NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball team made a late second-half comeback from a double-digit deficit to send its game at Westminster on Saturday afternoon to overtime, but the Golden Tornadoes couldn't finish things out and eventually fell, 75-70.  It was the first conference loss of the season for Geneva, which dropped to 4-3 overall, 2-1 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Westminster improved to 5-3 overall, 2-1 in the PAC.

Westminster scored the first five points of the game before junior Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) knocked down a three-pointer to get Geneva on the board.  A moment later, senior Amos Luptak (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) hit a three-pointer to even the score at 8-8, and a three-pointer from Tipton gave Geneva its first lead, 11-10.

The Golden Tornadoes steadily stretched out their lead behind Tipton and Luptak, and a free throw by Tipton gave Geneva its biggest lead of the game, 25-18, with eight minutes remaining.  The rest of the half went very poorly for the Golden Tornadoes, though.

Over the final eight minutes of the first half, the Titans outscored Geneva 21-2, with Westminster getting hot from three-point range while the Golden Tornadoes could not find any success offensively.  Westminster finished the half 7-of-11 from three-point range in taking a 39-27 lead into the break.

Junior Ryan Rachic (Prince Frederick, Md./Calvert) opened the second half with a three-pointer, and a moment later, sophomore Rob Liggett (Beaver, Pa./Lincoln Park) converted a three-point play to pull Geneva within six.  The Titans immediately answered, though, with back-to-back three-pointers.

The Golden Tornadoes continued to battle, and a driving layup from senior Mike Melewski (Boardman, Ohio/Boardman) pulled Geneva within 45-40 with 12:41 remaining.  The Titans managed to keep the Golden Tornadoes at arm's length, though, for much of the half, and Westminster still led 66-56 with 3:36 remaining before Geneva made a final push.

Freshman Trevor Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) started the run with a three-pointer.  A basket by Lyle Tipton and two free throws from Rachic pulled Geneva within three.  Luptak hit one of two free throws with a minute remaining, and after Westminster's Reese Leone missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10 seconds left, Lyle Tipton drove and was fouled and knocked down both free throws with two seconds remaining to send the game to overtime, 66-66.

Geneva carried that momentum into overtime, as Lyle Tipton opened the scoring in the extra period with a layup, giving Geneva its first lead since midway through the first half.  He followed with two free throws to give the Golden Tornadoes a 70-66 lead with three minutes left.  Unfortunately, those would be the last points Geneva scored.  Westminster finished the game with nine straight points, with the Golden Tornadoes missing their final six shots, along with two free throws, to come up just short, 75-70.

Lyle Tipton was huge again, finishing with 31 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.  Unfortunately, his supporting cast struggled.  Luptak was the only other Golden Tornado in double figures with 13 points.  While Tipton finished 11-of-20 from the floor, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, the rest of the team shot just 13-of-48 (27%) from the floor, including 7-of-28 (25%) from three point range.  As a team, Geneva shot just 35%.

The Titans were led by Leone, who finished with 24 points.  Brothers Daniel and Anthony Ritter finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.  The bigger Titans won the battle of the boards, 51-43.  They also shot it well from the perimeter, finishing 11-of-23 (48%) from three-point range.

"This was a typical Geneva versus Westminster basketball game," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "We really put ourselves in a big hole the way we finished out the first half, but I was proud of our effort and the way we battled back to send the game to overtime.  Lyle was obviously tremendous, and Amos was solid, but we just didn't get enough help from the rest of our team today.  It's hard to beat a team like Westminster on the road with only one or two guys producing.  I know we can play a lot better, and we'll try to manage the quick turnaround with our game at CMU in two days."

Geneva travels to Carnegie Mellon on Monday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff, the final game for the men before the Christmas break.

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 has one of the top 100 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. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and IACE (International Association for Christian Education).