SHEFFIELD – With five players scoring in double figures, Curwensville climbed to within one game of .500 by tumbling Sheffield 74-54 in scholastic non-league boys basketball action Friday night.
David Kalgren earned game honors with 21 points for the Golden Tide, 6-7 after its third win in a row.
Sam Gardner came off the bench to pump in 15 points, Ben McGary had a season-high 12, including a pair of three-pointers, and Joey Palmer and Derek Dixon added 10 apiece.
\”This being our third game of the week, we tried to play some of the bench guys more,\” Golden Tide coach Matt Wassil said. \”We got out to a pretty comfortable lead, so it was a chance to give those guys some minutes and save our legs for next week, when we play three more games.\”
Curwensville, in the midst of a stretch of seven road trips in eight games, showed no effects of the long bus trip by jumping out to a 23-8 lead in the first quarter behind eight points by Palmer and seven by Kalgren.
Gardner had the hot hand in the second period with 10 points as the Golden Tide outscored the Wolverines 21-20.
A 16-point third period increased Curwensville\’s lead to 60-38 and doomed Sheffield to its fifth loss in a row.
\”McGary made some key jumpers for us in the middle quarters,\” Wassil noted. \”They were packing it in, and he made them come out and guard us, which opened up some passing lanes in the middle. We were having trouble scoring at times, and it seemed like he came up with the shot that got the guys going again.\”
Craig Fitch\’s 11 points led Sheffield (4-10).
Curwensville has three more bus trips next week, Monday to Glendale for a Moshannon Valley League game, Wednesday to Brockway for an Allegheny Mountain League South Division contest and Friday to Clearfield Friday for a non-league test.
Jesse Hoover scored 23 points and Tyler Johns added 15 as the Curwensville junior varsity rolled to a 76-45 victory.
CURWENSVILLE — 74
David Kalgren 8 5-9 21, Ryan Gardner 1 0-1 2, Ben McGary 4 2-2 12, Joey Palmer 5 0-0 10, Derek Dixon 5 0-3 10, Sam Gardner 5 5-6 15, Jed Greslick 0 2-2 2, Tyler Johns 0 1-4 1, Jesse Hoover 0 0-0 0, Billy White 0 1-2 1, Nick Opaliski 0 0-0 0, Ben Johnson 0 0-0 0, Heat McCracken 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 28 16-30 74.
SHEFFIELD — 54
Jordan Copley 3 1-2 7, Nate Bowley 0 7-9 7, Adam Sixt 2 4-7 8, Craig Fitch 4 3-6 11, Lyle Shine 3 0-0 6, Nick Cochran 4 1-5 9, Kevin Babcock 0 0-0 0, Kenny Littlefield 1 0-0 3, Ian Davidson 0 3-4 3. TOTALS: 17 19-33 54.
Three-Point Field Goals: Curwensville 2 (McGary 2); Sheffield 1 (Littlefield).
Score by Quarters
Curwensville 23 21 16 14 – 74
Sheffield 8 20 10 16 – 54
