CURWENSVILLE – One night after experiencing difficulty getting their offense rolling, Curwensville Area High School cagers shifted into high gear Wednesday, exploding for 54 points in two quarters and went on to down Glendale 88-73 in the fast-paced Moshannon Valley League opener for both squads in Patton Hall.
Coach Matt Wassil was pleased to see his Golden Tide get in a scoring groove after mustering only 16 points in the first half of Tuesday\’s 42-16 win at Brockway.
\”We talked on the way home from Brockway, all pre-game, coaches and players, about how, eventually, our offense would come around,\” he said after the Golden Tide upped its record to 2-1. \”We knew we had to bust off some of that rust getting our kids from football into basketball shape, things like that.
\”It seemed midway through the first quarter, we started to get going. The second and third quarters, we were hitting our full stride. And we started finding the open guy. Joey Palmer and Shawn Sopic and Brandon McDonald started to really finish inside. Our guards did a great job of finding them in here. And that kind of got our run going.\”
Glendale held the upper hand most of the first quarter, getting five points off drives by junior Sam Yingling and four on jumpers by sophomore Vince Kimberly. Curwensville didn\’t go ahead until Sopic was fouled on a successful drive and tacked on the free throw to make it 12-11 with 1:21 left. Yingling\’s long jumper for three in the final seconds put the Viking\’s up 16-14.
After Palmer, in a preview of coming attractions for the second period, drove the lane to tie the score, freshman Brad O\’Donnell canned the first of his three jumpers for the Vikings\’ final lead at 18-16.
Philip Michaels, whose 21 points highlighted a sparkling all-around performance, answered with a three-pointer from the right wing and Sopic followed with a lay-up that ignited a furious seesaw scoring spree.
On three consecutive trips down the floor, Palmer was the beneficiary of dandy feeds by Michaels as the junior southpaw burned the Vikings with quick moves in the low post. Palmer racked up 14 of his career-high 18 points in an amazing second-quarter run that enabled the Golden Tide to leave the floor ahead 39-35. Three-point bombs form the wings by the Vikings\’ Yingling and Brett Hullihen prevented a much bigger spread.
\”Going down to the locker room, coach (Shane) Pentz said, \’I think Joey Palmer just got his career high in that quarter,\’\” Wassil said. \”We said, \’Yeah, he\’s open. If he finishes, it\’s there for him.\”
\”One of the things that helps him is a quick release. He turns and gets the shot up, sometimes even before the defense can react. We couldn\’t be more pleased with Joey Palmer. We don\’t expect that performance out of him every night, but if he gives us even close to that, we\’ll be good to go.\”
Michaels stepped into the limelight in the third quarter. He converted Ben McGary\’s fast-break pass and the fed McDonald for two lay-ups as Curwensville started to pull away 45-37.
After Viking Brock Kauffman swished a baseline jumper, the Golden Tide put on an offensive clinic during a 23-2 run in which Michaels heated up for 13 points on jumpers and fast breaks.
\”It wasn\’t much different than what we had planned on doing the first half,\” Wassil said of Curwensville\’s 29-9 bulge in the third quarter that widened the gap to 68-44. \”We knew they had guards that like to dribble drive and kick out, and we had game planned to keep them out of the lane. We said if they get dribble penetration, they could hurt us, and we didn\’t do a good job of that in the first half. But in the third quarter, we tightened up a little bit on that dribble penetration, and that kind of keyed that quarter.\”
Wassil was pleased to see Michaels\’ shooting come around.
\”He was a little bit frustrated the first two games,\” said Wassil. \”Coming up from halftime, he said, \’My shot\’s going to start falling. I just feel it. I\”m going to get going.\’ And he did. Even when the shot wasn\’t going, he was finding guys under the hoop. He was making things happen. That\’s what we need out of him. We need him to be our playmaker, because he makes everyone else on our team better.\”
Because of three games in four days, Wassil turned the game over to his reserves with a 76-47 cushion at 5:40 remaining after Craig Bartlett found McDonald for an easy two which typified the Golden Tide\’s unselfish play, which didn\’t go unnoticed by the coaches either.
\”We got a lot of easy shots because of how well our guards penetrated the gaps in their zone and found our guys under the hoop,\” Wassil said. \”We had talked about that in pre-game. Against Brockway we didn\’t look inside enough. We said, \’When you\’re driving, you\’ve got to get your head up and see the floor so you can look inside.\’ Tonight, they did that. Our big guys benefited.\”
\”Any time you\’re sharing the basketball, it looks better. The team feels better about themselves. It\’s not just a one-guy show. We really had everyone touching the ball tonight, and it looked good.\”
All of the Curwensville starters had at least seven points, while Sopic, McDonald and Palmer gave the hosts the edge under the boards.
\”This is one of the few games we\’re probably going to have the size advantage,\” Wassil said. \”Anytime you can control the rebounding, you have a good chance to win games.\”
Yingling, who showed range with a quartet of three-pointers, was high for the 2-3 Vikings with 28 points, 12 fueling their 29-point fourth quarter. Kimberly chipped in with 12 points, including two of the visitors\’ nine threes.
The Golden Tide begins a stretch of six consecutive road trips with a big MVL showdown against Harmony Friday.
Curwensville jayvee\’s also improved to 2-1 with a 55-33 victory behind Ryan Gardner\’s 17 points and Jed Greslick\’s 10. Mario Bebber scored 16 for Glendale.
GLENDALE — 73
Walstrom 1 0-0 2, B. Hullihen 2 0-0 5, Kauffman 3 0-0 6, Yingling 11 2-3 28, Kimberly 5 0-0 12, E. Hullihen 3 0-0 8, O\’Donnell 3 0-0 6, Bebber 2 2-3 6, Tassi 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30 4-6 73.
CURWENSVILLE — 88
McGary 3 0-0 7, Bartlett 3 2-2 8, McDonald 4 1-2 9, Michaels 9 1-2 21, Kalgren 1 0-0 2, Palmer 8 2-2 18, R. Gardner 1 4-4 6, Greslick 0 0-0 0, Dell\’Antonio 1 0-0 2, Dixon 3 0-0 6, S. Gardner 0 0-2 0, Starr 0 0-1 0, Johns 0 0-0 0, Kahl 0 0-0 0, McCracken 0 0-0 0. Totals: 37 11-16 88.
Three-Point Field Goals: Glendale 9 (B. Hullihen 1, Yingling 4, Kimberling 2, E. Hullihen 2). Curwensville 3 (McGary 1, Michaels 2).
Score by Quarters:
Glendale 16 19 9 29 — 73
Curwensville 14 25 29 20 — 88
