BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball team got big contributions from all three of its senior starters on Saturday afternoon, and the trio helped lead the Golden Tornadoes to an 85-79 victory over La Roche on the second day of the Coaches vs Cancer Tipoff.  Geneva evened its record at 2-2, while La Roche fell to 0-4.

La Roche came into this season with high expectations coming off a 23-4 season last year, but the Redhawks had only eight players in uniform on Saturday because of several early-season injuries.  Despite that, La Roche came out hot early, hitting back-to-back three-pointers in the first two minutes to take a 6-2 lead.  Geneva took its first lead of the game after seniors Noah Damazo (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) and Ethan Moose (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) scored baskets to go ahead 9-8.  It would prove to be the only lead change of the game. 

Geneva scored eight straight points, the final on a layup from Damazo, a couple minutes later to push its lead to 25-16.  After a bucket from La Roche, the Golden Tornadoes scored six more points, the last two on a dunk by senior Nick Rusyn (Salem, Ohio/Salem), giving Geneva its biggest lead of the half, 31-18, with 8:04 remaining.   La Roche answered with six straight points of its own, cutting the lead to 31-24, but the Golden Tornadoes finished the half well, taking a 41-30 lead into the locker room, the last bucket coming off another dunk from Rusyn.  Damazo had ten points at the break, while Moose had nine.

Geneva took its biggest lead of the game, 47-33, on another bucket from Moose with 16:49 remaining.  However, La Roche responded to its biggest deficit of the day by going on an 11-2 run over the next two minutes, cutting Geneva's lead to 49-44.
Junior RJ Bell (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) proved huge off the bench for the Golden Tornadoes in the second half, though, and he hit back-to-back three-pointers to boost Geneva's lead back to 55-44 with 12:08 remaining.  After La Roche cut back into Geneva's lead, another three-pointer from Bell pushed Geneva's lead back to 63-53 with 8:12 remaining, and after Moose scored with 6:20 remaining, the Golden Tornadoes led 70-58 and looked to be in control.

La Roche had one final push in it, though.  Seven straight points cut Geneva's lead to 70-65 with 4:14 remaining, and the Redhawks continued to chip away at the lead, getting to as close as 79-77 with 33 seconds remaining, but Geneva made its free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory, 85-79.  In fact, the Golden Tornadoes made their last eight free throws of the game.

Moose finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds, his fourth straight double-double of the season.  He's currently averaging 24.3 points, 13.5 rebounds and 5 assists while shooting 54% from the floor.  Damazo also added his own double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.  Rusyn finished with 16 points, while Bell added 15 points off the bench on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range.  Geneva also held a 49-35 advantage on the boards.  Kennedy Smith led La Roche with 32 points, including 7-of-9 shooting from three-point range.  Both Moose and Smith were named to the All-Tournament team after the game.

"Our guys really grinded it out today," said a happy Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "Our guys stepped up and made the plays we needed to down the stretch to win, especially from the free throw line.  Ethan is really playing at high level right now, and everyone else is feeding off him.  We're getting contributions off the bench from a number of people right now, and that's going to help us down the road.  Our non-conference schedule is very challenging, and we have three tough games next week, including a trip to Division I Robert Morris, and games like this will prepare us for the conference season."

Geneva has a busy week coming up.  The Golden Tornadoes play at Allegheny on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m., and the following night Geneva heads to Robert Morris for another 7:00 p.m. tipoff.  The Golden Tornadoes close the week with a home game against Franciscan on Saturday at 2:00 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 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.