Amesville– Senior Shawn Sopic, Philip Michaels, Craig Bartlett and Brandon McDonald combined for 58 points as the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team spoiled the Moshannon Valley League opener for host Moshannon Valley with a 74-55 win Tuesday night.
Sopic led the Golden Tide with 21 points, Michaels collected 18, Bartlett netted 10 and McDonald contributed nine, and they took turns fronting the offense.
In the first quarter, Sopic tallied 13 and Michaels 7 as Curwensville grabbed a 20-10 lead.
\”They got us off to that fast start, and once Mo Valley adjusted to stopping them, everyone else contributed,\” Golden Tide coach Matt Wassil said. \”McDonald had a big second quarter with seven of his nine points. He benefited from them having to focus on Shaw on the inside.\”
Michaels also had seven points in the second period, when Curwensville expanded its lead to 40-20 in spite of foul trouble.
\”Bartlett picked up two fouls in the first 35 seconds, and we sat him the rest of the first half,\” Wassil said. \”We basically had three guys get two fouls in the first quarter. Joey Palmer went in for Brandon and had two fouls from within a minute and Ben McGary also got two fouls. That put a lot of pressure on Philip, Shawn and McDonald, and those three seniors stepped up and carried the load. They scored evey point in the first half except for our by David Kalgren. Their senior leadership really showed.\”
Bartlett returned at the start of the second half and responded with all of his points in the third quarter, which ended with the Golden Tide on top 59-34.
\”Kalgren, Palmer and Ryan Gardner all got extended minutest because of the fouls, and we had an all-around team effort,\” Wassil said. \”It was nice to get back to more than one or two guys contributing on offense.\”
Curwensville climbed back above .500 at 3-2, including 2-1 in the MVL for Friday\’s game at West Branch.
Tom Rowley and Tyler Neff scored 16 and 11 points, respectively, for Mo Valley, now 2-3.
Mo Valley\’s jayvees won the prelim 45-43 with Braden Henry scoring 11 points and Justin Dudurich and Eric Curry adding 10 a piece. Sam Gardner led Curwensville with 15, Derek Dixon had 13 and Ryan Gardner had 11.
Curwensville–74
Barlett 5 0-0 10, McGary 0 0-0 0, Sopic 9 20-3 21, Michaels 5 6-6 18, McDonald 4 1-1 9, Palmer 1 1-4 3, Kalgren 4 0-2 8, R. Gardner 10-0 2, Dixon 0 1-2 1, Starr 1 0-0 2, Johns 0 0-0 0, Dell\’Antonio 0 0-0 0. Totals 30 11-28 74.
Moshannon Valley– 55
Holencik 1 1-2 3, Rowley 7 1-3 16, Neff 5 1-2 11, Mayer 3 1-3 7, Morroni 0 4-6 4, S. Henry 1 2-2 4, Dudurich 3 2-2 8, Fry 1 0-0 2, Henry 0 0-0 0, Gmerek 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 12-20 55.
Three-point Field Goals: Curwensville 3 (Michaels 2, Sopic 1) Moshannon Valley 1 (Rowley).
Score by Quarters:
Curwensville 20 20 19 15- 74
Moshannon Valley 10 10 14 21- 55