CURWENSVILLE — Perennial District 9 Class A powerhouse Elk County Catholic rolled into Patton Hall intent on putting a virtual lock on another Allegheny Mountain League North Division title, and the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team was unable to be a roadblock.
The Crusaders scored in bunches, stringing together at least two field goals on seven occasions, to defeat the Golden Tide 63-36, padding their record to 11-1 with their seventh AML-North win.
Early on, though, the Golden Tide (2-8, 1-4 AML-South) hung right with the Crusaders.
Noah Strickland rang up the hosts’ first six points and Trey Rauckhorst sandwiched a pair of buckets around Jake Terry’s three-pointer from the corner to give Curwensville a 13-10 lead with 3:10 left in the first quarter.
ECC coach Aaron Straub then sent out five new faces, and they responded with nine consecutive points, all except for one free throw coming in the low post, including putbacks by Kyle Huff and Alex Dattoli.
Five other reserves also got into the scoring act as the Crusaders registered 27 bench points.
“They’re one of the best teams in the district, regardless of classification, and I was telling our guys there’s two big differences between us and them,” Golden Tide coach Shane Pentz said. “One is they have multiple guys who can make open jump shots.
“The second thing is it’s not so much the defense they play, it’s the effort they play defense with. They’re always moving. They always have guys taking away the next pass.
“They make offense difficult if you’re not ready for that kind of pressure.”
Primarily because of the tight defense exhibited by the Crusaders, the Golden Tide were unable to break into double figures in the final three periods.
After Alex Hill opened the second quarter scoring with a difficult bank shot following an offensive rebound to reduce Curwensville’s deficit to 19-15, ECC went on a 12-2 run to seize control.
The Crusaders went to intermission on top 34-21 and then put it away with a 16-0 run in the third quarter when the Golden Tide hit only one of its first eight attempts and suffered six turnovers.
“Unfortunately for us, in the second and third quarters, our offense wasn’t there,” Pentz said. “We came out very aggressive in the first quarter. We were looking for shots. We were making shots.
“Then, all of a sudden, we got a little more hesitant and weren’t taking the same shots.
“I was kind of disappointed in the third quarter. They came out in that 1-3-1 half court trap, and we weren’t running the play we were supposed to. We got a little panicked when we saw a different defense than the man-to-man.”
ECC’s biggest lead was 60-29 with 3:34 remaining.
The Crusaders, who shot 59 percent, were led by Mitchell Struble and Nate DaCanal with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“A tip of the hat to them,” Pentz said. “They have guys they can run in. They don’t turn the ball over, they know how to play defense and they can make an open jump shot.
“It’s not one or two guys. It’s one group of five after another that can do those same things, and that’s why they’ve been so successful.”
Rauckhorst was high for the Golden Tide with 12 points.
“Trey had a really good night inside,” Pentz said. “His touch was there. We gave him some nice post passes and he was taking advantage of what the defense gave him.
“He was dealing with an injury earlier in the year, and I think he’s starting to round into form a little bit now.”
The loss was the seventh in a row for the Golden Tide, who return to Moshannon Valley League play with home games against Glendale Friday night and Moshannon Valley Saturday at approximately 4:30 p.m. in a make-up of last Friday’s postponement.
“We just have to keep working,” Pentz said. “We still have 12 games left. There’s a lot of time to get things going in the right direction.”
Elk County Catholic also prevailed in the junior varsity game, 47-38. R.J. Olson and Quamone Newkirk scored 10 points apiece for Curwensville.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC — 63
Benji Hoffman 2 0-0 4, Mitchell Struble 5 1-2 12, Ian Herzing 0 0-0 0, Ryan Seelye 4 1-2 9, Nate DaCanal 4 3-5 11, Jeffrey Wehler 0 1-2 1, Mitchell Smith 3 1-2 7, Alex Dattoli 2 0-0 4, Dan Singer 2 2-2 6, Kyle Huff 2 1-1 5, Jack Wolfe 1 0-0 2, Patrick Hoffman 1 0-0 2, Peter Riddle 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 26 10-16 63.
CURWENSVILLE — 36
Noah Strickland 3 2-3 8, Jake Terry 2 0-0 5, Trey Rauckhorst6 0-2 12, Harrison Bloom 1 2-2 4, Alex Hill 1 0-0 2, Johnathan Miller 0 0-0 0, Quamone Newkirk 1 0-0 3, R.J. Olson 1 0-0 2, Zach Marshall 0 0-0 0, Curtis Linsenbigler 0 0-0 0, Forster Cannon 0 0-0 0, Dillon Davis 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 4-7 36.
Three-Point Field Goals – Elk County Catholic 1 (Struble); Curwensville 2 (Terry 1, Newkirk 1).
Score by Quarters
Elk County Catholic 19 15 18 11 – 63
Curwensville 13 8 6 9 – 36
Officials – Marvin Martell, Lee Martell and Bill Zupich.
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/05 | @ Mo Valley | 41 – 51 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/08 | @ Brockway | 53 – 51 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/10 | HARMONY | 52 – 43 | 2 – 1 |
| 12/12 | RIDGWAY | 33 – 38 | 2 – 2 |
| 12/15 | CLEARFIELD | 40 – 71 | 2 – 3 |
| 12/16 | WEST BRANCH | 61 – 81 | 2 – 4 |
| 12/19 | KANE | 55-57 ot | 2 – 5 |
| 01/02 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | 38 – 63 | 2 – 6 |
| 01/06 | JOHNSONBURG | 38 – 40 | 2 – 7 |
| 01/09 | MO VALLEY | ppd. | 2 – 7 |
| 01/14 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | 36 – 63 | 2 – 8 |
| 01/16 | GLENDALE | ||
| 01/17 | MO VALLEY | ||
| 01/19 | @ West Branch | ||
| 01/20 | @ Ridgway | ||
| 01/23 | BROCKWAY | ||
| 01/26 | DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH | ||
| 01/28 | @ Harmony | ||
| 01/30 | @ Johnsonburg | ||
| 02/02 | @ Glendale | ||
| 02/03 | SHEFFIELD | ||
| 02/06 | @ Kane | ||
| 02/09 | @ Clearfield |