CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team finally won a close game on Saturday afternoon, beating the Cardinals of DuBois Central Catholic (DCC), 37-33.
The Cardinals knocked off the Tide the first time these two teams met, January 4, 35-29 in DuBois.
For the first two and a half quarters trading baskets apparently wasn’t much of an option as both squads went on runs that either gave them the lead or got them back into the battle.
DCC started out with the game’s first basket, by Dom Goldbach, at the 6:30 point of the first period giving the visitors from DuBois a 2-0 lead.
Then Curwensville unveiled a smothering defense that produced a 9-0 run and after one period was over it was 9-2 in favor of the Golden Tide.
It wasn’t over yet, the first run, that is, as it went to 16-0.
Curwensville scored the first seven points of the second frame and held a “looking pretty good” lead, 16-2, over the Cardinals.
Not so fast. DCC decided enough was enough and went on a 12-0 run of its own to end the second quarter, which ended up cutting the Tide margin to just two at the intermission, 18-16.
The Tide came right back at DCC to start the second half with an 8-0 run to take a 26-16 lead before Cardinal Michael Krajewski scored the Cardinals first bucket of the third quarter with 2:40 left on the clock.
Now the two squads started to trade baskets and after three quarters Curwensville had an eight point lead, 30-22.
Curwensville scored 12 points in the third and eight of those 12 came from the free throw line.
Speaking of free throws, the two teams combined for 51 attempts from the charity stripe, with the Tide coming out on top in that statistical department and eventually helping secure the win.
DuBois Central Catholic was only 9 of 26 from the line, while the Golden Tide went 14 of 25.
Back to the game, and the fourth and final eight minutes.
Curwensville lost two starters to foul trouble in the fourth period. Brett Gardner went to the bench early in the final eight minutes, while Kyle Johns joined his mates on the sidelines with 4:11 remaining in the contest.
The Cardinals quickly cut the Tide lead down to four points, 30-26, to start the final stanza before a steal and lay-up by Tanner Elensky, which was followed by a Johns bucket, pushed Curwensville back out in front by eight, 34-26, with just over five minutes remaining.
DCC would cut the Tide margin to four again, 37-33, with 31 ticks left on the clock. A clock that would run down to zeroes with no more scoring by either team resulting in a much needed Curwensville victory.
Tide head coach Shane Pentz who lost by just four Friday night to Brookville, was glad to see one come his way, saying, “It was really a great team effort today. Our defense was the difference in this game. DuBois Central didn’t make one three pointer. We were digging down in the post and recovering out to their shooters quicker than we have done all year long.”
Then the happy Pentz added, “Everyone who gave us seconds in this contest this afternoon certainly did their job. And they needed to because we were in foul trouble the entire game.”
DuBois Central Catholic won the junior varsity contest, beating the Golden Tide 65-34. Trey Rauckhorst had 13 points for Curwensville.
On Tuesday the Tide, 3-13, will host Sheffield with the junior varsity starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC — 33
Michael Krajewski 5 3-5 13, Nate Fassnacht 1 0-0 2, Ayden Hanes 0 0-0 0, Dom Goldbach 4 3-14 11, Sebastian Schenck 2 2-2 6, Jake Heigel 0 0-2 0, Timmy Kentoski 0 0-0 0, Steven Kane 0 0-1 0, Nick Cherry 0 0-0 0, Dane Aucker 0 1-2 1, Nick Sczerba 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 12 9-26 33.
CURWENSVILLE — 37
Brett Gardner 2 0-0 5, Kyle Johns 2 4-4 8, Tanner Elensky 3 3-4 9, Alex Olson 1 1-2 3, Austin Jacobson 0 0-1 0, Marcus Stephenson 0 0-0 0, Trey Rauckhorst 2 1-4 5, Harrison Bloom 1 5-10 7, Jonathon Miller 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 11 14-25 37.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 2 14 6 11 33
CURWENSVILLE 9 9 12 7 37
THREE-POINTERS: DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC – NONE CURWENSVILLE – 1 Gardner
OFFICIALS: Lee Martell, Brian Smeal
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/07 | @ Clearfield | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 12/10 | @ Clearfield | 37 – 42 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/11 | @ Brockway | 32 – 45 | 0 – 2 |
| 12/14 | RIDGWAY | 37 – 59 | 0 – 3 |
| 12/17 | @ West Branch | 56 – 68 | 0 – 4 |
| 12/18 | HARMONY | 60 – 62 | 0 – 5 |
| 12/21 | KANE | ppd. | 0 – 5 |
| 01/02 | GLENDALE | 53 – 57 | 0 – 6 |
| 01/04 | @ DuBois Central | 29 – 35 | 0 – 7 |
| 01/08 | JOHNSONBURG | 32 – 77 | 0 – 8 |
| 01/09 | @ Glendale | 40 – 52 | 0 – 9 |
| 01/15 | ELK COUNTY | 40 – 57 | 0 – 10 |
| 01/16 | @ Mo Valley | 74 – 49 | 1 – 10 |
| 01/22 | @ Ridgway | 31 – 70 | 1 – 11 |
| 01/23 | KANE | 45 – 63 | 1 – 12 |
| 01/25 | BROCKWAY | ppd. | 1 – 12 |
| 01/28 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | ppd. | 1 – 12 |
| 01/30 | @ Harmony | 55 – 37 | 2 – 12 |
| 02/01 | @ Brookville | 46 – 50 | 2 – 13 |
| 02/02 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 37 – 33 | 3 – 13 |
| 02/05 | SHEFFIELD | ||
| 02/06 | MO VALLEY | ||
| 02/08 | @ Kane | ||
| 02/09 | BROCKWAY | ||
| 02/11 | CLEARFIELD | ||
| 02/13 | WEST BRANCH |