CURWENSVILLE — Senior backcourt mates Tanner Elensky and Brett Gardner received all-star laurels after fueling the Curwensville Area High School basketball team’s winning record that was the program’s first in seven seasons.
Elensky was named to the Moshannon Valley League and Allegheny Mountain League teams in voting by the head coaches while Gardner was selected to the MVL’s top quintet.
The duo excelled on both ends of the court in leading coach Shane Pentz’s Golden Tide to a share of the MVL championship with West Branch and Glendale and a 14-9 record, including a 53-51 loss to eventual champion Brookville in the first round of the District 9 Class AA Playoffs.
Elensky scored 302 points, a 13.2 average, and topped the Golden Tide in assists with 69 and steals with 54. He also had 58 rebounds.
Gardner, one of the premier three-point shooters in the region with 49 treys, was Curwensville’s No. 1 scorer with 346 points, a 15.0 average, and was close behind Elensky in assists with 59 and steals with 44. He pulled down 77 missed shots.
Both players ended their careers among the leaders on more than one of the Golden Tide’s all-time lists.
Elensky, a four-year letterman, ranks as one of the school’s best all-around playmakers.
He is the new record-holder in steals with 241, claimed second place in assists with 271 behind 1990 graduate Pentz’s 300 and moved up to ninth in scoring with 887 points.
Gardner ended up No. 16 on the Golden Tide’s scoring list with 797 points for his three-year career, and his 117 three-pointers are second to the 148 netted by 2001 graduate Adam Donahue.
They are joined on the 2013-14 All-Moshannon Valley League Team by Kody Trude and Austin Krise of West Branch and Shea O’Donnell of Glendale.
Elensky is one of 10 players selected on the 2013-14 Allegheny Mountain League All-Star Team. The others are Cole Peterson and Cameron Grumley of Johnsonburg, Timmy Kentkowski and Dane Aucker of DuBois Central Catholic, Josh Roselli and Jeremy Brier of Ridgway, Corey Huff, Brandon Schlimm and Mitchell Struble of Elk County Catholic and Jeffrey Kocjancic of Kane.