W&J women advance to PAC championship game
Beka Bellhy scored 24 of her game-high 37 points in the second half to help Washington & Jefferson College defeat rival Waynesburg University, 88-66, in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference semifinal game at Thomas More College Friday night.
W&J will play top-seeded Thomas More (26-0), the NCAA Division III defending national champion, today at 4 p.m. for the title. It is the Presidents’ third championship game appearance in four years. The third-seeded Yellow Jackets (14-14) led 38-33 at halftime after traling by 11 points in the first quarter, but they made six three-pointers in the first half when Addy Knetzer, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, scored 10 of her 16 points. Waynesburg took the five-point lead into the half after three consecutive three-pointers by Lauren Blair, who scored a team-high 20 points.
Led by Bellhy, a Fort Cherry graduate who also grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds, the second-seeded Presidents (22-4) started the third quarter on a 10-2 run and never looked back with 55 points in the second half. Danni Medovich chipped in 15 points, including three three-pointers, and Taylor Cortazzo added 12 for Washington & Jefferson, which won all three of its meeting against Waynesburg this season.
The Presidents were 23 of 40 from the field in the second half, when they outrebounded Waynesburg 28-20 and the Yellowjackets were just 9 of 30 from the field.