CURWENSVILLE – Brockway came out of the locker room shooting three-pointers Friday night and never stopped, sinking 11 of 28 attempts from behind the arc to keep the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team in a catch-up mode.
Though closing to within three to five points on seven occasions, the Golden Tide never was able to overtake the Rovers and suffered a 65-42 loss in the Allegheny Mountain League South Division game on the Patton Hall hardwood.
“That was mainly because of our shooting woes,” coach Matt Wassil said after Curwensville skidded to 3-12 with its fifth consecutive AML-South setback. “I thought our kids played extremely hard. Because of that, we did battle back at times, but we were 17-for-59 from the field.
“Every time we seemed to make up ground, we’d go with a spurt where we couldn’t make a shot.
“And they’re too good of a shooting team to do that against.”
Brockway, which had dropped its last three games, was 27-for-59 for a red-hot 45.8 percent in climbing back over .500 with its eighth win.
Five Rovers nailed bonus field goals, but Cody Anderson was the one who gave the Golden Tide defense fits.
The 5-10 senior buried six of his nine long-range shots to pile up 26 points, double his average.
“They don’t have many big guys, so they like to space the floor, and they have some guys that can shoot,” Wassil said. “Cody Anderson can make shots whether he’s open or whether you have a guy in his face.”
Six of his teammates had at least five points, including Nick Anderson with 10 in the second half.
Curwensville couldn’t exploit its height advantage inside and got the bulk of its points from guards Alec Starr and Shane Hoover.
Starr netted a career-high 14 while Hoover came off the bench to contribute 10.
Brockway, which knocked down nine threes during its 67-32 victory in the first meeting back on Dec. 14, set the tone right away with treys by Cody Anderson from outside and Kyle Braun in the right corner.
Thanks to Starr’s three-point jumper from the right wing in the final seconds of the first quarter, the Golden Tide was down only 15-11 at the break.
Curwensville got seven points from Hoover in the second period to trail 27-20 at intermission.
A trio of jumpers by Starr, one a tough banker high off the backboard, offset two treys by Cody Anderson early in the third quarter. Later, Hoover’s three-pointer from the right wing cut Brockway’s lead to 40-32 with 2:12 left.
The Andersons responded for the Rovers, Nick driving the left side of the lane twice for layups and Cody canning a three-pointer from the right wing one tick before the buzzer to make it 47-32.
Nick Anderson penetrated the Golden Tide for two more left-handed layups in the final quarter as the Rovers finished strong by making eight of 16 shots.
“When Nick gets in the lane, you have to collapse, or you’re giving him a layup,” Wassil said. “I thought, at times, we did a good job with him. The one thing we didn’t do a good job with was the screen-roll. I really wasn’t happy with how our guards were recovering back to him.”
Late three-pointers by Cody Anderson and Clay Anderson enabled Brockway to match its season and, perhaps, school-record high set against Cameron County at Emporium on Dec. 15.
The Golden Tide will be busy next week with home games against AML-South co-leader DuBois Central Catholic Monday and Moshannon Valley League rival West Branch Wednesday before a trip to Johnsonburg Friday.
In the prelim, Jesse Zorger and Trevon Pennington scored 12 and 11 points, respectively for the Curwensville junior varsity, but Brockway held on for a 42-39 win.
Allegheny Mountain League South Division – DuBois Central Catholic 4-1, Ridgway 4-1, Brockway 2-3, Curwensville 0-5.
BROCKWAY — 65
Kyle Braun 2 0-0 5, Nick Anderson 5 0-0 10, Fabio Fortunato 3 0-0 6, Ray Serafini 0 0-0 0, Cody Anderson 10 0-0 26, Levi Miller 2 0-2 6, Evan Hatfield 3 0-0 7, Jake Rogos 0 0-0 0, Clay Anderson 2 0-0 5, Max Hrinya 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 27 0-2 65.
CURWENSVILLE — 42
Alex Starr 6 0-0 14, Kyle Barrett 3 0-2 6, Boone McGary 2 1-2 5, Tanner Elensky 1 0-2 3, Will Rauckhorst 1 0-0 2, Shane Hoover 3 3-6 10, Shelby McGary 1 0-0 2, Jesse Zorger 0 0-0 0, Alex Olson 0 0-0 0, Dan Davis 0 0-0 0, Brett Gardner 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 4-12 42.
Three-Point Field Goals – Brockway 11 (Braun, Cody Anderson 6, Miller 2, Hatfield, Clay Anderson); Curwensville 4 (Starr 2, Elensky, Hoover).
Score by Quarters
Brockway 15 12 20 18 – 65
Curwensville 11 9 12 10 – 42
Officials – Tim Barnes and Rob Murphy.