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Geneva College Athletics

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geneva college golden tornadoes
geneva college golden tornadoes
Torok
72
Winner Thomas More THO 9-4, 5-1
71
Geneva GEN 4-8, 1-5
Winner
Thomas More THO
9-4, 5-1
72
Final
71
Geneva GEN
4-8, 1-5
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Thomas More THO 41 31 72
Geneva GEN 39 32 71

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Geneva Drops Another Heartbreaker

Beaver Falls, PA—It's been a tough week for the Geneva College men's basketball team.  Three days after losing an overtime heartbreaker on the road to Grove City, the Golden Tornadoes dropped another last second game, this time to the first place Thomas More Saints when Saints guard Ralph Stone hit a shot with six seconds to go to give the Saints the victory, 72-71.  Geneva fell to 4-8 overall, 1-5 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Thomas More improved to 9-4 overall, 5-1 in the PAC.

Geneva opened the game with a dunk from sophomore Nick Rusyn and a 3-pointer from junior Danny Torok to go up 5-0.  Thomas More responded with a 10-0 run to take a 10-5 lead.  Over the next 12 minutes, Geneva played well, and when sophomore Ethan Moose hit two free throws, Geneva had its biggest lead of the game, 36-30.  However, Thomas More again put together another big run, this time eleven straight points to take back the lead, 41-36, before the Saints settled for a 41-39 halftime lead.  Senior Jimmy Leichliter led the offense with 11 points in the half, including three 3-pointers.

The game continued to stay close early in the second half, and the game was tied 55-55 after another Torok 3-pointer with ten minutes to go when Thomas More put together an 11-3 run to give the Saints their biggest lead of the game, 66-58.  Geneva wouldn't go away and responded with its own run, this one a 13-2 run to give the Golden Tornadoes a 71-68 lead with one minute remaining after back to back 3-pointer from Torok, but the Saints scored the final four points of the game, including Stone's game winning shot with six seconds remaining.  Geneva failed to get a shot off on its final possession, and the Saints won 72-71.

"We battled the top team in the conference to the very end," Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero said afterwards.  "We had our chances to win but we couldn't finish it out.  It's a very tough loss, but we proved we can play with anyone in the conference.  We played well this week against two good teams, but we've just got to find a way to win these close ones."

Torok had a breakout game for the Golden Tornadoes, leading the team with 20 points.  He shot 7-13 from the floor, including 6-10 from 3-point range.  Moose added 17 points, while Leichliter finished with 11.  Geneva shot it well from long range, going 10-22 (46%) from behind the line.  The Saints ended up shooting 53% from the floor and were led by guard Ryne Callahan who scored 15 points.

Geneva has its final non-conference game on Monday, January 8, when the Golden Tornadoes welcome Franciscan University to Metheny Fieldhouse for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff.  Geneva then travels to Chatham on Wednesday, January 10, for a 7:30 p.m. start time, before finishing the week at home next Saturday, January 13, with a 3:30 p.m. game against Waynesburg University.
 
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