Curwensville Bounces Back with Road Victory over Brockway
BROCKWAY — One night earlier, head coach Josh Tkacik said that his Curwensville Golden Tide cagers were on the hump of what they could accomplish, but were not quite to the point where they were ready to get over it. He hoped the loss to Williamsburg would be a catalyst to get them to that point, especially with a big road contest on Thursday night against long-time rival, the Brockway Rovers.
That loss fueled the Tide like nothing they had done yet this season, because Curwensville came into Brockway and led the night from tip to buzzer, taking home a decisive 63-28 victory that put smiles on the faces of players, coaches, and fans that made the trip.
It wasn’t all easy, as the opening quarter would only see Curwensville take a single-possession lead after eight minutes, 13-11. But, the defense tightened up in the second, as Brockway would struggle getting buckets to fall. Only Brady Demonte managed to get the ball in the net, while Curwensville got even production from Davis Fleming, Chandler English and others, as they would win the quarter in a big way to take a 25-14 advantage into the locker room.
The one struggle the Tide have experienced all year has been not coming from the locker room with the same intensity as they did when they went in, especially with a lead.
On this night, it was different.
Curwensville continued the run of scoring, with Flemming putting up seven of his game-high 16 points in the quarter. Dan McGarry also managed a pair of buckets plus a couple shots from the foul line to help in the scoring. After three quarters, the Tide were looking up at the scoreboard to see a 40-20 lead.
In the final eight minutes, the door slammed shut on the Rovers, as Curwensville put on a scoring clinic to the point where the running clock would go into effect. Despite Parker Wood fouling out in the final quarter, the Tide built up a comfortable lead to the point where the starters got to take a bow, and the reserves came in to get some valuable minutes. Even then, Curwensville would continue to score, putting up 23 points in the quarter, nearly tripling the offensive output of the Rovers.
Chandler English also managed to hit double figures, finishing the night with 11 points. The lone struggle for the Tide on the night was foul shooting, as they would only go 10-for-19 at the line.
That is one thing to be cleaned up as, like Tkacik said the night before, the schedule gets extremely difficult next week with three conference games on the slate. Curwensville (3-5) will start the week on the road when they travel to Morrisdale to face the West Branch Warriors. Junior varsity tips off at 6 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Curwensville 13 12 15 23 – 63
Brockway 11 3 6 8 – 28
Curwensville – 63
Andrew Wassil 2 0-0 6, Louis Tkacik 0 0-0 0, Dan McGarry 2 5-8 9, Conner Howell 0 0-0 0, Grant Swanson 1 0-2 3, Davis Fleming 6 3-4 16, Chandler English 4 2-2 11, Braden Holland 2 0-3 4, Hunter Tkacik 0 0-0 0, Ty Colton 1 0-0 2, Parker Wood 4 0-0 8, Ayden Sutika 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 24 10-19 63.
Brockway – 28
Vinny Cavalline 0 0-0 0, Adam Lin 0 0-1 0, Isaac Crawford 0 2-2 2, Alex Carlson 3 1-2 8, Jacob Newcamp 0 0-0 0, Brady Demonte 1 0-0 2, Ryan Crawford 0 0-0 0, Bradey Hughes 1 0-0 2, Reese Yahner 1 2-3 4, Aiden Grieneisen 3 2-3 8, Aiden Wilcox 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 10 7-11 28.