BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball team continued its impressive start to the season on Wednesday night inside Metheny Fieldhouse, opening Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play with a convincing 82-62 win over a Thiel College squad that was predicted to finish ahead of the Golden Tornadoes in the PAC preseason poll. Geneva improved to 3-0 with the win, 1-0 in PAC play.
Senior Ryan Rachic opened the scoring with a bucket, and the team traded baskets early on, with junior Payton Triplett leading the way offensively in the opening minutes. Geneva created a little space over the next two minutes, though. The score was tied at 14-14 when junior Mihali Sfanos knocked down a three-pointer, followed by a layup from junior Mark Rachic. That gave the men a five-point edge, the first time either team led by more than two points. In fact, the Golden Tornadoes would never trail again.
A Tomcat three-pointer a couple minutes later did cut the Geneva lead down to one, 22-21, but Triplett responded with back-to-back buckets, giving him ten early points. Thiel answered with a basket, but a jumper from junior Trevor Tipton, a layup from sophomore Jonathan Bertovich and a jumper from graduate student Isaac Massie pushed the Geneva advantage out to 32-23. A moment later, another three-pointer from Sfanos gave the Golden Tornadoes their first double-digit lead of the game, 35-24, with 4:20 left before half. A three-point play from Mark Rachic sent the men into the break leading 45-33, their biggest advantage of the game to that point.
Thiel opened the second half with a quick spurt, scoring three straight baskets to cut the Geneva lead in half, but the Golden Tornadoes quickly regained control of the game. Ryan Rachic knocked down two free throws to get the Geneva offense going. Triplett followed with a jumper, and the Golden Tornado lead would never dip below double digits the remainder of the game. Rachic scored on a layup and Bertovich drained a long range shot to finish off the nine-point run, giving Geneva its biggest lead of the game to that point, 54-39, less than five minutes into the half.
Over the next six minutes, the Geneva lead fluctuated between 12 and 17 points. The Tomcats did eventually manage to trim their deficit down to ten points twice, the last time with eight minutes remaining, but the Golden Tornadoes put the game away from there. Two free throws from Tipton, followed by jumpers from Triplett, Tipton and Massie, and finished off by a layup from Tipton, extended the Geneva advantage to 76-56 with four minutes left. The men comfortably finished off the win from there, 82-62.
Triplett finished with a career-high 18 points, on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor, to lead a very balanced offensive attack. He also added five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist, without a turnover. Bertovich scored 14 points, Tipton and Mark Rachic 10 points apiece, and Ryan Rachic nine points. Tipton led the efforts on the boards with nine rebounds, including seven offensive boards. As a team Geneva shot 33-of-65 (51%) from the floor, which helped offset a bit of an off night from long range, finishing 6-of-21 (29%) from deep. The men also won the battle of the boards against the physical and athletic Tomcats, 45-36.
The Geneva defense was also effective in holding Thiel to just 25-of-70 (36%) shooting from the floor, including 5-of-18 (28%) from deep.
"This was another really good team win," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero. "We're playing hard and getting contributions from a lot of different guys right now, which can make us hard to guard. I thought we also really battled defensively against a very athletic Thiel team and took them out of a lot of the things they like to do. It felt like we played with a little bit of a chip on our shoulders tonight, and this was a good way to start off PAC play. Now we head up to Grove City to face a team that has also gotten off to a good start this year, so that will be a tough test for us."
Grove City, in fact, has started the season with four straight wins, including a 72-68 win over Allegheny on Wednesday night. The tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at Grove City.
Through purposeful learning in a community reflecting the full spectrum of God's kingdom, a Geneva College experience inspires students to discover a faith-life calling in service to God and neighbor. Offering 195+ traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality and affordability. 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 the International Association for Christian Education (IACE).
