BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – There weren't a lot of highlights from the Geneva College men's basketball team's home game against Franciscan on Saturday afternoon, but one noteworthy achievement was senior Trevor Tipton surpassing 1,000 career points in the contest, which Franciscan won 75-66, using hot shooting from the perimeter to pick up the win.  Geneva dropped to 6-9 on the season, 4-6 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).

Franciscan came out red hot from three-point range, while Geneva was ice cold.  The Barons made six of their first seven shots from the perimeter, while the Golden Tornadoes missed their first seven long-range shots.  Franciscan took advantage by racing out to a 24-7 lead nine minutes into the game.

Geneva stayed in the game, though, despite not being able to hit from the outside.  Two free throws from freshman Tommy Coletti with two minutes left cut the deficit to single digits, 33-24, and the two teams eventually went into the halftime break with Franciscan holding a 35-26 advantage. 

The men came out of the break with a burst.  Graduate student Ryan Rachic hit a jumper, and then Tipton knocked down Geneva's first triple of the game.  Two minutes later, a layup from Coletti pulled Geneva with 37-36, the closest the Golden Tornadoes had been since the opening tipoff.

However, Franciscan responded with a quick seven-point run to give the Barons some cushion again.  A bucket from senior Mark Rachic cut the Geneva deficit to 44-40, but the Golden Tornadoes went cold again, while Franciscan continued to hit from the perimeter.  The Barons scored ten straight points to push their lead back out to 54-40 at the halfway point of the second half.

Geneva refused to fold, with Tipton hitting back-to-back three-pointers, the second of which pushed him over 1,000 career points, to pull the men within 60-55 with six minutes left, but the deficit eventually proved to big to overcome as Franciscan held off the Geneva rally to win 75-66.

Ryan Rachic had another big day for the Golden Tornadoes, finishing with 25 points and 10 rebounds.  Coletti added 15 points and Tipton 13 points for the men.  Geneva shot 23-of-54 (42.6%) from the floor but just 3-of-16 (18.8%) from the perimeter.

Franciscan was led by Sawyer Butler, who led four Barons in double figures with 21 points.  Franciscan shot 27-of-59 (45.8%) from the floor while hitting an impressive 10-of-19 (52.6%) from three-point range.

"We've got to find a way to get out of this slide," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "We can't allow a team to get out to a big lead like that and expect to be able to overcome it.  It was an offensive problem in the first half, because we just didn't make shots.  We battled in the second half, but we just gave up too many second-chance points.  I'm happy for Trevor, as that's a significant accomplishment, but we have to figure this out really quickly or this season is going to get away from us." 

Geneva heads back onto the road for its next game, a 7:30 p.m. tipoff at Thiel on Wednesday evening.