BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – It wasn't always pretty at times for the Geneva College men's basketball team in its game against Franciscan on Saturday afternoon inside Metheny Fieldhouse, but the Golden Tornadoes found a way to pull out a victory late, 81-71.  The victory improves their record to 6-1 overall, their best start in 25 years, along with 4-1 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).  Franciscan dropped to 1-5, 0-4 in the PAC.

Franciscan came into the game struggling, but the Barons' pressing style never allowed Geneva to get into a rhythm offensively in the first half.  The teams traded baskets for the first five minutes before three-pointers from junior Payton Triplett and freshman Trey Barker gave the Golden Tornadoes a 16-12 lead, the first two-possession lead for either team.

Franciscan answered right back, though, with five points to regain the lead.  Geneva looked like it might be ready to take control when freshman Jonathan Bertovich and senior Lyle Tipton hit three-pointers, along with a layup from Bertovich and a free throw from junior Ryan Rachic, to give the Golden Tornadoes their biggest lead of the half, 27-21.  However, the Barons responded with seven straight points, and fittingly the game went into the halftime break tied at 33-33.  Bertovich led the team with 11 points in the half, though Geneva shot just 36% from the floor and committed 11 turnovers, allowing the Barons to hang close.

The second half followed a similar script for the first 15 minutes.  A three-point play from Tipton gave the Golden Tornadoes a brief 45-41 lead three minutes into the half, and a layup from Bertovich and two buckets from Tipton pushed the lead to 53-46 two minutes later.  Franciscan managed fight its way back ito the game, though, just like in the first half, with Geneva struggling at times with turnovers. 

A three-pointer from Franciscan's Colton Hage with eight minutes remaining gave the Barons a 60-59 lead, their first lead in almost 10 minutes.  Franciscan extended its lead to 65-61 with six minutes remaining before the Golden Tornadoes closed well.

Back-to-back short jumpers from Rachic pulled Geneva level, and a layup and a free throw from Tipton made it seven straight points for the Golden Tornadoes, giving Geneva a lead it would ultimately not relinquish.  Senior Isaac Massie scored on a driving layup, his lone basket of the game, to give the Golden Tornadoes a 73-67 edge with two minutes left, and then sophomore Mark Rachic put the game away with a big three-pointer as the shot clock wound down with just over a minute remaining.  Geneva closed out the game at the free throw line to win 81-71.

Tipton again had a big day, scoring 29 points and grabbing a season-high 15 rebounds.  Bertovich scored a career-best 16 points, while Mark and Ryan Rachic each added 11 points.  Massie, a week after scoring a career-high 30 points at Pitt-Greensburg, grabbed a career-best 11 rebounds to go with six points and four assists.

Geneva shot 59% (17-of-29) in the second half to improve to 47% (29-of-62) for the game.  The Golden Tornadoes hit 8-of-22 (36%) from long range but did commit a season-worst 22 turnovers.  Geneva made up for that with a huge 49 to 25 rebounding advantage, including 17 offensive rebounds leading to 24 second-chance points.

Franciscan shot 27-of-61 (44%) from the floor, 6-of-18 (33%) from three-point range.  The Barons were led by Travis Lien, who finished with 21 points.

"Well, we found a way to win late, but we didn't make it easy on ourselves," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "Give credit to Franciscan for getting us a little out of rhythm offensively with their pressure, and we didn't move the ball enough offensively and did too much dribbling.  That was one of our poorer first halves this season, but we dug in during the second half and came up with key plays late.  Lyle played well in the second half, and Mark hit some big buckets for us late.  Isaac was his normal, steady self, while Ryan was good as well.  We've got a number of things to correct, though, before we face a really good Carnegie Mellon squad who beat us pretty soundly last year."

The men will wrap up the home portion of their schedule this semester when they host Carnegie Mellon on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.  Geneva then plays at Waynesburg on Saturday, its last game before finals week.  The men will travel to Texas for a two-day holiday tournament on December 20 and 21 at Trinity University, before resuming play in January.

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).