Beaver Falls, PA – It was all the people came to see on Wednesday night. Senior forward Renee Rawding entered the game needing seven points to join Geneva′s 1000 point club. It took her nearly 18 minutes to reach the milestone, but when fellow Blackhawk High School teammate Beth DeLuca stole a pass at midcourt and fed the ball to Rawding who laid it in, she became just the 12th female player at Geneva to reach the 1000 point plateau. The game itself was somewhat anti-climactic with the Golden Tornadoes cruising to an 88-49 victory over Penn State Greater Allegheny as Geneva′s women improved to 4-4 on the season with its second consecutive victory.
Rawding, who is in her fifth season with the Golden Tornadoes after taking a medical redshirt a year ago, joins her sister Jen in the 1000 point club. Jen Rawding is the all-time leading scorer for the Geneva′s women′s program with 1830 points. Ironically, Rawding′s coach this year, Renee Freeman Drake, sits ninth on the all-time list with 1153 points in her career. “This is a very special night for Renee,” explained Drake. “This achievement doesn′t come around very often and she has worked extremely hard to get back after foot surgery and it is great to see her get rewarded.”
Penn State hung around Geneva for most of the first half until the Golden Tornadoes pulled away in the final five minutes of the first stanza. Geneva took a 43-19 lead into the locker room and built the lead from there. The Golden Tornadoes out scored Penn State 45-30 in the final 20 minutes to walk away with a 39 point decision.
Three of the four Geneva players finishing in double figures were products of Blackhawk High School. Beth DeLuca (Blackhawk) and Valerie Hamilton (Portersville Christian) each finished with 13 points while Liz DePietro (Blackhawk) added 12 off the bench to go along with Rawding′s ten points.
The Lions got 27 of their 49 points from sophomore Britnee Thompson who was 13-14 from the foul line and 7-13 from the field. Geneva forced 28 turnovers on the night while doing a much better job protecthing the ball itself with only 16 miscues.
The Golden Tornadoes will get back into PAC play on Saturday afternoon when they visit Bethany College in West Virginia. Geneva will return to Metheny Fieldhouse after the Christmas holiday to take on Carlow University on December 30.
Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College′s philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).
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