Van Zanic
Director of Sports Information
(724) 847-6886
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 30, 2008
DEFENSIVE DEFIANCE, GENEVA ALLOWS 93 IN
TOURNAMENT CONSOLATION GAME
Defiance, OH - Geneva′s men′s basketball team lost for the second time in as many nights at the Defiance College tournament on Tuesday and it was a familiar story for the Golden Tornadoes and head coach Jeff Santarsiero. Geneva′s defense once again failed to get key stops in a 93-79 loss to host Defiance College. The loss dropped Geneva′s overall record to 2-7 on the season while Defiance improved to 7-4. One night after allowing 91 points to Calvin College, the Golden Tornadoes watched Defiance post 93 points, including a 53 point second half. "We just are not stopping anyone on defense," said Santarsiero. "You can′t win games at this level if you don′t take pride defensively and right now we are not a very good defensive team."
While the defense struggled, Geneva′s offense did feature some bright spots. David Phillips posted 20 points in the loss, while junior transfer Brandon Harvey came off the bench for a team high 23 points. One night after scoring ten points off the bench, Harvey knocked down six three-point field goals in 12 attempts. Geneva made 14 three pointers on the night, including ten in the second half.
Geneva shot just 36% (12-33) in the first half and trailed 40-30 at the break. The Golden Tornadoes trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, but much like Monday night, rallied back to within ten at the half. Geneva cut the lead to just two points at 52-50 after a Justin Nardi three-point play with 13:43 to play in the second half. With Defiance leading 72-66 at the 8:05 mark, Geneva watched the home team run off a 12-3 spurt to stretch the lead to 15 and put the game away. "We put ourselves in a good position early in the second half, but once again could not get it done on the defensive end of the floor. We have a lot of work to do and it won′t get any easier in conference play."
Geneva will get back into the PAC on Saturday night when it travels to Saint Vincent College. After traveling to Penn State Beaver and Malone next week, the Golden Tornadoes will host Waynesburg on January 10th.
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