BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss to a short-handed Waynesburg squad on Tuesday night inside Metheny Fieldhouse in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Quarterfinals, 60-59, in a game that came down to the final second. The loss drops Geneva's record to 14-10, with the men eligible now to compete in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) postseason.
Geneva, who came in as the #4 seed in the PAC playoffs, took on a Yellow Jacket squad that was seeded fifth and who the Golden Tornadoes had defeated on the road by double digits just three days earlier. In addition, Waynesburg senior Matt Popeck, the second leading scorer in the conference, suffered an ankle injury in that game that kept him out of tonight's contest.
The Golden Tornadoes looked ready to blow the short-handed Yellow Jackets out early on. Geneva used back-to-back three-pointers from freshman Trevor Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) and senior Matt Veynovich (Pompano Beach, Fla./Highlands Academy), followed by a jumper from junior Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Phil-Mont Christian) to take a 19-9 lead ten minutes into the game.
The Golden Tornado offense went cold, though, with Geneva unable to knock down its outside shots, and Waynesburg took advantage. The Yellow Jackets scored the next seven points as part of a 20-6 run over an eight-minute stretch, taking a 29-25 lead, before a three-pointer from Trevor Tipton pulled Geneva within 29-28 heading into the break.
The Geneva offense continued to struggle to find a rhythm, with Waynesburg content to slow down the pace and shorten the game. The Golden Tornadoes used a 7-2 run early in the second half, on back-to-back jumpers from junior Ryan Rachic (Prince Frederick, Md./Calvert) and a three-pointer from Veynovich to take a 37-33 lead, but the Yellow Jackets refused to go away.
Waynesburg scored eight straight points midway through the second half to regain the lead, 49-44, with 7:23 remaining. Another three-pointer from Trevor Tipton pulled Geneva even at 51-51, but Waynesburg's Nijon Kirkman, who was a problem all night for the Golden Tornadoes, answered with a three-pointer.
The Yellow Jackets pushed their lead back to five points, 58-53, with 1:40 remaining, but Geneva had a response again. Lyle Tipton scored six straight points, the last coming on two free throws with 13 seconds remaining to give Geneva the lead back, 59-58.
Waynesburg came back down the floor, and with Geneva having a foul to give, Rachic wrapped his arms around Kirkman as Kirkman was backing down Rachic with four seconds left. Yet despite Kirkman dribbling the ball with his back to the basket, the referee deemed he was in the act of shooting, and Kirkman made both free throws with 3.7 seconds remaining to give Waynesburg the lead back.
After a Geneva timeout, the Golden Tornadoes inbounded the ball to senior Amos Luptak (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley), who rushed up the floor, and received contact as he put up a shot. There was some discussion by the referees as to whether the contact occurred after the buzzer, but Luptak was ultimately awarded two free throws as the referees put 0.4 seconds back on the clock. Unfortunately, both free throws rimmed out, and Geneva suffered a heart-breaking 60-59 loss.
Lyle Tipton led the offense with 22 points, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Rachic was the only other Golden Tornado in double figures, finishing with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Geneva shot 41.5% from the floor, but just 6-of-26 (23.1%) from the three-point range.
Waynesburg controlled the boards, outrebounding Geneva 45-27, including 17 offensive rebounds. The Yellow Jackets hit 40.6% of their shots, but just 1-of-11 (9.1%) from three-point range. Kirkman led all scorers with 28 points, while he also grabbed 17 rebounds.
"We just didn't play the way we've been playing all year," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero. "We let them settle in and dictate the pace of the game, and we settled for too many jump shots and tried to go one-on-one too often. So give them credit for having a good gameplan and executing it better than we did. You want your seniors to have the ball in their hands with the game on the line, and that's what we got with Amos, and unfortunately the shots didn't go in. That just basketball sometimes."
Despite the loss, Geneva still has a shot to see its season continue in the upcoming NCCAA Regionals, with the date and opponent yet to be determined.
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).
