BEAVER FALLS, Pa. -- Geneva freshman Lyle Tipton drained a jump shot with less than a second left to give the Golden Tornadoes a 63-62 victory over visiting Washington & Jefferson College in a Presidents' Athletic Conference play at the Metheny Fieldhouse Wednesday night. 
 
Faced with a second straight game that came down to the final shot. Unlike Saturday's dramatic win over Saint Vincent, this time the Presidents came out on the wrong end of the decision against the Golden Tornadoes. 
 
The loss drops W&J to 10-9 overall and 5-5 in the PAC. The victory was the fourth straight for Geneva, who improves to 5-5 after a 1-5 start to league play. The Geneva win means the two teams split the season series as W&J won 73-58 back on Dec. 7 at Salvitti Family Gymnasium.
 
Geneva opened the second half with six consecutive points to take a 39-36 lead while holding W&J scoreless for five-plus minutes. After a three-pointer by senior Jonathan DeVito (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic) put the Presidents back in front at 41-39, the Golden Tornadoes took control. Geneva used a 15-6 run to take a seven-point lead at 54-47 with 7:57 to play. 
 
A three-pointer by freshman Kyran Mitchell (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) gave the Presidents a 60-59 advantage with 3:07 to play. That was the first W&J lead more than nine minutes. After Geneva regained a one-point edge on a layup by Ethan Moose, a layup by sophomore Okikiola Agbale (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler) put the Presidents in front 62-61 with 2:19 left. 
 
At that point both teams got several stops before the Presidents regained possession with just less than 40 seconds to play. Trailing by one the Golden Tornadoes elected to play the possession out instead of fouling to get the ball back sooner. That strategy paid off despite the Presidents getting an open look from three with eight seconds left that could have iced the game. That setup the Tipton game-winner with 0.2 seconds left.  
 
The Presidents jumped out to an early 5-2 lead on an offensive rebound and putback by Mitchell. Geneva answered back with back-to-back baskets to take a 6-5 edge. 
 
After a steal and layup by DeVito helped the Presidents regain a one-point edge, the Golden Tornadoes used a 14-7 run to take a 19-13 advantage at the 12:46 mark. 
 
A layup by sophomore Alexander Skowron (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) capped a 7-0 run that allowed the Presidents to take a 20-19 edge with 9:42 left in the first half. 
 
In a first half that featured four ties and nine lead changes, the teams began to exchange scores until the Presidents gained a 31-27 advantage on back-to-back layups by sophomore Primo Zini (Morgantown, W.Va./Trinity Christian) and junior AJ Blue (Kensington, Md./Sidwell Friends (D.C.) with 3:45 remaining in the half. 
 
The Presidents carried a three-point (36-33) into halftime after a driving layup by junior Cameron Seemann (Loveland, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) beat the first half buzzer. 

Nine different Presidents scored in the loss, as Zini and Skowron recorded 10 points apiece. Seemann finished with nine points while Alexander and Mitchell finished with eight each. Alexander pulled down a team-best and career-high nine rebounds in the setback while DeVito registered a game-high six steals. Tipton led all scorers with 17 points off the bench for Geneva. 

W&J travels to Chatham for a conference clash with the Cougars on Saturday, Feb. 1. Start time is scheduled for 8 p.m.