BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College women's basketball team said goodbye to its three seniors on Saturday afternoon in the last home game of the season for the Golden Tornadoes, but a hot-shooting Chatham squad pulled away from Geneva in the second half on Senior Day for a 95-75 victory.  Chatham improved to 14-9 overall, 7-8 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Geneva lost its sixth straight to fall to 2-19, 1-13 in the PAC.

Saturday's game represented the final home game for seniors Meghan Hirneisen (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim), Jeana Luciana (Oakmont, Pa./Saint Joseph) and Lydia Roth (Butler, Pa./Homeschool).  Luciana got Geneva on the board just seven seconds into the game with a three-pointer, and the Golden Tornadoes stretched their lead to 7-2 after back-to-back buckets by junior Lauren Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) and Luciana.  Tipton was especially effective in the first quarter, as Chatham struggled to contain her, and another layup by Tipton gave Geneva an 18-15 lead with three minutes remaining in the quarter.  However, Chatham responded with a 10-2 run to take a 25-20 lead before junior Emily Melnek (Poland, Ohio/Poland) hit a three-pointer to pull Geneva to within 25-22 at the first break.

Chatham's Riley D'Angelo proved to a be a problem for the Golden Tornadoes in the second quarter.  The guard got hot from three-point range as the Cougars steadily built their lead into double digits.  Tipton, Melnek and Luciana did their best to keep Geneva in it, but by halftime Chatham had built a 52-41 lead, with the Cougars hitting nine three-pointers, including a 6-of-8 effort by D'Angelo.  Tipton had 16 points at the half for Geneva.

The halftime break did nothing to slow down Chatham, who put the game away in the opening minutes of the half by scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter, the last on another three-pointer by D'Angelo, to push the lead to 63-41.  The Cougars eventually increased their lead to 80-51 near the end of the third quarter after back-to-back three-pointers by D'Angelo, and the Cougars never looked back in defeating the Golden Tornadoes, 95-75.

Tipton finished with her 13^th double-double of the season, contributing 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Melnek added 14 points, including 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range, while Luciana also finished in double figures with 12 points.  Geneva shot 41% from the floor, including a 9-of-23 (39%) effort from three-point range, but it wasn't enough to keep up with Chatham.  The Cougars finished at 51% from the floor, including 15-of-32 (47%) from three-point range.  D'Angelo finished with 33 points to lead Chatham, as she did almost all her damage from deep after finishing 10-of-15 from long range.

"We played pretty well in the first quarter," said Head Coach Michael Grinder.  "We started to go cold towards the end of the second quarter, though, and that carried into the third quarter.  Chatham took advantage of our scoring drought, and we failed to react quickly enough defensively to keep track of their shooters, and they made us pay."

Geneva will finish the regular season next week with two road games, beginning on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. with a trip to first-place Saint Vincent.  The regular season ends next Saturday when the Golden Tornadoes travel to Thiel for a 1:00 p.m. tipoff.


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 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva is included on Kiplinger's Personal Finance's "2019 Best College Values" list and has one of the top undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. 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.