BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The first half of basketball games have not been kind to the Geneva College women's basketball team so far this season, and Wednesday night was no different for the Golden Tornadoes when W&J came to town.  The Presidents stormed out to a 28-point halftime lead, and W&J never looked back in picking up a 93-53 win.  W&J is now 2-0 on the season, 2-0 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Geneva dropped to 2-2, 2-2 in the PAC.

There is no doubt that the women's program is making progress under second-year Head Coach Michael Grinder, but that hasn't translated over to the first halves of basketball games so far, including in Geneva's wins.  Wednesday night brought more of the same, right from the start.

W&J scored the first 13 points of the game in just over three minutes as Geneva missed seven shots and turned the ball over five times.  Freshman Emily Bucheit (Kane, Pa./Kane) finally broke the ice almost five minutes into the game to get Geneva on the board.  The Golden Tornadoes run continued with freshman Cynthia Stewart (Silver Springs, Md./Paint Branch) scoring back-to-back baskets followed by two free throws by Bucheit to cut the deficit to 13-8.  Unfortunately, that was as close as Geneva would get the rest of the way.  W&J scored the next ten points on its way to a 27-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Presidents added to their lead early in the second quarter, scoring the first five points to finish off the 19-3 run spanning the two quarters, pushing their lead to 32-11.  Back-to-back layups from senior Lauren Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) with three minutes remaining before halftime pulled Geneva to within 38-22, but W&J finished the half on a 12-0 run to effectively put the game away.  The Presidents took a 50-22 lead into the break.

The second half became a time for the young Golden Tornadoes to gain further experience against one of the top teams in the PAC, and a senior-laden Presidents team at that.  W&J extended its lead to as much as 34, 67-33, in the third quarter, and in the final quarter, the Presidents never let up before finishing off the 93-53 victory.

"We continue to struggle in the first half, and we dug way too big of a whole to climb out of tonight," said Coach Grinder.  "I know we're a young team, but we have to play without making so many mistakes.  We're really sped up right now, which happens when your guards are so young.  A game like this, though, against one of the top teams in the PAC that has a bunch of seniors in their lineup, will help us learn what we have to do better.  Grove City will be another tough test on Saturday, but despite tonight's result, I believe we're making progress as a program to where we want to be."

Tipton finished with another double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.  Geneva's guards struggled to get her many looks in the post, though, as Tipton took only nine shots from the field, several coming off her own offensive rebounds.  No other Golden Tornado reached double figures, though 11 different players did score for Geneva.  Lauren Gilbert, W&J's senior point guard, led the Presidents with 20 points to go along with 14 assists, with all five W&J starters reaching double figures.  The Presidents finished the game shooting 54% from the floor, while Geneva shot just 29% while turning the ball over 29 times.

The women head to Grove City on Saturday to take on the Wolverines at 1:00 p.m.  The Golden Tornadoes will be back at home next Wednesday when they host Bethany at 7:00 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 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.