December 10, 2011 - Geneva College
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December 10, 2011

Picture of December 10, 2011

Grove City, PA - Maybe Geneva College head men′s basketball coach knew what he was talking about following the team′s first conference victory on Wednesday night. He said maybe that first PAC win would get his team some momentum and start them on a roll. On Saturday afternoon, Geneva College used some of that newly gained momentum to pick up its first PAC road victory and second win overall with a 64-60 decision at Grove City. The victory pushed Geneva′s overall record to 3-6 and its mark in the PAC back to .500 at 2-2. "Grove City is never an easy place to win," said Santarsiero. "Our guys came out in the second half and took the game away from them. It′s a very nice way to finish out the first semester. We have a lot of work to do but we are certainly in a much better place than we were this time last week."

Geneva had dropped six consecutive games this time last week and has now put back to back victories together for the first time this season leading into a long break before heading to California for a pair of games at the California Lutheran tournament after Christmas.

Neither team could get going offensively for most of the first half as both teams struggled to score points. The Golden Tornadoes took a 20-19 lead into the break as it was their only lead for the entire half. Geneva finally got some offensive generating when it came out of the locker room. In fact, the Golden Tornadoes scored nine of the first 11 points to open up an eight point lead just four minutes into the second half. Geneva never gave the lead back is it slowly pushed the margin out to as many as 14 points with four minutes left in the game. Foul shooting woes allowed Grove City to hang around as the Wolverines cut the lead into single digits and got to within four down the stretch but could not get over the hump.

Geneva shot 50% from the field for the game and held Grove City to just 35% shooting. The Golden Tornadoes finally found the range from beyond the arc with seven three-point field goals along the way. David Phillips led all scorers with 18 points including an 8-10 effort from the foul line that helped ice the game away in the final moments. Lambros Svingos, finally back from leg injuries that have hampered his performance this year, posted 14 points and 13 rebounds in the victory. Drew Santarsiero added 13 points while Matt Lorello was 5-6 from the field for 11 points.

Geneva will play a pair of games at the California Lutheran tournament on December 29-30 before returning back east to visit Wooster on January 4th. Geneva won′t get back to Metheny Fieldhouse until January 11th for a date with Saint Vincent.

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 10, 2011