The Tide was no match for the Elkers, 2-0, early on as they committed numerous turnovers that Ridgway turned into a bunch of easy buckets to bolt out in front of their visitors after one quarter, 29-0.
Curwensville would score it’s first bucket of the contest at the 7:33 mark of the second quarter on a bucket by sophomore Austin Jacobson. Jacobson would later add a free throw for the Tide in the second eight minutes that would be their entire offensive output as Ridgway led 46-3 at the intermission.
First year Tide head coach Shane Pentz had a plan for his team at the half, “We challenged our kids at halftime to forget about the score and try to win the second half. All we asked was that they play hard until the final buzzer, which they did.”
Pentz spoke about the first half problems his team had, “Perhaps in the first half tonight the crowd, with all the noise, got to us. We have a lot of sophomores and we are basically a new team out there and that atmosphere was something they weren’t used to.”
Curwensville actually did win the third and fourth quarters as they outscored the Elkers 14-11 in the third and 4-3 in the fourth.
Sophomore guard Brett Gardner of the Tide caught fire in the third frame by hitting on four three pointers that made him the leading scorer for his squad on the night with 12 points.
The Tide head coach closed with, “We will continue to work hard on the basic fundamentals of the game and especially our ball handling skills. We need to get better every day to be able to compete.”
Ridgway also had an easy time in putting away the Curwensville junior varsity by a huge margin, 60-16.
The Tide (0-2) return to the hardwood next Thursday when they travel to Harmony to play the Owls with the JV game starting at 6 pm and the varsity contest to immediately follow.
CURWENSVILLE – 21
Kyle Johns 2 0-0 4, Brett Gardner 4 0-1 12 Alex Olson 0 0-0 0, Trevon Pennington 0 0-0 0, Austin Jacobson 2 1-3 5 Marcus Stephenson 0 0-0 0, Sean Harker 0 0-0 0, Nick London 0 0-0 0, Nate Kurtz 0 0-0 0, Josh Shaffer 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 8 1-4 21.
RIDGWAY – 60
Eric Matheson 4 3-4 12, Jesse Reynolds 5 1-2 12, Jordan Lundin 2 3-4 7, Aaron Sorge 4 1-1 9, Alex Oknefski 2 0-0 4, Josh Mitchell 0 0-2 0, Robbie Byrd 0 0-0 0, Tony Leithner 0 1-2 1, Luke Bobby 0 0-0 0, Joe Jaques 1 0-0 3, Tyler Stark 1 0-0 2, Sam Roselli 2 0-0 4, Keith Zawatski 2 0-0 4, Kyle Kinkead 0 0-0 0, Damon Carlson 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 24 9-15 60.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE – 0 3 14 4 21
RIDGWAY – 29 17 11 3 60
THREE-POINTERS: Gardner 4, Matheson, Reynolds, Jakes
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/13 | BROCKWAY | 31 – 73 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/16 | @ Ridgway | 21 – 60 | 0 – 2 |
| 12/22 | @ Harmony | ||
| 12/30 | @ Glendale |