Dec 22, 2014 3 min read

Playing without star forward Nate Bellhy, it’s been a rough start to the season for the Washington & Jefferson College men’s basketball team.

With Bellhy likely out for the season, the Presidents entered Monday night’s game looking for any kind of positive result after dropping their first eight contests to begin the season. Facing undermanned and winless Penn State-DuBois, the Presidents finally got into the win column, defeating the Lions 99-67.

“A win is a win is a win,” said W&J head coach Glen Gutierrez. “I don’t care what sport or what level. It’s hard to win and it’s hard to keep a level of excellence. You have to start somewhere, though. We have been close the last four games. This was a much-needed win. It’s nice to get a win heading into the holidays.”

The Lions dressed only six players and W&J took advantage by playing at a fast pace and subbing frequently to keep fresh bodies on the floor.

The Presidents, who came into the game shooting only 38.3 percent, shot 52.8 percent in this game, having success both inside and outside.

“I think part of what happened early in the year is that because of injuries, we were young and not prepared for that level of competition,” said Gutierrez. “Because of that we had some rough shooting nights. But we have been taking good shots lately and we have guys who can shoot it. Our thing is to not just take a good shot, but move the ball and turn a good shot into a better shot. We did that and got a lot of easy layups.”

W&J jumped off to a quick 12-2 lead, before the Lions showed some fight and closed the gap to 19-17. A lot of the damage for the Lions was done by sophomore Sam Roselli, who scored 18 of his game-high 29 points in the first half.

The Presidents responded with a 15-4 run to extend their lead to 34-21.

W&J took a 50-37 lead into the half, and once the second half began, the Presidents picked right up where they left off.

A 32-10 run over the first 10 minutes of the second half extended the W&J lead to 82-51 and the Presidents coasted to the finish.

“I thought we did a good job in the second half of taking control of the situation,” said Gutierrez. “We talked at halftime about going out there and putting our foot down and taking over. I thought we were much more competitive and tougher in the second half.”

Doug Johnson led the Presidents with 22 points, making five three-point shots, while Mike Resnik added 18. Jake Swan (11), Tyler Haas (10) and California High School graduate Tanner Huffman (10) also scored in double figures for W&J, which had 12 different players score.

Resnik also added 12 rebounds in the win.

“It felt good,” said Johnson. “We needed that bad, especially getting the first one at home.”

Kyle Mills also finished in double figures for the Lions with 16.

“It’s tough having only six guys,” said Penn State DuBois head coach Dylan Howard. “It starts in practice by not being able to get guys the reps they need. I thought my guys played as hard as they could. You only get so many timeouts and opportunities to get rest in a game.”