WAYNESBURG, Pa. – Graduate student Ryan Rachic drained a tough, fall-away jumper from the corner with two seconds left to give the Geneva College men's basketball team a dramatic 64-63 victory over Waynesburg on Saturday afternoon.  The jumper capped off a game-ending 12-3 run over the final three minutes to give the men a huge comeback victory, improving their chances of qualifying for the postseason while increasing their overall record to 8-9, 6-6 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).

Geneva got off to a great start in the game.  Rachic opened the scoring with a bucket, while senior Trevor Tipton scored eight early points.  After another bucket from Rachic, Geneva led 15-3 five minutes into the game.

Waynesburg got its offense going, though, as Geneva slowed down.  The Yellow Jackets steadily cut into the Golden Tornado edge, and a Waynesburg bucket with four minutes left in the half evened the score at 28-28.

Junior Nick Million stepped up late, though, coming off the bench to hit back-to-back three-pointers as Geneva's starting guards battled foul trouble.  Million's late burst helped the Golden Tornadoes take a 36-30 lead into the break, with Rachic leading the team with 11 points in the first half.

A layup from Rachic gave Geneva a 40-32 edge early in the second half, but things started to turn at that point towards Waynesburg.  The Yellow Jackets scored 12 straight points to take their first lead of the game.  The Golden Tornadoes battled back to retake the lead on a three-pointer from Tipton, 50-48, midway through the half, but Waynesburg responded. 

The Yellow Jackets answered Tipton's triple with another big run, this one 13-2, over the next seven minutes as Geneva went ice cold from the floor.  Things looked very bleak when Waynesburg hit a free throw to give the Yellow Jackets their biggest lead of the game, 61-52, with three minutes left.

The Golden Tornadoes refused to give in, though.  Graduate student KC Johns hit a basket, Geneva's first bucket in over five minutes, to get the run going.  Tipton knocked down two free throws, and then Million came up huge again, just like he did at the end of the first half.  Million knocked down back-to-back three pointers, the last one with 43 seconds left, pulling Geneva within one point, 63-62.

Geneva came up with the big defensive stop on the other end, and the Golden Tornadoes brought the ball over halfcourt and called a timeout with seven seconds left.  On the ensuing inbounds play, Rachic was fouled with 3.7 seconds left, giving Geneva an inbounds play along the baseline.  Rachic curled around a pick into the corner and received the inbounds pass and hit an off-balanced jumper with his feet on the three-point line as he was falling out of bounds.  Waynesburg's desperation halfcourt shot at the buzzer was errant, capping off the dramatic comeback victory, 64-63.

"What a gutsy win for our guys, and what a shot by Ryan," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "We didn't play our best today.  We got off to a good start, but then we really struggled offensively in the second half and let them get momentum.  Things didn't look good late, but Nick gave us a huge lift off the bench, and we got stops in the last couple minutes to give us a chance.  At the timeout, I just told the guys that we've been here before, and we can do it again.  And then Ryan just made a huge shot.  I'm really happy for our guys who have battled through so much adversity this year, but we've still got a lot of work ahead of us.  But this was a big one."

Rachic led the team with 21 points, which pushed him over 1,500 career points, while Tipton added 16 points.  Million was huge off the bench, posting a career-high 14 points, including 4-of-7 shooting from deep.  As a team Geneva shot just 24-of-63 (38.1%) from the floor, including 8-of-28 (28.6%) from three-point range.  The men committed just four turnovers, though, which helped them stay in the game despite not having their best shooting night.

Antone Baker led three Yellow Jackets in double figures with 19 points.  Waynesburg shot 20-of-47 (42.6%) from the floor, 3-of-12 (25%) from three-point range.

The men now have a big three-game homestand ahead of them, beginning with a matchup against Allegheny on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.