WESTOVER — The Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team avenged a tough, early-season loss by bouncing host Harmony out of the Moshannon Valley League race, 55-37, Wednesday night.
Coach Shane Pentz said the keys for the Golden Tide, which was edged 62-60 by the Owls on Dec. 18, were better defense and a four-quarter effort.
“Last time, we played good defense for three quarters, and we really tried to emphasis that,” he said. “Our defensive rotatations were better and we were able to find their shooters tonight.”
The Golden Tide limited the Owls to 17 points in the low-scoring first half but was up by only four points at intermission.
Unlike the previous game, Curwensville expanded its lead to 37-27 in the third quarter and continued to add to that with 18 points in the final eight minutes.
Tanner Elensky pumped in 17 points to lead a three-pronged attack as the Golden Tide picked up its second win in 13 games.
Brett Gardner and Austin Jacobson chimed in with 11 points.
“Jacobson had a double-double,” Pentz noted. “He’s come up big offensively in both games we’ve won.”
Pentz also was pleased with the contributions of reserves Trey Rauckhorst, Nate Kurtz, Harrison Bloom, Jonathan Miller and Jason Thorp.,
“We have nine games over the next 14 days, so we need those guys to come off the bench and give us some minutes,” he said. “Tonight, they were able to do that.”
Harmony (6-10) got 15 points from Nathan Young and 11 from Logan Sral.
The Owls were impacted by the absence of ailing Tyler Tiesi, who scored 27 points in the pre-holiday meeting.
“Not having their senior leader definitely affected them offensively,” Pentz said.
Rauckhorst netted 12 points and Bloom added nine as Curwensville’s junior varsity posted a 31-21 win.
The Golden Tide will travel to Brookville Friday for a non-league game and then host DuBois Central Catholic Saturday afternoon in a Allegheny Mountain League make-up of Monday’s postponement. The JV game will tip off at 1 p.m. with the varsity game set for approximately 2:30.
Moshannon Valley League Standings — West Branch 4-0, Glendale 4-1, Harmony 3-3, Curwensville 2-4, Moshannon Valley 0-5.
CURWENSVILLE — 55
Brett Gardner 3 5-7 11, Kyle Johns 2 0-0 4, Tanner Elensky 6 3-5 17, Alex Olson 2 0-0 4, Austin Jacobson 5 1-2 11, Trey Rauckhorst 2 0-0 4, Marcus Stephenson 0 0-0 0, Nate Kurtz 0 0-0 0, Harrison Bloom 0 2-2 2, Jonathan Miller 0 2-2 2, Jason Thorp 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 13-18 55.
HARMONY — 37
Nathan Young 5 5-7 15, Logan Sral 4 2-4 11, Josh Lucas 1 0-0 2, Evan Novella 1 0-3 2, Dustin Kurtz 1 1-2 3, Austin Hugill 0 2-2 2, Brandon Fox 0 0-2 0, Cody Fritz 0 2-6 2. TOTALS : 12 12-26 37.
Three-Point Field Goals – Curwensville 2 (Elensky 2); Harmony 1 (Sral).
Score by Quarters
Curwensville 12 9 16 18 – 55
Harmony 9 8 8 12 – 37