PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Geneva men's basketball team was tripped up by Lynchburg Friday night on the opening evening of the Chatham Classic, with a poor end of the first half too much for the Golden Tornadoes to overcome.  Geneva lost 74-60 to the Hornets in falling to 2-2 overall on the season.

Geneva came out shooting well, getting production from senior Trey Barker and sophomores Tommy Coletti and Austin Matthews.  After Coletti knocked down his third early three-pointer a little over eight minutes into the game, the Golden Tornadoes led 21-16.

Geneva still held a 28-26 edge with seven minutes to go after a bucket from freshman Stanford Webb, but Coletti and Barker both went to the bench with two fouls, and the offense went ice cold over the remainder of the half.  Lynchburg followed with 18 straight points to take control of the contest before two free throws from junior Ryan Edwards with 33 seconds left in the half finally broke the run.  The damage had been done, though, as the Hornets took a 44-30 lead into the halftime break.  Those final six minutes ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.

Senior Jonathan Bertovich hit two early three-pointers in the second half to pull Geneva within single digits, but the Lynchburg lead hovered around ten points for most of the second half.  The Golden Tornadoes never let the Hornets pull away, but Geneva could never get any closer than eight points in the half.  Lynchburg eventually closed out the win, 74-60.

Bertovich led the team with a season high 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range.  Coletti finished with 13 points, while Barker also reached double figures with 11 points.  Senior Alec Srock finished with nine points and eight rebounds, while Matthews added eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

"Lynchburg is a really good team, and I thought we showed tonight we can play with good teams," said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero.  "However, you can't give up an 18-point run and expect to beat a team like Lynchburg.  We've struggled at times this year with giving up runs, and this one tonight really cost us.  That said, I was proud of our effort and never giving up.  We had a chance to cut it to single digits late, but we couldn't convert and then gave up some second chance points late.  We'll look to turn things around tomorrow against SUNY Potsdam."

As a team, Geneva shot 21-of-58 (36.2%) from the floor and 9-of-29 (31.0%) from three-point range. 

Lynchburg's Jamarcus Brown led three Hornets in double figures.  Lynchburg shot 27-of-70 (38.6%) from the floor but held a 45-36 edge on the boards while knocking down 17-of-18 (94.4%) from the foul line.

Geneva will look to rebound tomorrow when the men wrap up play at Chatham with a 12:00 p.m. matchup with SUNY Potsdam.