WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson men's basketball team was unable to overcome a Geneva second-half comeback in a 73-72 home defeat on Wednesday evening at the Henry Memorial Center.
 
With the loss, the Presidents drop to 6-4 in the PAC this season and 8-11 overall. Geneva, on the other hand, improves to 8-10 overall and 5-5 in conference.
 
The game started to get away from the Presidents with 4:12 left on the clock. It was at that point that a Cameron Seemann (Loveland, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) layup stood as the team's last points until the final seconds. Ahead 69-60, W&J went on a four-plus minute scoreless drought, allowing the Golden Tornadoes to come back and take a 73-69 lead. A Sven Zepic (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) three-pointer proved to not be enough in the heart-wrenching 73-72 loss.
 
In the first half, however, the Red & Black began the game hot, taking a 14-5 lead in the first 5:24. Treys by Seemann, Jonathan DeVito (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic) and Zach Queen (Jeannette, Pa./Hempfield Area) highlighted the early surge.
 
Geneva answered and put together a 7-0 run midway through the half to cut the deficit to three, 23-20. The margin stayed at three heading into halftime following Primo Zini's (Morgantown, W. Va./Trinity Christian) layup with five seconds left.
 
The Presidents began to rebuild their advantage at the halfway point of the second half, taking a game-high 11-point lead, 66-55, with 6:17 left in the game. This margin dropped to nine by the point of Seemann's aforementioned layup with 4:12 on the clock.
 
The main contributor to Geneva's comeback came at the free throw line, where it made 18 of 30 attempts, a season-high for a Red & Black opponent. Of those 30 free throws, 21 came in the second half, with 16 coming in the final 3:48. It was in that stretch that the Golden Tornadoes outscored W&J 13-3 with nine of those points coming from the line. On the other end of the court, the Presidents shot 6-for-13 (46.2 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
Seemann led all players in the game with 22 points on 9-for-14 (64.3 percent) shooting from the floor and a 3-for-3 mark from behind the arc. He also grabbed four boards and dished out one assist.

Zini played 19 minutes off the bench and finished second on the team with 13 points. He shot 5-for-8 (62.5 percent) from the floor and made his only three-point attempt.
 
Zepic finished with a full stat line, posting six points, seven rebounds and three assists. Queen scored all nine of his points on the day from behind the arc, giving him 58 on the year, tied for the sixth-highest single-season mark in program history.
 
W&J welcomes Chatham on Saturday, Jan. 26. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. inside the Henry Memorial Center.