LANGHORNE, Pa. -- The Geneva College women's basketball team ran over, through and around Cairn University on Friday night, picking up a convincing 93-54 road victory.  It was the first win of the season for the Golden Tornadoes, and the first victory of Head Coach Michael Grinder's Geneva career.  Geneva evened its record at 1-1, while Cairn fell to 0-3.

Junior Lauren Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian Academy) opened the scoring with a layup, but Cairn responded with five straight points to take its only lead of the game.  Freshman Isabella Roth (Ellwood City, Pa./Ellwood City) tied things up with a three-pointer on Geneva's next possession, and Tipton's layup on on the following possession gave Geneva the lead back, 7-5.  The Golden Tornadoes would never trail again.  Cairn managed to tie the game at 9-9, but the Golden Tornadoes responded with 16 straight points to take a 25-9.  Geneva finished the quarter with a 27-13 lead, with Tipton scoring six points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Tipton and senior Jeana Luciana (Oakmont, Pa./Saint Joseph) opened the second quarter with back-to-back layups as Geneva began the quarter with a 20-3 run, taking a 47-16 lead, its biggest of the half.  The Golden Tornadoes headed to halftime with a 52-26 lead as Geneva's pressure caused all sorts of problems for a Cairn squad with only two available reserves.  Tipton led a balanced Geneva attack with 12 points and 10 rebounds at the halftime break.

With Geneva's big lead entering the second half, the Golden Tornadoes were able to cruise to victory.  Sophomore Paige Repine's (Marion Center, Pa./Marion Center) three-pointer gave Geneva its biggest lead of the third quarter at 69-32, with the Golden Tornadoes finishing the quarter holding a 71-43 lead.  Geneva stretched its lead in the final quarter to as much as 93-51 before it finished off the 93-54 victory.

Tipton finished with 20 points (10-of-17 shooting) while grabbing 15 rebounds, her second double-double in as many games.  Four other Golden Tornadoes reached double figures.  Isabella Roth added 14 points, including four three-pointers.  Luciana and senior Lydia Roth (Butler, Pa./Homeschool) each finished with 12 points, while senior Meghan Hirneisen (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) added 10 points.  Those totals represented career-highs for the latter four.  All ten players in uniform for Geneva played at least 13 minutes, with all ten players scoring at least one basket.  The Golden Tornadoes shot 38-of-92 (41.3%) from the floor, including 13-of-43 (30.2%) from three-point range.  Defensively Geneva forced 25 turnovers while only turning the ball over 13 times itself.

"We were able to establish the pace pretty early to help set the tone right from the beginning," said Coach Grinder.  "After sitting on the bus for five hours today on the trip here, it was important to get off to a good start.  Lauren was really good early down low, and that helped to open some things up on the perimeter so we could play a little more inside-out as the game went along.  Our pressure was really effective today, and we took better care of the ball.  It's a good first win, and we'll try to build from here."

Geneva will play again tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. on Cairn's home floor when it takes on Penn State Lehigh Valley on the second day of the Cairn Tournament.


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 115 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 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.