Franciscan 102, Geneva 129
Franciscan Starters
Sean Hickey, Joe Vernau, Tristan McDannell, Josh Zimmerman & Justin Mack
Geneva Starters
Joel Stutz, RJ Bell, Jake Ford, AJ Stroop & Isaac Massie
How It Happened
The Barons would travel to Geneva to square off with the Golden Tornadoes in their regular season finale. Geneva would celebrate Senior Day in a big way by scoring a season high 129 points. Freshman Tristan McDannell would score a career high 30 points while going a very efficient 13-16 from the floor.
Franciscan would jump out to an early 7-2 lead behind five early points from freshman Tristan McDannell. Geneva would knot it up at seven, but then Sean Hickey would join the scoring with a personal 5-0 run to regain the lead. The Golden Tornadoes would tie it up at 14 all, and then Matt Veynovich would add one of his five first half threes to take the lead. A lead that the Golden Tornadoes would not relinquish. Justin Mack would add six straight points of his own to tighten it up to a four point game, but Geneva would continue to shot it at a very impressive clip. They would shot over 60% from the field this half , and close the last nine minutes on a 40-10 run to take a 73-37 lead into the break.
The Barons would not go down easy, as they would battle hard in the second half. Mack would start the half off with another three pointer, and senior Joe Vernau would make a strong layup. Freshman Nicholas Allienello would join the second half scoring also, as he connected on a pair of three pointers. Tristan McDannell would begin to heat up as well as he made a jumper with 12:28 to play. It would be the first two of his 19 second half points. In the final minutes Robert Case would score five points, and Jonathan Sigler added four points, as the Barons would fall 129-102.
Inside the Numbers
-Freshman Tristan McDannell scored a career high 30 points, more than doubling his previous career high of 14 points.
-Justin Mack scored a season high 25 points.
-Sean Hickey pulled in a team high seven rebounds and moved into 14th all-time with 244 rebounds in his career
-Josh Zimmerman dished out a team high five assists.
-Six Geneva players scored in double figures, led by Joel Stutz 23 points
-20 made three pointers set a new Geneva program record.
-102 are the most sports scored in agame by the Barons in the Division III era
-129 points is the most allowed in Franciscan history, passing the previous mark set by Mount Aloysius in 2011
Who's Next?
Franciscan will now wait to see where they will play in the PAC Championship, that will begin next Saturday. If they were to host, the game is tentatively scheduled for a 7 pm tip on Kuzma Court. Stay tuned for an official release once all PAC regular season games are complete.
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