BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – Geneva College men's basketball junior Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) came into Wednesday night's game against Saint Vincent needing just two points to hit 1,000 career points, and the forward took care of that milestone on the opening possession of the game. The Golden Tornadoes then cruised the rest of the way to a big win over the Bearcats, 74-41, in the final regular season home game of the season. The men improved to 13-9 overall, 11-5 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Saint Vincent dropped to 3-20, 2-15 in the PAC.
Tipton came into Wednesday's game leading the PAC in scoring at 25.1 points per game, third most in the entire NCAA Division III. So, there wasn't any doubt the junior would accomplish the milestone against the Bearcats; the only question was how quickly. Tipton answered that question immediately, receiving a bounce pass along the baseline in the opening seconds of the game and laying it in. In doing so he became the 40th member of the 1,000-point club in Geneva men's basketball history, and just the 12th player to accomplish that milestone in his junior season, which is made even more impressive considering Geneva played just 11 games last season due to the COVID-shortened season.
Saint Vincent tied the game with a bucket, but a three-pointer from senior Matt Veynovich (Pompano Beach, Fla./Highlands Academy) on Geneva's next possession gave the Golden Tornadoes the lead for good.
Back-to-back jumpers from junior Ryan Rachic (Prince Frederick, Md./Calvert) gave Geneva its first double-digit lead, 16-6, just nine minutes into the game. The Golden Tornadoes kept their foot on the gas, with a layup from junior Isaac Massie (Cross Lanes, W.Va./Homeschool) giving Geneva a 29-12 lead with 4:24 remaining in the half.
The Golden Tornadoes kept their offense going, while completely shutting down the Saint Vincent offense. Veynovich followed with a three-pointer, followed by a three-pointer from Rachic, and then Veynovich closed out the half with a closely guarded three-pointer at the halftime buzzer with two Bearcats right in his face. That gave the Golden Tornadoes a 40-16 lead at the break, with Geneva finishing the final six minutes of the half on a 16-4 run. Rachic had 11 points to lead the offense.
There wasn't much drama in the second half. Veynovich hit another early three-pointer, and Tipton continued to put up points and grab rebounds. The most exciting part of the second half came when Tipton stole a pass at midcourt and sprinted in for a one-handed dunk seven minutes into the half, and on the following Bearcat possession Tipton rebounded a Saint Vincent miss and passed up ahead to a sprinting Rob Liggett (Beaver, Pa./Lincoln Park), and the sophomore threw down another one-handed flush, igniting the crowd with the back-to-back dunks.
The last four minutes gave Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero the opportunity to empty his bench, getting minutes for several players as Geneva easily closed out the 74-41 victory.
Tipton was the highlight of the night, finishing with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Massie added 13 points, along with a team-high six assists, Veynovich scored 12 points, on four three-pointers, and Rachic finished with 11 points. Geneva shot 42.6% from the floor, including 10-of-27 (37%) from three-point range. The Golden Tornadoes also outrebounded Saint Vincent 42-35
Saint Vincent finished the game shooting 33.3% from the floor, including 3-of-14 (21.4%) from three-point range. Nelson Etuk and Osyon Jones each scored 11 points to lead the Bearcats.
"This was another good team win for us tonight," said Santarsiero. "Obviously tonight was a big milestone for Lyle. What a tremendous season and career he is putting together. He'll go down as one of the all-time greats at Geneva. But we didn't let that distract us and we did what we needed to do in putting Saint Vincent away early and not letting them hang around. Things get much tougher from here on out. We travel to a good Waynesburg team on Saturday to finish out the regular season and then need to be playing our best basketball in preparation for the playoffs next week."
The win tonight guarantees Geneva a home game in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, beginning Tuesday night. The Golden Tornadoes finish the regular season at Waynesburg on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. matchup. There's a strong chance Geneva will face Waynesburg inside Metheny Fieldhouse in that quarterfinal matchup whether the Golden Tornadoes win or lose on Saturday afternoon.
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).
