December 4, 2010 - Geneva College
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December 4, 2010

Picture of December 4, 2010

Greenville, PA - An early season pattern is starting to form for the Geneva College men′s basketball team. On Saturday, the Golden Tornadoes dropped an 84-73 decision to Thiel College on the road. It was Geneva′s second consecutive road loss on the year without a victory. Conversely, the Golden Tornadoes are a perfect 4-0 on their home floor.

"Thiel is the toughest team to play against on its home floor in this conference," said Geneva head coach Jeff Santarsiero. "They have some incredibly talented players and we simply didn′t match their intensity for 40 minutes. We got down early and tried to fight back but it was just too big of a hill."

Geneva has prided itself on good defense in the last couple of years but that defense had little answers for an explosive Thiel offense in the first 20 minutes. The Tomcats put up 48 points in taking a ten point lead to the locker room. Thiel shot 57% from the field in the first 20 minutes and never allowed Geneva back in the game, In fact, the Tomcats led by as many as 24 points before Geneva tried to make a valiant comeback. "I told the guys we need to have the same effort whether we are up by 24 or down by 24," said Santarsiero. "We can′t just flip the switch and expect good things to happen. We have to be engaged from the first minute of every game."

The Golden Tornadoes featured a balanced attack that saw a season high five player′s reach double figures in the loss. Richard Colick led the way with 14 points and eight rebounds. Lambros Svingos scored 12 points while Bryan Hill hit 3-4 three-point field goals to finish with 11 points. DJ Damazo and Dave Phillips each scored ten in the loss.

While Division I transfer Blair Rozenblad was solid with 16 points for Thiel it was the play of Devon Adams that truly did Geneva in on Saturday. Adams finished with a game high 26 points on 9-15 shooting that included four three-point field goals. "We just couldn′t stop Adams," said Santarsiero. "When you have a guy shooting the way he had it going today, we have to find a way to deny him the ball and we just didn′t play well on the defensive end of the floor."

Geneva has a busy week coming up with three games on the docket. The Golden Tornadoes make the short trip to Monaca to take on Penn State Beaver on Monday before traveling to Canton to face Malone on Wednesday. Geneva gets back into PAC play next Saturday when it hosts Thiel at 7:30 pm.

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).

Dec 4, 2010