Rochester, NY – Geneva′s men′s basketball team was forced to make a quick turnaround after dropping a hard fought decision on Friday night. On Saturday, the Golden Tornadoes saw a seven-point second half lead disappear in a 69-66 loss to Roberts Wesleyan. The loss was Geneva′s second in as many days and dropped its overall record to 13-14, including a 2-6 record in the AMC North.
Geneva had an opportunity to move into sole possession of third place in the AMC North at the start of the weekend. After a pair of losses, the Golden Tornadoes have now fallen to fifth place just one game ahead of Houghton for the final spot in the American Mideast Conference tournament.
Leading by as many as seven points in the second half, Geneva saw Roberts Wesleyan rally late and take a three-point lead with just over a minute to play in the game. Greg McDivitt cut the lead to one with 27 seconds to play and the Golden Tornadoes had a chance to take the lead after forcing a Raiders′ turnover. Geneva was unable to get off a shot after a turnover of its own and a pair of foul shots by leading scorer Brandon Jones, who finished with 19 points, put the game away for Roberts Wesleyan.
Geneva got double figure performances from four players led by Jermaine Ferguson′s 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ferguson came up with his second double-double in as many days. Mike Ross chipped in with 13 points off the bench, while Kyle McDermott scored 11 points and Greg McDivitt added ten in the loss.
“We really needed to come out of this weekend with at least one victory,” said head coach Jeff Santarsiero. “We put ourselves in a good position in the second half and just couldn′t finish the deal. It is very disappointing to give this one away and I felt like we had our chances, but just didn′t take advantage of those opportunities.”
“We have a big week ahead of us and we need to finish the regular season strong and maybe give us some momentum heading into the post-season, but nothing is guaranteed and we still have some work to do.”
Santarsiero′s team will travel to Notre Dame on Wednesday before celebrating senior night next Saturday in the season finale against Daemen College.
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