Heading into the season, head coach Jeromy Yetter knew his team’s youth and inexperience at the collegiate level would be make this season a bit of a roller coaster ride.

With six games left before playoffs, the Bobcats mens basketball team is holding onto the eighth and final playoff spot with a record of 8-11 (6-8).

“I would say the season is going how I expected it to. With as many new guys and with the conference how it is, it doesn’t do our young guys any favors. Inconsistency — as frustrating as it is — is part of the learning process and freshman year,” Yetter said.

The men’s basketball team has dropped two of its past three games after establishing a nice three-game winning streak earlier in the season.

The Bobcats dropped a tough conference game to Penn State Altoona on Monday night by the score of 64-68. The Bobcats trailed for most of the first half but took a lead entering halftime. The second half was a back-and-forth contest that featured five ties and five lead changes. Altoona took a one-point lead at the 6:15 mark and never looked back as they closed the game on a 11-5 run.

The men’s basketball team is looking to surprise a few teams this year with its height and work ethic.

Men’s hoops: The men’s basketball team is looking to surprise a few teams this year with its height and work ethic.

The Pitt-Greensburg men’s basketball is getting ready to open up their 2009-10 season, and a new year brings a new look to the team.

The Bobcats have a lot of new faces this year, as second-year head coach Jeromy Yetter welcomes two talented transfers and six true freshmen. The new players bring something that Pitt-Greensburg has lacked in recent years — height.

At 6’8” and 6’7”, respectively, transfer Justin Burgess and freshman David Palmer will be counted on to try to fill the void left by Daniel Waajid, the conference’s reigning player of the year who graduated in April.

The Pitt-Greensburg men’s basketball team dropped the first game of the season to Muskingum College on Tuesday evening in front of a packed Chambers Hall crowd of 515. The Bobcats jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead but their inexperience got the best of them as they turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and shot just 33.3 percent from the floor.

Muskingum had a lead as big as 20 points. The Bobcats were able to cut it to eight before falling by the score of 68-53. Rashad Davison led the Bobcats with 17 points and six boards, while freshman David Palmer added 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

The Bobcats will return to action this weekend when they participate in the Geneva College Tip-Off Tournament. Their first game in the tournament will be against Marymount University on Friday at 6 p.m.

Waajid during a game.
By Aaron Weitzman / Sports Editor

After finishing his college career with an exclamation point, a one-handed slam dunk to bury Franciscan University on his senior day, Daniel Waajid’s career will now end on a bright note.

“To end my college career like that was truly amazing. I have never had so much fun with the family I have raised in a sort of way,” Waajid said.”Ending it the way we did made me feel great about our season, we all played hard and started to get much better together, if we would have took care of a few things early in the season, things would of been different but it is what it is.”

The 6 foot 7 inch Waajid was named AMCC Player of the Year, averaging 15.1 points and 11.9 rebounds a game, despite the team not making playoffs.

By Matt Stanziano / Contributing writer

Jeromy Yetter, the new men’s head basketball coach, got his first win in his first game at Chambers Hall on Saturday.

Daniel Waajid goes up for the opening tip of the senior night game against Penn State Altoona.

By Dave Streett / Staff writer

Pitt-Greensburg seniors Daniel Waajid, Ed Montgomery and Travis Hill were honored with a gift bag and watch during Senior Night recognition Wednesday night, but Penn State Altoona spoiled their real gift - a home playoff game - with a 70-60 overtime victory.

Daniel WaajidWaajid, playing in front of his mother for the first time this season, was dominate inside, scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. He is fourth in all of NCAA Division 3 with 11.4 rebounds per game.

“I’m going after rebounds with more heart then I ever have before,” said Waajid.

Waajid’s heart wasn’t enough for the Bobcats (11-13 overall, 10-7 AMCC) to overcome a slow first half where they shot just 29% (8-27) from the field. Penn State Altoona (12-12, 9-8 AMCC) used solid man-to-man defense to take away Montgomery’s strong three point shooting.

By Dave Streett / Staff writer

With four seconds left in overtime, freshman Josh Kucenic toed the free-throw line with a chance to avenge an earlier loss to Hilbert and put Pitt-Greensburg in the playoffs. His first free throw fell short.

“After you miss the first, it’s all mental after that,” Kucenic said.

The second was nothing but net, sealing a 76-72 Bobcat victory. Pitt-Greensburg improved to 10-12 overall (9-6 AMCC) and Hilbert dropped to 10-12 overall (6-9 AMCC). The Bobcats locked up one of the six spots in the AMCC tournament, while Hilbert slipped into seventh place.