Antonio Rudolph Beats the Buzzer as Bison Defeat Geneva 64-62

Dec. 13 - BEAVER FALLS, Pa. - The Bethany College men's basketball team (5-4, 1-2 PAC) earned a hard fought, 62-60 win over Geneva College on Saturday evening thanks to a last-second go ahead bucket by sophomore Antonio Rudolph (New Castle, Pa./New Castle).

The Golden Tornadoes opened the first half of play with the upper hand as they ran out to a 10-2 lead. Following the run, the Bison turned on the defensive effort, responding with a 19-10 run. Sophomore Pedro Lalor (Orlando, Fla./Dr. Phillips) scored six points in the run and the Green & White received back-to-back buckets from Antonio Rudolph (New Castle, Pa./New Castle) to pull the Bison within one.

A steal by Lalor led to another basket for the Bison, this time by freshman Calique Jones (Pittsburgh, Pa./Obama Academy), giving Bethany their first lead of the contest since they lead 2-0 in the opening minute.

The game would stay tight over the final five minutes of the half, and the team's would go into the break tied at 30-30. Offensively in the first half, Lalor led the way with seven points. The Bison also played well defensively, forcing 11 first-half turnovers.

Geneva opened the second half in the same manner that they started the first, using a 7-0 run to open a 37-30 advantage in the opening five minutes of the second frame. Andrew Williams (Oil City, Pa./Oil City) would then respond, hitting his first three of the night to spark the Bison to a 10-2 run, giving Bethany a 40-39 advantage with 14:07 to play.

Neither team would gain the upper hand, but the Bison continued to keep Geneva at bay over the next eight minutes, constantly answering Golden Tornado field goals with ones of their own.

With the Bison up by five, 62-57, with 1:38 remaining in the contest, the Golden Tornadoes would make a push. After earning a three-point play to cut the Bethany advantage to two, Geneva then stole the inbound pass and converted on a layup, knotting the game at 62-62 with 21 seconds to play.

Head Coach Andrew Sachs then called a timeout with just 21 seconds to play to set up one final chance for the Green & White before the end of regulation. Senior Delonte' Joyce (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) began the attack with seven seconds on the clock and his contested layup attempt came short of the rim. However, Rudolph was there, gathered the ball and tipped it in to give the Bison the lead with just .8 seconds remaining on the game clock. Bethany would then knock away the inbound pass, earning the two-point victory, 64-62.

Offensively in the contest, freshman Andres Herrero (Guadalajara, Spain) led the charge as he was one of two Bison in double figures, finishing the game with 14. Joyce also notched double digits, scoring 10 in the win.

The Big advantage for the Green & White came in bench production, as the Bison reserves outscored the Geneva bench 24-3, led by a career-high nine from Williams. Lalor finished with seven while Jones added six.

The Bison also turned defense into offense in the win, forcing 20 Geneva turnovers, leading to 21 points for the Green & White.

Despite missing most of the second-half due to foul trouble, Rudolph, the hero of the win, finished the game with nine points and a game-high four steals in just 23 minutes.

The Bison will be back in action on Wednesday, Dec. 17 when they host Saint John Fisher. The contest is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.