 minutes of play.

Linden was joined in double figures by Nero, who bucketed 16. Meanwhile, Provenzano led all scorers with 22 points, while both Gutekunst and Willison reached double figures for Hood.

WC made 26-of-70 attempts (37.1 percent) from the floor for its second-straight game below 40 percent - both losses. The Yellow Jackets struggled from three-point territory, shooting just 19 percent (5 of 26) from beyond the arc.

Waynesburg returns to conference play tomorrow night, Feb. 1, when it travels to face Thiel College at the Rissell-Beeghly Gymnasia for a 7:30 p.m. start. The Yellow Jackets enters the contest in third place in the seven-team conference with a 4-3 mark, while the Tomcats are winless in league action, 0-7. Waynesburg routed the Tomcats in the first meeting this season, 94-55, as four Yellow Jacket players reached double figures, paced by 16 from Beau Wilson.

Newspaper Box Score
Hood College vs Waynesburg College
01-31-06 7:30 p.m. at Waynesburg, Pa. (Marisa Fieldhouse)
At Waynesburg, Pa. (Marisa Fieldhouse)
HOOD COLLEGE 82, WAYNESBURG COLLEGE 65
HOOD COLLEGE (11-10)
Provenzano, Santo 8-18 6-8 22; Willison, Jeff 8-12 2-2 18; Gutekunst, Jesse 7-9 0-0 15; Junghans, Justin 3-4 0-0 8; Abercrombie, Tim 3-8 0-0 7; Tressler, Dennis 2-5 0-0 4; Griggs, Terry 1-1 0-0 3; Robine, Sean 1-2 1-1 3; Edmonds, Darnell 1-7 0-0 2; Uzoukwu, Nnamdi 0-0 0-0 0; Tressler, Corey 0-0 0-0 0; Yoo, Patrick 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 34-67 9-11 82.
WAYNESBURG COLLEGE (11-8)
Jeff Linden 9-14 2-4 21; Jeff Nero 5-13 5-6 16; Marc Lodovico 3-9 0-0 7; Tim Drakeley 2-4 0-0 6; George Wasik 2-5 0-1 4; Ryan Bujnowski 2-6 0-0 4; Colby Grubich 1-1 0-0 2; Jered Gamble 1-3 0-0 2; Beau Wilson 1-8 0-0 2; Josh Parisi 0-5 1-2 1; Jason Clark 0-1 0-0 0; Dan Happe 0-1 0-0 0; Andy Erjavek 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-70 8-13 65.
Hood College..................   35   47  -   82
Waynesburg College............   31   34  -   65
3-point goals-Hood College 5-17 (Junghans, Justin 2-3; Abercrombie, Tim 1-4; Griggs, Terry 1-1; Gutekunst, Jesse 1-1; Edmonds, Darnell 0-3; Robine, Sean 0-1; Tressler, Dennis 0-3; Provenzano, Santo 0-1), Waynesburg College 5-26 (Tim Drakeley 2-3; Jeff Linden 1-3; Marc Lodovico 1-5; Jeff Nero 1-7; Jered Gamble 0-1; Beau Wilson 0-4; Jason Clark 0-1; Ryan Bujnowski 0-2).
Fouled out--Hood College-None, Waynesburg College-None.
Rebounds-Hood College 46 (Provenzano, Santo 9; Willison, Jeff 9), Waynesburg College 35 (Josh Parisi 6).
Assists-Hood College 14 (Edmonds, Darnell 3; Tressler, Dennis 3; Abercrombie, Tim 3), Waynesburg College 14 (Jeff Nero 4).
Total fouls-Hood
College 14, Waynesburg College 13.
A-170
Linden (WAY) scores career-high 21 points.
Waynesburg scores season-low 65 points in the loss.