CURWENSVILLE — No strangers to down-to-the-wire finishes, the Curwensville Area High School cagers maintained their composure in the in the final minutes Friday night to turn back Glendale 53-50 in Patton Hall.
The Moshannon Valley League victory ended a seven-game slide that included a pair of frustrating two-point home losses to Kane when they missed 18 foul shots and Johnsonburg when they led by three with less than 30 seconds left.
“We made just enough plays down the stretch,” a relieved Golden Tide coach Shane Pentz said. “We made just enough fee throws and got just enough rebounds.
“We’ve had a couple tough losses in this stretch and really needed a win.”
It was hard-earned and well-deserved.
After leading most of the second half, the Golden Tide found themselves locked in a 45-45 tie with 2:57 remaining following a 10-4 Viking run keyed by Anthony Barnhart’s six points.
Noah Strickland put Curwensville back in front with a difficult runner in the lane.
Then, junior classmate Jake Terry electrified the good Senior Night crowd by attacking the basket and banking in a tricky, twisting layup.
“When Jake’s going down the lane, I’m yelling at him to pull it out, but when it goes in, you just say ‘Nice shot,’” Pentz said. “In all honesty, that’s a shot Jake can hit He’s used to getting into the lane and having to create some space. So, it really wasn’t a bad shot.”
With Glendale (6-6) in a fouling mode, Curwensville (3-8) had a chance to extend the 49-45 edge but Terry missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Seconds later, Barnhart gave the Vikings life with a long three-pointer.
“When he pulled up from that white line, I had visions of Johnsonburg all over,” Pentz said. “That‘s about where the kid hit the shot to tie the game that night.”
The Golden Tide had no answer for the Rams, but they did against the Vikings by cashing four of six free throws in the final 1:02.
After Glendale’s Nate Braniff hit of pair clutch foul shots to knot the score again, 50-50, Terry sank the first of two free throws for the winning point with 26.4 seconds left.
A late miss by Barnhart was grabbed by Strickland, who was fouled and calmly buried the clinching free throws with 4.3 seconds to go.
Regular starters Strickland and Terry, who led the Golden Tide with 15 points, came through after not being on the floor for the opening tip because Pentz went with seniors Trey Rauckhorst, Harrison Bloom, Alex Hill, Johnathan Miller and Foster Cannon after they were honored in a brief ceremony along with Dillon Davis.
“Noah does a lot of things that don’t show up in the scorebook and he had eight big points,” Pentz said. “That’s what we needed, more guys getting into the eight to 10 area rather than just two or three points. We asked somebody besides Jake and Trey to do some scoring tonight, and we had some guys step up.
“Harry Bloom really gave us a good offensive output. He had a couple big threes, and he hit a big free throw late.”
Junior Quamone Newkirk came off the bench to spark a second-period comeback with all seven of his points after the Golden Tide went more than six minutes without stirring the nets to trail 11-7 at the first rest stop.
“For whatever reason, we came out sluggish again offensively,” Pentz said. “I’d say in about half our games this year, the first three or four minutes of the first quarter sometimes is a real struggle for us to score.”
Newkirk nailed a three-pointer from outside early in the second quarter and then flashed to the hoop twice in Curwensville’s closing 8-0 run that had the hosts ahead 22-21 at intermission.
“Quamone really gave us a jump start defensively,” Pentz sad. “We tried to trap a little in the second quarter out of our half court and he was able to get into passing lanes and turn defense into offense.”
Curwensville increased its lead to 41-35 by hitting eight of 14 shots in the third quarter with Terry pumping in 10 points, including a pair of threes from the right corner, Bloom knocking down his second trifecta and another jumper and Rauckhorst adding two buckets.
Shea O’Donnell, who is closing in on 1,000 career points, kept Glendale in the game with nine of his game-high 19 points, seven of them free throws. He wound up 13-for-18 at the charity stripe.
“For a while, it seem like very time down the floor, we were fouling No. 5, fouling No. 5,” Pentz said. “You can’t defend that when one person is going to the line 18 times. A lot of games our team doesn’t take that many.”
“But he’s an awfully good player. He’s very active. We just couldn’t seem to keep him off the boards.”
The big senior hauled in 18 rebounds, many on the offensive end.
Barnhart gave the Vikings a one-two punch with 17 points.
Glendale won the rebounding battle 31-20, but Curwensville offset that by committing only 12 turnovers.
Rauckhorst had 10 rebounds to go with nine points for the Golden Tide.
“Our kids just needed to get back in the win column,” Pentz concluded. “Hopefully, this propels us and gives us some confidence.”
Curwensville gets a chance to build some momentum Saturday when Moshannon Valley visits for an MVL makeup game at 4:30 p.m.
In the prelim, Zach Marshall and R.J. Olson scored 23 and 20 points, respectively, as the Golden Tide junior varsity rolled to a 59-13 victory.
Moshannon Valley League – West Branch 4-0, Moshannon Valley 2-1, Curwensville 2-2, Glendale 1-3, Harmony 0-3.
GLENDALE — 50
Shea O’Donnell 3 13-18 19, Anthony Barnhart 7 1-3 17, Cameron Wigfield 2 0-0 5, Dane Mencer 2 0-0 4, Nate Braniff 1 2-2 5, Jared Schultz 0 0-0 0, Bailey Sinclair 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 16-23 50.
CURWENSVILLE — 53
Trey Rauckhorst 4 1-2 9, Harrison Bloom 3 1-2 9, Alex Hill 2 0-0 4, Johnathan Miller 0 1-2 1, Foster Cannon 0 0-0 0, Noah Strickland 3 2-2 8, Jake Terry 6 1-3 15, R. J. Olson 0 0-0 0, Quamone Newkirk 3 0-1 7. TOTALS: 21 6-12 53.
Three-Point Field Goals – Glendale 4 (Barnhart 2, Wigfield 1, Barnhart 1); Curwensville 5 (Bloom 2, Terry 2, Newkirk 1).
Score by Quarters
Glendale 11 10 14 15 – 50
Curwensville 7 15 19 12 – 53
Officials – Dave Gardner and Craig Witherow.
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 | 53 – 30 | 3 – 8 |
| 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 |