GENEVA — When it came to recruiting Jordan Harbison, Geneva College basketball coach Jeff Santarsiero missed out the first time.

The second time has turned out pretty good.

A senior shooting guard with the Golden Tornadoes, the 6-foot-1 Harbison leads the team with a 14.4 points per game average. The Renfrew resident and Portersville Christian graduate has canned 40 3-pointers this season, 116 over the past two years.

Harbison is one of the team's captains this season.

“He's probably the best shooter in the conference,” Santarsiero said. “He's developing into one of the best guards in our league.”

Harbison scored more than 1,700 points at Portersville and graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer. Recruited by Santarsiero out of high school, Harbison opted for Gannon University instead.

“They didn't recruit me, but I decided to walk on and try to play there,” Harbison said. “It turned out the roster was full and I didn't even get a chance to try out.”

At first, Harbison figured he'd stay at Gannon, get his education and move on with his life.

But he missed basketball too much. And Santarsiero was waiting.

“I knew what kind of ability he had,” the Geneva coach said. “He didn't face the best competition in school and you wonder how a guy in his situation will do against stiffer competition.

“But Jordan had the skill set and we had a place for him here. He's making the most of it. He's turned into a very good college basketball player.”

Harbison played against only two public school teams — Sharpsville and Union (New Castle) — in high school. He had plenty of interaction with top-level basketball players regardless.

“I played AAU ball in the summer and went to a lot of basketball camps,” he said. “I played pick-up games at the YMCA quite a bit.

“I always wanted to sharpen my skills, but I was always confident I was good enough to play in college.”

Harbison averaged 11.2 points per game in his first season as a starter with Geneva last year. He sank 76 treys and shot 42.6 percent from beyond the arc.

This year, he's shooting 37 percent from 3-point range and 81 percent from the free throw line, hitting 27 of 33 attempts.

“Since our last two or three games, defenders are really coming out on him,” Santarsiero said. “We've been working with Jordan on driving to the basket more and taking advantage of that.

“He's a pure shooter and teams have to come out and defend. That can bring other elements of his game into play.”

Harbison struck for a career-high 31 points against Hiram early this season.

“At times, he's been unstoppable,” Santarsiero said. “But he needs to be more consistent. Jordan would be the first to tell you that, too.”

The Golden Tornadoes are still seeking consistency as a team.

Geneva is off to a 4-9 start this year, 0-4 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. The team was 5-21 last season.

“We play a tough schedule, facing all of the top Division III teams in the area,” Santarsiero said. “Still, I feel like we should be 8-4 instead of 4-8.

“We can still make a run at the conference tournament. There's plenty of games left.”

Harbison agreed.

“Get our first PAC win and roll from there,” he said. “I feel like we can get into the tournament. We're definitely getting better.”