BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – Students and parents of Geneva College's men's basketball seniors arrived at Metheny Fieldhouse on Saturday night ready to celebrate Geneva's seniors on their Senior Night against Franciscan.  It didn't take long for fans to find something to celebrate in the game as well.  In fact, fans probably had to do a double-check to make sure they were watching an actual basketball game and not an NBA Jam video game.  Geneva put on an offensive display rarely seen in Metheny Fieldhouse.  The Golden Tornadoes did just about whatever they wanted offensively, scoring 73 first half points on their way to a 129-102 victory.  In the process Geneva made 20 three-pointers, breaking the school record.  Geneva finishes its regular season with a 7-2 record, 7-2 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).  Franciscan finished its regular season with a 2-7 record.

Prior to the game, Geneva recognized its five seniors.  Seniors RJ Bell (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan), Jake Ford (New Middletown, Ohio/Springfield Local), AJ Stroop (Hillsboro, Ohio/Lynchburg-Clay) and Joel Stutz (Evans City, Pa./Butler Community College), along with student-assistant Nate Szkarlatiuk, who played two seasons on the team before switching over to the bench, all finished up their last regular season home game on Saturday night.

Franciscan's style played right into Geneva's hands.  The Barons wanted to play an up-tempo style, pressing and creating a fast and open game.  Suffice it to say, the Golden Tornadoes welcomed this challenge.

The Barons actually scored the first five points of the game, and they maintained that lead for the first four minutes, leading 12-7.  That's when the Geneva offense kicked it into overdrive.  The Golden Tornadoes slashed through the Franciscan defense like swiss cheese, getting wide open layups and three-pointers all half long.  Over the final 14 minutes of the first half, Geneva finished on a 62-23 run. 

Junior Matt Veynovich (Pompono Beach Fla.) got things started with three straight three-pointers, and the Golden Tornadoes never looked back.  By the time the halftime horn sounded, Geneva led 73-37.   Veynovich finished the half 5-of-8 from three-point range, while Bell hit 4-of-6 shots from deep.  As a team, the Golden Tornadoes made 29-of-45 (64%) from the field, including 11-of-22 from three-point range.  Junior Amos Luptak (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) sliced through the Franciscan defense easily, finishing the half with 10 points and seven assists, while Stutz also finished the half in double-digits with 12 points.

Franciscan opened the second half continuing to try to press Geneva and speed up the Golden Tornadoes, and the results proved no better for the Barons in the second half.  A layup by Luptak with just under ten minutes remaining got Geneva to the century mark, and the Golden Tornadoes just kept scoring while continuing to get wide-open layups and three-point shots.

A three-pointer by Stroop, the first of his career, with six minutes to go was Geneva's 20^th three-pointer of the game, breaking the school-record of 19 set in 2000.  When Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero mercifully put in his third and fourth string with five minutes to go, Geneva led 127-81.  The Barons finished the game on a 21-2 run, playing mostly their starters against Geneva's third and fourth string, which made the score a little closer at the end, 129-102.  That total is the fourth-highest amount of points scored in a game in school history.

Six players scored in double-figures, with the seniors having a particularly strong day.  Stutz finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Bell scored a career-high 19 points, including a 5-of-8 effort from three-point range, while Ford also hit a career-high with 12 points.  Stroop, Geneva's last senior, narrowly missed double digits, finishing with nine points.  Veynovich and sophomore Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) also had big games, each finishing with 21 points, with all of Veynovich's points coming due to a 7-for-11 effort from long range.  Tipton, meanwhile, finished 4-of-4 from deep.  Amos Luptak was the sixth Geneva player in double figures, finishing with 14 points and a career-high 13 assists.

As a team, Geneva shot 56% from the floor, including a 20-of-42 effort from three-point range.  Franciscan's Tristan McDannell had a game-high 30 points to lead Franciscan, though a number of those points came in the game's closing minutes.

"I'm so happy for our seniors," said Santarsiero.  "Every one of them contributed big-time in this effort, and they've all worked so hard during their time here.  They're forever part of Geneva history, which is a special place to play.  This team just has such a knack for feeding off each other.  When one guy makes a shot, everyone just follows suit.  When we get it going like we did tonight, we're a hard team to slow down.

"We've now got a longer break than I would prefer before playoffs start.  We'd love to add an additional game at some point this week, but that may be a challenge to do on such short notice.  If not, we'll have to find a way to keep these guys in rhythm and keep this momentum going."

With the victory, Geneva locked up the second seed in the PAC tournament.  The Golden Tornadoes will play the highest seed remaining from the opening play-in day of the PAC tournament on Tuesday, March 16, in the PAC Quarterfinals.  The second-place finish is Geneva's highest finish since joining the PAC in 2011, and it's the first time the Golden Tornadoes have finished above .500 in the conference.


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.