The Saint Vincent Bearcats came from an 8-point deficit then held off a late charge by the visiting Geneva Golden Tornadoes to post a 66-64 victory.

Freshman BJ McGill led SVC with 16 points, while Billy Bains grabbed 9 rebounds to help the Bearcats remain undefeated at home (10-0) and improve to 17-3 on the season. 

The game was close throughout much of the first half.  Neither team held anything larger than a four-point lead.  A McGill basket gave SVC a 27-25 lead with less than two minutes remaining, but three late free throws put Geneva up 28-27 at the break.

An offensive rebound and putback by Tre'sor Kalambay gave SVC a 36-35 lead, but Geneva then went on a 9-point run to take a 44-36 edge.  Kalambay hit a three-pointer at the 12:00 mark to start the comeback for Saint Vincnet.  Bains tied the game at 47-47 with a nice follow up play on a rebound, the first of three times in the second half he trailed a play, grabbed an offensive rebound and scored.

A Mike Medved basket on a pass from McGill put SVC up 55-53 with less than six minutes remaining, then an end-to-end drive by Joey Butler and another putback by Bains extended the lead to six (59-53) with four minutes to go.

The Bearcats still held a six-point lead with 1:16 to go (65-59), but a long three-pointer by Bryan Hill cut the gap to three and ignited the Golden Tornadoes.  A Justin Nardi drive and bucket with 32 seconds left made it a one point game, 65-64.  Kalambay was fouled, and made one of two shots at the charity stripe to extend the lead to two, but Geneva had the ball with 14 seconds to work with.  A missed three-pointer from the corner with seven seconds left, and a failed last second attempt secured the win for Saint Vincent.

Joining McGill in double figures for the Bearcats were Butler (13) and Bains (10). Kalambay added 9 points, while Medved had 8 and McCollough 7.  Butler had 7 rebounds and 5 assists as well.

For Geneva (10-11), Nardi was tops iwth 19 points, while Greg McDivitt added 14 points and 12 boards.  Mike Ross added 8 rebounds.

SVC is back in action on Saturday night, hosting Bethany College at 8:00.  Senior Day festivities will take place before tipoff.