BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – Just like the Geneva College women in the first game of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader against Grove City on Thursday evening, the men could not hold onto a halftime lead, allowing the Wolverines to fight back and pick up a victory on Geneva's home floor, 64-56.  Grove City improved to 6-6 overall, 2-3 in the PAC, while Geneva fell to 5-7, 2-2 in the PAC.

The game proved to be a defensive slugfest early on.  Neither team could do much offensively, but Geneva did enough to take a 10-4 lead after a jumper from senior Eric McGee (Tampa, Fl./Seffner Christian) just over seven minutes into the game, prompting Grove City to call a timeout.  Both teams continued to struggle, though, yet after a short jumper from sophomore Mark Burkholder (Maysville, WV/Petersburg) dropped 12 minutes into the half, Geneva took its biggest lead of the game, 14-6.

Grove City put together seven straight points over the next minute to cut the deficit to 14-13, but Geneva responded with its own run to push the lead back to 22-15 after a layup from junior Ethan Moose (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock), and the Golden Tornadoes managed to hold on for a 25-20 lead at the break.  Moose had nine points and six rebounds in the half.

Geneva maintained that lead early in the second half, staying on top by five points, 35-30, after senior Danny Torok (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) hit a 3-pointer.  However, the Golden Tornadoes went ice cold over the next seven minutes, and Grove City scored 14 straight points in taking a 44-35 lead with nine minutes remaining.  Geneva missed eight straight shots and turned the ball over five times during that stretch, which proved to be the pivotal stretch of the game.

From there, Grove City never let Geneva back into the game.  The closest Geneva got was four points after McGee hit a 3-pointer to close to within 49-45 with five minutes remaining.  But the Golden Tornadoes could never put together a run against a tough Wolverine defense, and Grove City made enough free throws to hold on against Geneva's struggling offense, 64-56.

"This was definitely a disappointing loss," Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero said afterwards.  "This was a typical Grove City vs Geneva basketball game.  It was a physical game, coming down to a possession here or there.  We had too many turnovers in the second half and just couldn't generate enough offense, and they hit some big shots when they needed to.  It's always tough to swallow a conference loss at home.  Now we have to clean some things up as we get ready for Westminster on Saturday."

McGee led the offense with 13 points and 5 assists.  Both Moose and junior Nick Rusyn (Salem, Ohio/Salem) finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds.  Geneva shot just 30% for the game, including 5-of-17 from 3-point range.  Geneva won the battle of the boards, 42-39, but couldn't overcome the shooting difference from the floor, as Grove City finished at 42%.  The Wolverines were led by Isaac Williams, who finished with 14 points including 4-of-6 shooting from deep.

Geneva heads to rival Westminster on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff before returning home to take on Chatham next Wednesday at 7:30 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, 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.