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Geneva College Athletics

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geneva college golden tornadoes
Jimmy1
65
Chatham CHA 6-17, 3-13
78
Winner Geneva GEN 11-12, 7-9
Chatham CHA
6-17, 3-13
65
Final
78
Geneva GEN
11-12, 7-9
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Chatham CHA 29 36 65
Geneva GEN 36 42 78

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Leichliter’s Big Night Leads to Win on Senior Night

Beaver Falls, PA—The Geneva College men's basketball team has just one senior on its roster, but it's a big one in Jimmy Leichliter, and the Golden Tornadoes needed a big night from its senior to pick up a victory on Saturday night in their final home game of the season against Chatham University.  Though Geneva never trailed in the game, it proved to be a grind it out affair, and Leichliter's 23 points were critical in getting the Golden Tornadoes the victory, 78-65, in a final score that doesn't indicate how close the game really was.  Geneva improved to 11-12 overall, 7-9 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Chatham fell to 6-17 overall, 3-13 in the PAC.

The game started well for the Golden Tornadoes, as Leichliter did most of his damage early on, including opening the game with a 3-pointer to give Geneva a lead it would never relinquish.  Leichliter hit two more 3-pointers in the first 8 minutes to help the Golden Tornadoes jump out to an 18-9 advantage.  Chatham hung close, though, cutting the deficit to 22-20 with eight minutes remaining before another Geneva spurt pushed the lead out to 34-24, its biggest of the half.  Geneva could never shake the Cougars, though, and the Golden Tornadoes ended up taking a 36-29 lead into the break.  Leichliter led the way with 17 points in the half.

Chatham opened the second half well and tied the game at 40-40 just five minutes into the final period.  Geneva pushed the lead back out to 47-42 on two free throws from sophomore Noah Damazo, but the Golden Tornadoes couldn't push it further than that until the final minutes.  Chatham closed to just one point, at 57-56, with six minutes remaining, and Cougars were still within three points with three minutes remaining before the Cougars began fouling and allowed Geneva to eventually pull away late by makings its free throws for the 78-65 victory.

"I'm happy for Jimmy getting a win on Senior Night," Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero said afterwards.  "You always want to win for your seniors on Senior Night, and Jimmy's had such a good career and he's such a passionate kid.  We got tested early and we responded at times but other times we struggled.  But we finally finished a game which is something we haven't been doing lately.  We're locked into the playoffs now, which is good, but we've still got two games next week to see where we end up, so we need to finish strong."

Leichliter led the offense with 23 points, but Geneva got contributions from all over the roster as five Golden Tornadoes finished in double figures.  Junior Eric McGee finished with 15 points, sophomore Ethan Moose chipped in with 12 points, and Damazo and sophomore Nick Rusyn each scored 10 points apiece.  Despite only shooting 3-15 from 3-point range, Geneva shot very well from the free throw line, making 30-36 free throws in a foul-plagued second half as the Golden Tornadoes finished the game 37-49 from the free throw line.  Chatham was led by junior Will Sandherr's 12 points.

Geneva heads to Westminster on Wednesday night for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff before finishing its regular season at Waynesburg next Saturday at 3:30 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, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and classroom options, 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. 
 
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