BROCKWAY-Making a trip to Brockway to take on the Rovers was just what the Curwensville boys basketball team thought they needed Wednesday night. Brockway had other ideas, however, and beat Curwensville for the first time in six attempts against coach Matt Wassil and the Tide, 61-54.
It was the second straight loss to a team Curwensville had beaten earlier in the season. In this case the Golden Tide beat the Rovers in mid-December 59-42. Not Wednesday though, as Brockway scored 26 fourth quarter points to propel them to their fifth victory against 11 defeats. Curwensville is now 6-9 on the 2007-08 campaign.
All started out well for the visiting Tide as they scored 21 first quarter points to jump out to 21-16 lead after one. Then, for some unknown reason, Curwensville couldn’t find their offense in the second eight minutes, scoring only seven points. At the half Brockway and Curwensville were all knotted up at 28 each.
Curwensville did outscore the Rovers in the third period 11-7 to take the lead, once again, after three quarters. But something didn’t seem right at the start of the final frame. What was right though was Brockway coming out on fire in those final eight minutes as they poured in 26 points that sealed the come from behind victory. Nine points came from the free throw line for the Rovers as the Tide found themselves having to foul to get possession of the ball. In all Brockway took 17 shots from the free throw line in the last quarter.
Coach Kurt Becker’s team, (in his 13th season with Brockway), was fueled by a monster game from 6’5” junior Mark Shannon. Shannon burnt the nets for 27 points and a slew of rebounds on both ends of the floor. The Tide just didn’t have an answer for Shannon and it cost them dearly. Armando Fortunato tossed in 12 to help the Rovers.
The Golden Tide were led by David Kalgren who quietly dumped in 20. Two Tide starters, Joey Palmer and Ben McGary fouled out within :20 seconds of one another in the final period, which took offense and experience out of the game for Curwensville. Derek Dixon helped out Curwensville with nine points and did all he could on the boards to offset the effort by Shannon.
The Tide did win the Junior Varsity contest, 59-42
Curwensville travels to Clearfield Friday night to meet the Bisons with the JV game starting at 6 pm and the varsity tilt immediately following. Clearfield beat Curwensville, at Curwensville, in December, 49-48.
CURWENSVILLE – David Kalgren 8 3-6 20, Ben McGary 3 0-0 7, Ryan Gardner 1 0-0 3, Joey Palmer 2 1-4 5, Derek Dixon 4 1-2 9, Sam Gardner 3 2-2 8, Jed Greslick 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 7-14 54
BROCKWAY – Mark Shannon 11 4-7 27, Nick Anderson 3 0-0 6, John Hawkins 1 3-7 5, Armando Fortunato 5 2-4 12, Nathan Shaffer 2 2-2 6, Craig Anderson 1 1-2 3, Aaron Shaffer 1 0-0 2, Shane Horner 0 0-0 0, Jeremy Lee 0 0-0 0, Mark Robinson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 24 12-22 61
THREE POINTERS -CURWENSVILLE 3, R. Gardner, McGary and Kalgren .
BROCKWAY 1, Shannon.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 21 7 11 15 54
BROCKWAY 16 12 7 26 61