WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson men's basketball team brought a close to the 2018-19 regular season with a 67-58 loss to Grove City on Senior Day at the Henry Memorial Center on Saturday, Feb. 16. 

The loss drops the Presidents to 8-8 in the PAC to end the regular season. W&J will be the fifth seed heading into the PAC Tournament and will face either Westminster or Chatham in a road game in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. 

Today's game was tightly contested for a majority of the playing time, with neither team taking a lead larger than five in the first half. W&J's largest advantage in the first 20 minutes was four points, 11-7, following some scrappy play from Adam Alexander (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland). The junior guard scooped up a missed trey by Zach Queen(Jeannette, Pa./Hempfield Area) and made the tip-in layup to cap an 8-0 Presidents' run. 

The missed three-pointer from Queen was an anomaly in the first half, as he ended the stanza with a game-high 12 points on four three-point makes. The sophomore sharpshooter also added six rebounds to help the Red & Black earn a 33-33 tie heading into the halftime break. 

The start of the second half mirrored the first, as both teams traded buckets to keep the contest close. The game began to get away from the Presidents with 5:42 left on the clock. Following a Primo Zini (Morgantown, W. Va./Trinity Christian) free throw to knot the score at 50-50, W&J went on a three-plus minute scoreless drought. This lack of scoring allowed the Wolverines to put together a 9-0 run, giving them a 59-50 lead.  

W&J's deficit hovered around nine points for the remainder of the game, as Grove City held on to take a 67-58 PAC victory. 

Zini finished today's contest as W&J's leading scorer with 19 points in 20 minutes. As has been a strength of his lately, Zini tallied nine of his points from the charity stripe, the third straight game he has made at least seven free throws. The rookie guard has tallied 10-plus points in seven consecutive games and is second on the team with 11.6 points per game. 

Queen was second on the team with 12 points to go along with a game-high and career-best nine rebounds. With four treys today, Queen extended his single-season program record for three-pointers to 78 this year. 

After being recognized in a pregame ceremony, senior Sven Zepic (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) played 21 minutes and logged four rebounds and a team-high tying two assists. 

By clinching the fifth seed heading into the PAC Tournament, the Presidents will play a road game in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 19. W&J will challenge either Westminster or Chatham, depending on the result of Chatham's bout against Saint Vincent tonight.