CURWENSVILLE – The inexperienced Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team, with no seniors and only one letterman in sophomore point guard Tanner Elensky, learned Tuesday night that, sometimes, records can be very misleading.
Brockway checked into renovated Patton Hall at a very deceiving 0-2 but proceeded to shoot nearly 50 percent in spoiling the Golden Tide’s debut under first-year head coach Shane Pentz.
The Rovers, whose losses in the Brookville Tip-Off Tournament were to pretty good Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference teams, made the hosts pay for a cold-shooting start by bolting to a 21-4 lead after one quarter and then put on a three-point clinic in the second half for a 73-31 win in the Allegheny Mountain League South Division game.
After Brett Gardner’s driving layup got Curwensville on the scoreboard with 1:17 gone, Brockway went on an 18-3 run to close out the first period with every starter contributing.
Trevon Pennington converted an Elensky pass for the Golden Tide’s only other field goal in 18 attempts, which included several from close range.
“If we had made some of our easy shots early, we could have kept the game closer at halftime and given ourselves a shot,” said Pentz, whose decision to switch from man-to-man defense to a 3-2 zone paid dividends.
Curwensville played the visitors on even terms for most of the second quarter, trailing 26-13 when Elensky knifed through the Brockway defense with 2:19 left.
However, turnovers proved costly as the Rovers opened the gap to 34-13 by halftime by getting more results from their fullcourt press.
“When we were able to get into our press-break offense, we were able to get some advantages, like three-on-one and two-on-one, but we couldn’t convert,” Pentz said. “Most of the time, it was us not making good shots.
“When we weren’t able to get into our press-break offense, they capitalized with a lot of steals and turnovers.”
The Rovers began the second half by burning the Golden Tide zone for a quartet of three-pointers, two by Jake Rogos, in a 16-2 run for a 50-15 bulge with 3:43 left in the third quarter.
“As the score got more of hand, our effort went with it, and it was hard to recover after that lull,” Pentz said.
Reserves accounted for Brockway’s last 21 points, and Ryan Hultman capped the 17-point fourth quarter with a pair of three-pointers, one from near midcourt at the buzzer.
The Rovers hit seven of nine shots from behind the arc in the second half and finished 10-for-19 from long range.
They had 11 players in the scoring column, with four in double figures.
Rogos was high with 12 points, all on trifectas, while Fabio Fortunato and Ray Serafini netted 11 apiece and Hultman scored 10 in the last four minutes.
Kyle Braun pulled down eight of Curwensville’s misses in the first period and wound up with 10 rebounds to key Brockway’s 39-24 advantage under the boards.
Three sophs combined for all but four of the Golden Tide points.
Gardner canned a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter to tally 10 points. Elensky and Kyle Johns added nine and eight, respectively. Johns also had seven rebounds.
Curwensville shot 24.1 percent with only 14 field goals in 58 attempts.
The Golden Tide faces what might be its toughest test of the season Friday at Ridgway, regarded as the team to beat in the AML-South as one of the premier Class A teams in District 9 with six of the top seven scorers from a 21-5 team returning.
Brockway also won the junior varsity game, 56-22. Gardner topped the Golden Tide with eight points.
BROCKWAY — 73
Kyle Braun 3 0-0 6, Fabio Fortunato 5 0-0 11, Levi Miller 2 0-0 5, Jake Rogos 4 0-0 12, Ray Serafini 5 1-2 11, Evan Hatfield 2 0-0 5, Clay Anderson 1 0-0 2, Jake Perrin 0 0-0 0, Christian Barraclough 2 0-0 4, Zach Puhala 0 0-0 0, Gabe Bembenic 2 0-0 5, Quinn Lundberg 1 0-0 2, Ryan Hultman 4 0-0 10, Kyle Titler 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 31 1-2 73.
CURWENSVILLE — 31
Tanner Elensky 4 1-1 9, Kyle Johns 4 0-0 8, Brett Gardner 4 0-0 10, Alex Olson 0 0-2 0, Austin Jacobson 1 0-0 2, Trevon Pennington 1 0-0 2, Nate Kurtz 0 0-0 0, Marcus Stephenson 0 0-0 0, Sean Harker 0 0-0 0, Nick London 0 0-0 0, Josh Shaffer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 1-32 31.
Three-Point Field Goals – Brockway 10 (Fortunato, Miller, Rogos 4, Hatfield, Bembenic, Hultman 2); Curwensville 2 (Gardner 2).
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Brockway 21 13 22 17 – 73
Curwensville 4 9 10 8 – 31
Officials – Bill Overly and Rob Murphy.
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/13 | BROCKWAY | 31 – 73 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/16 | @ Ridgway |
