GAMBIER, Ohio – The Geneva College men's basketball team used a dominating inside game on Monday night at Kenyon College to pick up a season-opening road win, 72-57.  The game was a contrast between two styles of play, as Geneva did almost all of its damage around the hoop, led by juniors Ethan Moose (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) and Nick Rusyn (Salem, Ohio/Salem), while Kenyon focused more on perimeter shots.   Geneva improved to 1-0, while Kenyon fell to 0-1.
 
Geneva jumped out to an 11-6 lead after sophomore RJ Bell (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) hit Geneva's only 3-pointer of the game, with five different players accounting for Geneva's first five baskets.  Two quick 3-pointers helped Kenyon to its only lead of the game, 15-13, but Geneva scored the next eight points to give it a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the game.  After Kenyon cut the Geneva lead to 23-20, the Golden Tornadoes responded with an 11-4 run to give them their biggest lead of the half, 34-24.  A late run in the final two minutes from Kenyon cut the halftime lead to 36-31.  Moose and Rusyn led the offense with eight points apiece.
 
Geneva opened the second half on an 11-2 run to open up a 47-33 lead just three minutes into the second half.  From there Geneva never let Kenyon closer than seven points the rest of the game, as Kenyon had no answer for Geneva's low post advantage.  Geneva stretched its lead to as many as 18 points before closing out the 72-57 win.
 
"This was a great road win," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "We battled the whole night.  I'm proud of everyone.  We have to work on our rebounding some, as we gave up too many second chance opportunities, but that is correctable.  We have a tough opponent on Thursday in Mount Union, so we have a quick turn around."
 
Moose and Rusyn both scored 15 points on a combined 13-18 shooting from the field.  Moose added 12 rebounds for a double-double.  Junior Noah Damazo (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) gave Geneva a spark off the bench, also scoring in double figures with 12 points, as well as collecting six rebounds.  Senior David Oliver (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) contributed 11 rebounds.  Despite shooting just 1-12 from 3-point range, Geneva's inside strength helped the Golden Tornadoes to a 48% shooting percentage from the floor.  Defensively, Geneva held Kenyon to just 31% shooting.
 
Geneva returns home on Thursday night when it hosts Mount Union at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Coaches vs Cancer Tipoff.  Geneva's second game of the weekend is on Saturday against Valley Forge at 1:00 p.m.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 80 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs, and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.