Defense Sparks Comeback Victory Over Thiel

Beaver Falls, PA – The Geneva College women’s basketball team needed a victory on Saturday to put an end to its three game losing streak. Mid-way through the first half, it appeared that victory was going to be hard to come by as the Golden Tornadoes fell down by as many as 11 points in the first half. Geneva rallied thanks to a frenzied defensive effort and came back to defeat Thiel by the count of 61-54. The Golden Tornadoes improved to 3-4 while Thiel dropped back to 2-5 on the young season.

With 7:44 remaining in the first half, Geneva trailed Thiel 22-11 but by the time the teams headed to the locker room for halftime, the Golden Tornadoes had trimmed the lead to just two points at 30-28. “We really picked things up defensively late in the first half,” said head coach Renee Drake. “We needed to gain some momentum and our defense helped us accomplish that in the first half.”

Geneva used its new found momentum in the second half to take its first lead of the game just four minutes into the second half. Trailing 36-30, the Golden Tornadoes scored the next 14 points and opened up a 44-36 lead with 12:45 to play in the game. Thiel battled back to within a point on two separate occasions but was never able to take back the lead.

Renee Rawding led Geneva with 16 points in the game including a 6-11 shooting effort from the field. Her 16 points leaves her just seven shy of becoming the 12th player in Geneva women’s history to record 1000 career points. Val Hamilton scored ten points and pulled down a game best 14 rebounds. Rachel Barry came off the bench to score ten points to help the Geneva cause. “We got some solid contributions from several players,” said Drake. “This was a team victory and it came at just the right time.”

The Golden Tornadoes will host Penn State Greater Allegheny on Wednesday night before heading to Bethany next Saturday for another PAC meeting with the Bison.

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).