BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's basketball team has squared off against rival Westminster 233 times in their storied history, and few have likely been more exciting than Saturday's affair inside Metheny Fieldhouse that saw senior Mark Rachic lead the team to a thrilling 75-72 overtime victory over the Titans.  Rachic finished with a career-high 27 points as the Golden Tornadoes won their fourth straight to improve to 6-6 on the season, 4-3 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), in their first game back after Christmas break.

Junior Jonathan Bertovich opened the scoring with a three-pointer, and Geneva used its perimeter shooting in the first half to drive its offense.  Freshman Tommy Coletti and Rachic followed with three-pointers, but Westminster stayed close, led by a career day from Jaxon Hendershott.  Five minutes into the game, the score was tied 9-9.

Graduate student KC Johns got into the mix with a triple, and then Bertovich knocked down another three-pointer to give Geneva a 15-9 edge.  Junior Alec Srock's layup a minute later was the first made basket for the Golden Tornadoes that wasn't a three-pointer.

Midway through the half, senior Trevor Tipton got into the score column for the first time this season with a three-pointer.  Saturday's game was his first of the season after missing the first semester due to an injury, and his return was a welcome site for the Golden Tornadoes after earning First Team All-PAC honors last year as one of the top perimeters shooters in the nation. 

Geneva used a quick burst with eight minutes remaining to take its biggest lead of the first half.  Rachic hit a layup, his brother, graduate student Ryan Rachic, knocked down a three-pointer, and then Mark Rachic followed with another deep shot to extend the Golden Tornado lead to 30-18 with six minutes remaining until halftime.

However, behind Hendershott's perimeter shooting, the Titans closed to within 35-28 at the halftime break.

Geneva continued its hot shooting from outside early in the second half.  Johns and Ryan Rachic hit early three-pointers, and then Mark Rachic again hit from the outside to extend the Golden Tornado lead back to 12 points, 46-34, three minutes into the half.

However, it was Hendershott that brought the Titans back into the game.  Hendershott scored Westminster's next 11 points, including three more three-pointers, to pull the Titans within 50-45, and three minutes later, at the midway point of the second half, a jumper from Mick Hergenrother cut the Geneva lead down to 54-53.

Tipton answered with a jumper, and then Ryan Rachic and Tipton hit buckets as a part of a quick six-point run to push the Geneva lead back to 60-53 with just over seven minutes remaining.  However, the Golden Tornadoes' offense went silent for the rest of regulation.  In fact, Geneva didn't score a point for seven minutes, allowing Westminster to continue its comeback.

Hendershott hit another three-pointer to answer the Geneva spurt, and five minutes later, another triple from Hendershott with 1:41 remaining gave the Titans their first lead of the game, 62-60.  The Golden Tornadoes had a couple good looks over the final two minutes, but things looked bleak when Bertovich's long range shot with 15 seconds remaining missed, forcing Geneva to foul Hergenrother with 12 seconds left.

Fortunately for the Golden Tornadoes, Hergenrother missed the front end of his ensuing one-and-one and Geneva came down and called a timeout just past the midcourt line with five seconds remaining.  Out of the timeout, Geneva threw the ball into Ryan Rachic who drove to the hoop and was fouled with 1.8 seconds remaining.  Rachic stepped to the line and drained both free throws to send the game to overtime, which were Geneva's first points since Tipton's jumper at the 7:01 mark.

The overtime period was a back-and-forth affair.  Hendershott opened with a layup, with Ryan Rachic answering with a bucket.  Hendershott scored again on Westminster's next possession, but a three-pointer from Tipton gave Geneva the lead back, 67-66.  Westminster's Drew Weir answered Tipton's triple with a three-pointer, giving the Titans the lead, but a rebound and a stick back from Mark Rachic knotted the score at 69-69.

Hergenrother's miss on a three-pointer on Westminster's next possession was the first empty possession for either team in overtime, and Mark Rachic's fifth three-pointer of the game on Geneva's next possession gave the Golden Tornadoes a lead that they never relinquished.  Another bucket from Rachic and a late free throw from Tipton helped close out the thrilling victory, 75-72.

Mark Rachic led the team with those career-high 27 points, including a 5-of-9 effort from long range.  Ryan Rachic finished with another double-double, 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Tipton scored 11 points in his return from injury.  Geneva shot 27-of-68 (39.7%) from the floor and 14-of-37 (37.8%) from three-point range.  The Golden Tornadoes held a big edge on the boards, 46-34.

Hendershott, who came into the game averaging 12 points per game, finished with a career high 30 points, topping his prior career best effort of 20 points earlier this year against Saint Vincent, including a 7-of-9 effort from three-point range.  Westminster shot 29-of-63 (46%) from the floor, including 9-of-21 (42.9%) from deep.

"This was a typical rivalry game between these two schools," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "Give credit to Westminster for the way they played and shot the ball today.  We played well for the first part of the game but really struggled towards the end, but we got stops when we needed to late.  Mark had a tremendous game.  He led the way in the first half and willed us to victory in the overtime.  Credit Ryan as well with those two pressure free throws at the end of regulation to get us to overtime.  It was obviously really good to have Trevor back on the floor as well, even as he was shaking off some rust.  We're going to enjoy this one and then get ready for some tough games next week."

Geneva has two tough road games ahead next week.  The men play at Grove City on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. before finishing the week at Chatham on Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. tipoff.