CURWENSVILLE — Troubled by slow starts in the first three games, the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team was unable to change that trend Tuesday night as Moshannon Valley invaded Patton Hall and cruised to a 79-46 victory in the Moshannon Valley League opener for both squads.
“Mo Valley outplayed us right from the opening tip, and we dug ourselves a 16-point hole in the first quarter,” Golden Tide coach Shane Pentz said.
Jake Murawski hit a jumper and followed with a drive and a layup off an in-bounds play, and Dillon Hauck and Connor Holobinko sank two free throws apiece to give the Black Knights a 10-2 lead midway through the first period.
A 15-2 run over the final 2:43 spurred by Curtis Neff’s seven points inflated that bulge to 25-6 at the first rest stop.
The Golden Tide, which had failed to crack double figures in the first three quarters of any previous game, fought back with their best eight minutes of the season in the second quarter, six players contributing to a 19-point outburst with R.J. Olson scoring six.
However, the Black Knights kept pace to lead 43-25 at the half before making it a runaway with a 23-8 third period when two foul shots by Noah Strickland and three-pointers by Zach Marshall and Curtis Linsenbigler was all the Golden Tide could muster.
“Right now, our defense is letting us down,” Pentz said. “We’re not moving out of it. We’re not getting our hands active out of it. We’re reacting slowing out of it.
“And teams through four games, basically, are getting any shot they want.“
Most of Mo Valley’s makes against Curwensville’s man-to-man were from close range and produced a shooting percentage of 58.1 with 25 field goals.
The Black Knights (2-1) were even better at the foul line, canning all 11 free throws in the first half and finishing 23-for-29, a sizzling 79.3 percent.
A quartet of starters combined for all but six of Mo Valley’s points.
Murawski missed only one of 11 shots from the floor en route to a game-high 25 points, while Hauck and Neff checked in with 17 apiece and Holobinko added 14.
Hauck accounted for half of the Black Knight’s six three-pointers and drained all six free shots.
Olson had a season-high 10 points and Strickland and Marshall netted eight apiece for the Golden Tide, which hit 19 of 50 shots for 38 percent.
“We need to do a better job of attacking the gaps on that zone,” Pentz said. “Too many times we were just content with passing the ball around on the perimeter.
“We’ve got to start doing a little better job of looking at the high post and the low post, because we had some guys in scoring positions and weren’t able to get them the ball.”
Turnovers were a problem, too.
Curwensville was guilty of 25 while forcing only nine takeaways.
“We just have to play better,” Pentz said.
Hopefully, the Golden Tide will respond Wednesday when they get right back on their home floor to take on Harmony in another MVL game.
Curwensville’s junior varsity stormed from behind with a 19-4 fourth quarter to triumph 51-38. Avery Francisco led a balance offense with 12 points. Alex Kitko had a game-high 15 for Moshannon Valley’s underclassmen.
MOSHANNON VALLEY — 76
Dillon Hauck 4 6-6 17, Curtis Neff 5 6-8 17, Jake Murawski 10 4-4 25, Erik Sherkel 1 1-1 3, Connor Holobinko 4 6-8 14, Jacob Stanton 0 0-0 0, Derrick Malinich 1 0-0 3, Ethan Reed 0 0-0 0, Nick Kitko 0 0-2 0, Alex Kitko 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 25 23-29 79.
CURWENSVILLE — 46
Curtis Linsenbigler 1 0-0 3, Jake Terry 2 0-0 5, Zach Marshall 3 0-0 8, Noah Strickland 3 2-2 8, R.J. Olson 5 0-0 10, Devan Barrett 1 0-0 2, Ian Barrett 1 0-0 2, Avery Francisco 1 2-4 4, Jared Bakaysa 0 0-0 0, Nick Stewart 2 0-0 4, Alec Opaliski 0 0-0 0, Josh Terry 0 0-0 0, Christian Bakaysa 0 0-0 0, Nate McKenrick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 4-6 46.
Three-Point Field Goals – Moshannon Valley 6 (Hauck 3, Neff 1, Murawski 1, Malinich 1); Curwensville 4 (Linsenbigler, Ja. Terry, Marshall 2).
Score by Quarters
Moshannon Valley 25 18 23 13 – 79
Curwensville 6 19 8 13 – 46
Officials – Rusty McCracken and Marvin Martell.