Beaver Falls, PA - The fun thing about basketball is that every night you may see something that you haven′t seen before. On Wednesday night, the Geneva women′s basketball team wasn′t having much fun even though the ending that occurred at Metheny Fieldhouse was a first for just about every person in the gym. Thiel escaped Geneva with a 68-66 victory but the final score doesn′t even begin to tell the whole story.
The Golden Tornadoes led by as many as 11 points midway through the second half but watched as the Tomcats slowly clawed their way back into the game. Thiel took its first lead of the second half with less than two minutes remaining and managed to stretch the lead to three points on a pair of foul shots with only 6.6 seconds remaining on the clock.
Geneva′s Leah Prisuta found Christine Carugati on the right wing with two seconds left and the senior guard let a shot fly from 28 feet that found the bottom of the net for a three point field goal that would certainly send the game into overtime. However, the game clock still showed 0.2 seconds as the Geneva bench erupted in celebration and rushed the court to celebrate the game tying shot. After minutes of deliberation, the officials assessed Geneva with a bench technical for leaving the bench area and awarded Thiel a pair of foul shots. Thiel′s Kelly Muffley connected on both and Thiel escaped with a two point victory. "Probably the worst loss I have ever been associated with as a coach," said Geneva head coach Renee Drake. "It is just one of those things that you never see and we just got burned. We didn′t defend well enough down the stretch and we put ourselves in this situation. It′s a bitter pill to swallow and hopefully one we don′t have to experience for a long time."
The loss dropped Geneva to 7-11 on the season and extended its season long losing streak to five games. Meanwhile, Thiel improved to 4-14 on the season including two victories over the Golden Tornadoes this year.
Carugati′s three point field goal at the end of regulation gave her 16 points for the game, all of which came in the second half. Leah Prisuta scored 12 of her game high 18 points in the first half. Beth DeLuca added 14 points and a pair of three-point field goals. Geneva had its best shooting night of the season shooting 56% from three point range (9-16).
The Golden Tornadoes will try to wash out the bitter taste of Wednesday′s loss on Saturday when they travel to Bethany for a 2 pm tip-off. Geneva returns home to face Saint Vincent on February 5th.
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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