CURWENSVILLE — The start of the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team’s most important week couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start Tuesday night.
The Golden Tide missed their first 33 shots from the floor, including all 22 in the first quarter, and suffered a 52-43 loss to Sheffield in an Allegheny Mountain League crossover game at Patton Hall.
“It’s another game where we just didn’t come out to play, for whatever reason,” Curwensville coach Shane Pentz said. “Before the game, we talked about coming out with a sense of urgency, and we did the exact opposite.
“We just looked lethargic. Honestly, we look tired, and I’m not sure why because we’ve had some days off recently with snow days.
“Right now, we look like we’re playing in quicksand.”
What almost was a must-win for the Golden Tide’s hopes of making the District 9 Class AA Playoffs was pretty much decided in the opening period with the Wolverines jumping off to a 12-3 lead on four baskets by 6-3 forward Adam Higby and two by point guard Jake Johnson.
Only Jake Terry scored for the hosts, who were 3-for-8 at the foul line.
Curwensville didn’t fare much better in the field goal shooting department in the second quarter with only two of 20 attempts finding their mark.
Fortunately, the Wolverines weren’t taking care of the ball, so when Johnathan Miller ended the long drought with a putback with 4:09 left in the half, the Golden Tide trailed only 17-10.
Noah Strickland kept them in the game by making all six of his foul shots, and Trey Rauckhorst’s short baby hook just before the buzzer left Curwensville with a 23-14 deficit at the break.
“When you shoot 2-for-42 in a half, I just don’t know how to explain that,” Pentz said. “We tried almost everybody we had on the bench to see if we could find someone that would get a hot hand, and we never really found one until the fourth quarter when Jake made some shots for us.”
In the first 16 minutes, Curwensville (5-13, 1-7 AML-South Division) not only wasted all but one of its dozen offensive rebounds but also couldn’t capitalize on 15 turnovers by Sheffield (7-14, 3-7 AML-North Division).
“I feel like half the time we got a turnover, it turned into a blocked shot at the other end,” Pentz said. “We weren’t aggressive in transition like we had talked about.
“It looked after a while that we were worried where the defense was coming from, so we didn’t want to get our shot blocked. And then we weren’t focused on making the layup. Again, layups continue to give us trouble.”
The Golden Tide made two runs at the Wolverines after intermission.
After falling behind 29-16 early in the third period, the Golden Tide chopped the margin to six, 35-29 on seven points by Rauckhorst, five by Harrison Bloom and another free throw by Strickland.
However, Johnson turned a runner in the lane into an old-fashioned three-point play and Logan Connolly hit two charity tosses to up Sheffield’s advantage to 40-29 going to the final period.
Forcing three turnovers with their zone trap, the Golden Tide got as close as 42-37 with 5:54 remaining as Terry swished three-pointers from the top of the key and the right corner and Alex Hill tossed in a baseline jumper.
Then, Curwensville went scoreless for more than three minutes and was down 48-37 before Terry drove for a layup.
He followed up with a fast-break deuce with 2:18 left, but free throws by Higby and Johnson in the next minute sealed it for the Wolverines.
Johnson wound up with a game-high 21 points, and Higby tallied 17.
Sheffield shot 51.2 percent (21-for-41) to overcome 27 turnovers.
Terry and Rauckhorst netted 15 and 12 points, respectively for Curwensville, which finished 13-for-74 for 17.6 percent.
Now, the Golden Tide has to win three games in three days to qualify for the postseason, starting with a 4:30 p.m. matinee at Glendale Wednesday in a makeup of Monday’s snowout.
They’ll host DuBois Central Catholic in their home finale Thursday and then make the long trip to Kane Friday.
Curtis Linsenbigler and Zach Marshall tallied 15 points apiece and Quamone Newkirk added 11 to lead the Curwensville jayvees to a 51-33 victory.
SHEFFIELD — 52
Adam Higby 8 1-4 17, Logan Connolly 1 5-6 7, Jake Johnson 9 2-4 21, Drew Higby 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Vile 3 1-1 7, Austin Simmer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 9-15 52.
CURWENSVILLE — 43
Noah Strickland 0 7-8 7, Jake Terry 5 3-4 15, Trey Rauckhorst 5 2-3 12, Harrison Bloom 1 2-4 5, Alex Hill 1 0-0 2, Johnathan Miller 1 0-0 2, Quamone Newkirk 0 0-2 0, Curtis Linsenbigler 0 0-0 0, Zach Marshall 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 14-21 42.
Three-Point Field Goals – Sheffield 1 (Johnson); Curwensville 3 (Terry 2, Bloom 1).
Score by Quarters
Sheffield 12 11 17 12 – 52
Curwensville 3 11 15 14 – 43
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 | 42 – 34 | 4 – 8 |
| 01/19 | @ West Branch | 42 – 59 | 4 – 9 |
| 01/20 | @ Ridgway | 40-41 ot | 4 – 10 |
| 01/23 | BROCKWAY | 45-50 ot | 4 – 11 |
| 01/26 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | ppd. | 4 – 11 |
| 01/28 | @ Harmony | 62 – 46 | 5 – 11 |
| 01/30 | @ Johnsonburg | 43 – 60 | 5 – 12 |
| 02/02 | @ Glendale | ppd. | 5 – 12 |
| 02/03 | SHEFFIELD | 43 – 52 | 5 – 13 |
| 02/05 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | ||
| 02/06 | @ Kane | ||
| 02/09 | @ Clearfield |