BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball got back into the win column on Saturday afternoon when it held off a physical Franciscan squad in the closing moments of a low-scoring affair to pick up a 61-59 victory.  Geneva improved to 3-4, while Franciscan fell to 1-4.

Saturday afternoon's matchup was a preview of things to come, with Franciscan preparing to join the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) next season.  For the Barons, this was their fourth out of five games against PAC opponents, having lost to Washington & Jefferson and Westminster while beating Grove City.

Franciscan opened up an early lead six minutes into the game, 11-7.  Geneva responded with eight straight points to take its first lead of the game, 15-11, with six of those points coming on back-to-back three-point plays by seniors Ethan Moose (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) and Noah Damazo (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk).  The Golden Tornadoes later took their biggest lead of the game, 20-15, on a three-pointer from junior Joel Stutz (Evans City, Pa./Butler Community College).  However, Franciscan closed out the final five minutes of the half on a 14-7 run to take a 29-27 lead into the halftime break.

The Barons carried that momentum into the second half, with Franciscan opening with an 11-4 run to take its biggest lead of the game, 40-31.  The Barons still led, 44-35, with 14:28 remaining, when Geneva went on its own run to erase the Franciscan lead.  The Golden Tornadoes responded with a 12-2 stretch to regain the lead, 47-46, with 9:35 remaining, as junior RJ Bell (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) scored the final five points of the run on a three-pointer and a jumper.  The game would stay tight from there.

Over the final nine minutes, neither team would lead by more than four points, and that only briefly, with most of the remainder of the game played with either the game tied or one team leading by two.  Franciscan held a slim 57-55 lead after Matt Trent gave the Barons a lead, but Geneva answered with six straight points on a layup from junior AJ Stroop (Hillsboro, Ohio/Lynchburg-Clay) and two baskets from Moose, giving the Golden Tornadoes a brief 61-57 lead with 1:02 remaining.  Franciscan quickly scored to cut the lead to two points, and after a defensive stop by the Barons, they got the ball back with 15 seconds left.  Geneva played tight enough defense on the final possession of the game to force a three-pointer from 30 feet by Franciscan's Joe Schriner, which bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded to give the Golden Tornadoes a 61-59 victory.

Moose led a balanced offensive attack for Geneva with 17 points.  Damazo and Stutz each added nine points, with Stutz pulling down a career-high nine rebounds, while Bell finished with eight points.  The stats reflected how even the game was.  Geneva shot 40.3%, while Franciscan finished at 41.3%.  Franciscan outrebounded Geneva 38-36.  Trent scored a game-high 24 points while grabbing 13 rebounds to lead Franciscan.

"I'm really proud of the way our guys battled all game, especially down the stretch," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "That first half was probably the worst half of basketball we've played all year, but that last ten minutes of the game was some of the best we've played all season.  Ethan was key for us as always, and RJ kept us in the game in that second half.  Noah and AJ gave us good contributions in that second half as well.  We defended really well down the stretch, especially that last possession, but that final shot looked like it was going in from my perspective.  Fortunately it didn't, and now we're excited to begin PAC play next week against Bethany."

Geneva will open PAC play on Wednesday when it hosts Bethany at 7:30 p.m.  Geneva follows that up with a road trip to Washington & Jefferson on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. as it closes out its first semester of action.


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.