The DuBois Area Beavers traveled to Punxsutawney Friday, January 23 to battle the Chucks in a conference rival game that resulted with DuBois downing the Chucks 56-42.
This means the Beaver’s losing streak is stopped at five games and they broke their away game drought that has lasted all season, but now stopped after six games.
The DuBois Beavers came out playing good basketball. They never got ahead, but most importantly they never fell behind matching the Chucks basket for basket creating a 10-10 tie at the end of a hard first period. The Beavers started making some serious adjustments, to try and shut out a tough Chuck team that was coming in off of a loss to Clearfield earlier in the week and obviously hungry for a home game victory.
That victory would never triumph for the Chucks as they were outscored in all of the remaining three periods of play. The Beavers played another tough evenly matched second period, as they just slipped past the Chucks to outscore Punxsutawney 20-18 going into half time.
In the second half of play, the Beavers began to dominate and shut the Chucks out of the game for good. As the Beavers went on, they began outscoring Punxsutawney and their defense began to play to potential all game, instead of the late game comebacks that have come up short all year. In the third period the Beavers outscored the Chucks 13-6 and they finished strong in the fourth period 23-18, creating a final score of 56-42, which propelled DuBois to a huge victory.
\”It\’s tough to keep a positive attitude when losing has been a constant. This should give us a shot in the arm and show us that hard work eventually does pay off,” said head coach Scott Creighton following the third win of the season.
Creighton went on to say, \”Contrary to popular belief, when you win, it doesn\’t mean you are doing everything right. And when you lose, it doesn\’t mean you are doing everything wrong.\”
Coach Creighton does shed some light on a Beaver franchise that has played in the dark for three years. When it comes to the actual game, the Beavers have done a lot of things right and they have learned from a lot of things they have executed wrong. They played through the game and maintained a lead. To the Beaver players this is a step in a new direction, a direction that might lead them down a path of late season success.
\”Unselfish play and a great team effort will always lead to a positive outcome,\” said Creighton.
When the Beavers won on Friday night, they played with three key points to their victory – they got the ball to senior Jordan Labue who dropped 23 on the Chucks, they played tough defense, and they rebounded the ball 37 times during the game and 27 of them were the defensive boards.
The Beavers take action again hosting Greater Johnstown on Monday, January 26 for a non conference matchup.