Beaver Falls, PA - Washington & Jefferson has qualified for the NCAA Division III play-offs in each of the last two years. Coming off a 24 win season a year ago, the President′s paid a visit to Geneva College and Metheny Fieldhouse on Wednesday to open play within the Presidents′ Athletic Conference. Rallying back from a 13 point deficit, the Golden Tornadoes beat W & J by the count of 57-56 in overtime. The victory was Geneva′s second straight as the Golden Tornadoes improved to 4-2 while W & J dropped to 2-5 on the young season.
W & J came out of the blocks on fire and opened up a 20-7 lead nine minutes into the game. Geneva slowly got back into the game and Rachel Rouan′s three-pointer at the halftime buzzer cut the lead to just seven points at 25-18. Geneva used the momentum out of the locker room and scored the first five points of the second half to cut the lead to three. Geneva got its first lead of the game at the 12:40 mark on a three-pointer from Leah Prisuta giving Geneva a 33-32 lead. Geneva led by as many as five points with 4:06 to play in the second half but Blair Cotton′s two free throws with 27 seconds left tied the game at 47-47 and forced overtime.
Geneva again opened up a five point lead in the extra session, but W & J answered back to get within a point in the last seconds of overtime. A pair of missed lay-ups in the final seconds gave Geneva the victory with the final score of 57-56.
"This is the biggest win for our program in the last two years," said head coach Renee Drake. "I am so proud of our ladies and the work they put it tonight. It was great to see us finish at the end. I think we learned how to win tonight."
Christine Carugati led the Golden Tornadoes with 17 points and Alyse Scarsella posted her second consecutive double-double with 16 points and ten rebounds. Geneva out scored W & J 29-22 in the second half to force the extra session by holding the President′s to just five field goals in the final 20 minutes.
Geneva will hit the road on Saturday for the first time within the PAC to take on Thiel at 1 pm. The Golden Tornadoes return home on December 11th against Bethany College for a 5:30 pm tip-off.
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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