Van Zanic
Director of Sports Information
(724) 847-6886
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2009
FRESHMAN ORIENTATION, DYNAMIC DUO PULLS GENEVA OUT OF SLIDE
Beaver Falls, PA - It took some fresh faced youngsters to pull Geneva College′s men′s basketball team out of its four-game slide. The dynamic freshman duo of Dave Phillips and Lambros Svingos put the Golden Tornadoes on their respective backs and led Geneva to an 80-60 victory over Waynesburg University at Metheny Fieldhouse on Saturday night. Geneva put an end to its four-game losing streak and moved to 3-9 while the Yellowjackets fell to 5-8.
Dave Phillips started the freshman party in the first half by knocking down all five three point attempts and taking 17 points into the halftime break. Svingos picked up where Phillips left off by posting nine points in the second half and ended the night with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Phillips finished with a game and season high 25 points. Geneva shot 53% in the first half and opened up a 43-32 lead after 20 minutes of play. For the game, the Golden Tornadoes were 31-62 (50%) from the field, including eight three point field goals. It was another new face to the Geneva line-up in junior transfer Brandon Harvey that posted 14 points and a pair of three′s to help the cause.
As impressive as the offensive numbers, it was the Geneva defense that had head coach Jeff Santarsiero smiling after the game. "We finally took some pride in our defensive effort," said Santarsiero. "It was nice to knock down some perimeter shots, but this game was won on the defensive end of the floor. We kept our opponent almost 20 points under their season average. That is how you win basketball games at this level."
Waynesburg did come into the game averaging close to 80 points a game but were held to 36% shooting from the field and into 23 turnovers. The Yellowjackets got a team high 15 points from Ryan Courneen as the only player to reach double figures.
Geneva will get right back into action on the road on Monday night when it visits cross-town rival Penn State Beaver at 7:30 pm. The Golden Tornadoes will return home on Wednesday to host Thomas More College.
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