Beaver Falls, PA - Geneva was looking to sweep the season series from Grove City College on Wednesday night and late in the first half it appeared as though the Golden Tornadoes were primed to do just that. Geneva saw a 12-point lead disappear as the Wolverines rallied back to steal a 76-74 decision away from Geneva. The loss dropped Geneva and Grove City into a tie in the PAC standings with identical 4-8 records. Geneva dropped to 5-15 overall while Grove City improved to 8-12.
Dave Phillips lit up the Metheny Fieldhouse nets by dropping his first four three-point attempts. In fact, Geneva opened the game by knocking down eight of the first ten shots from outside the three-point arc. Despite the hot first half shooting, Geneva led by only six points at 36-30 at halftime.
Geneva continued to lead through the early moments of the second half until the Wolverines grabbed their first lead of the second half on a Mitch Marmelstein three-point field goal at the 14:46 mark. The game was tied nine times with the final tie coming at 71-71 at the 1:03 mark of regulation following a Drew Santarsiero three-point field goal. After a time out, Grove City′s Marmelstein knocked down his fourth trey and biggest of the night to regain the lead for Grove City. Two free throws from Brett Matson iced the game away as he became the 25th player in Grove City history to surpass the 1000 point plateau for his career. Phillips knocked down a three pointer at the buzzer but it turned out to be too little, too late. "We just couldn′t get a stop when we needed it," said head coach Jeff Santarsiero. "We are a talented offensive group, but to win games in this conference you have to do it on the defensive end of the floor and we just didn′t get it done."
Offensively, Dave Phillips finished with a team best 21 points while Drew Santarsiero scored 16 points on 6-9 shooting from the field. Matt Lorello was the only other Geneva player in double figures with ten points to go along with eight rebounds. Grove City′s Mitch Marmelstein led all scorers with 27 points while teammate Kris Verderber added 23 points.
Geneva has a rare weekend off before getting back into action next Wednesday night when it hosts first place Thiel College 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).
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