West Palm Beach, FL – The Geneva College men's basketball team escaped the cold temperatures of Western Pennsylvania to bask in the Florida sunshine for a pair of games in West Palm Beach Florida this weekend. Not only did they escape the temperatures, but they narrowly missed escaping Friday night's game against the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) with an unlikely comeback. However, the late second half surge fell short in a 70-68 loss that dropped Geneva's overall record to 4-6 on the season.
 
The Golden Tornadoes dug themselves quite a hole in the first half as they went into the halftime locker room trailing by 17 points at 44-27. USMMA shot nearly 70% from the field in the first 20 minutes. With the teams tied at 19-19 after a three-point field goal by senior Noah Damazo (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) at the 11:08 mark, Geneva then went scoreless for nearly five minutes as USMMA opened up an 11-point lead.
 
"We didn't do much right offensively in the first half," said head coach Jeff Santarsiero. "Give them credit for out working us in the first 20 minutes and making shots."
 
The game flipped in the second half as the Golden Tornadoes quickly began to cut into the 17-point deficit. After USSMMA scored the first three-point bucket of the second half, Geneva scored 25 of the next 28 points to grab a 52-50 lead on an lay-up by senior Ethan Moose (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock). The teams traded baskets down the stretch with Geneva tying the score at 66 apiece on a three-point field goal from junior RJ Bell (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) with 1:44 to play.
 
Trailing by two in the final minute, senior Nick Rusyn (Salem, Ohio/Salem) connected on a lay-up to tie the game one last time, but USMMA answered again with the eventual game winning shot with 14 seconds left. Junior Joel Stutz (Evans City, Pa./Butler County Community) was unable to connect on a three-point attempt in the final seconds and the Golden Tornadoes suffered a heartbreaking loss in the first game of the weekend's tournament.
 
"These are games that we need to find a way to win down the stretch," said Santarsiero. "I am certainly proud of the guys for the way they battled back, but we can't put ourselves in that position and expect to come back all the time. We gave ourselves a chance at the end, but simply couldn't finish it."
 
Moose led Geneva's offensive effort with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. Matt Veynovich (Pompono Beach, Fla./Highlands Academy), who paced Geneva's second half comeback with four three-point field goals, finished the game with 12 points. Stutz added 11 points in the loss. Geneva shot 46% from the field, including 10-28 from beyond the arc.  Geneva struggled defensively in the game, with USMMA shooting 55.8% from the floor, including an even more impressive 9-of-14 (64.3%) from three-point range.
 
The Golden Tornadoes won't have much time to rest as they will be back in action on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. in the consolation match-up against Goucher College.
 
Geneva will return to conference play after the holidays when it hosts Waynesburg on January 4^th.


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.