CURWENSVILLE — The Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team kept twice-beaten Ridgway in their sights for most of the first quarter, but a scoreless second period sent the Golden Tide spiraling to a 66-25 defeat in Patton Hall Tuesday night.
All five starters had points, including a three-pointer by Curtis Linsenbigler, as the hosts trailed by only three before Johnny Mitchell’s trey with four seconds remaining gave the Elkers a 15-9 lead after eight minutes of the Allegheny Mountain League South Division game.
“We played hard in the first quarter, and we competed,” Curwensville coach Shane Pentz said. “We were moving defensively. We were active defensively. We were looking for open shots. We were looking for open cutters.
“We were doing the things we had talked about in pre-game.”
The second period was a disaster, though, as the Golden Tide missed seven field goal tries and turned the ball over eight times, including their last six possessions.
“For whatever reason, we stopped doing what we had talked about,” Pentz said. “We let them dictate tempo. We let (Jeremy) Breier roam free. He was supposed to be our focus on defense.”
Breier, who joined the 1,000-Point Club in the season opener and entered the week as the No. 9 scorer in District 9 with a 17.8 average, stole an in-bounds pass for a three-point play, swished a 15-foot jumper and hit two free throws to propel the Elkers to a double-digit lead.
“In the first quarter, we did a good job on him,” Pentz pointed out. “In the second quarter, we just kept losing him.”
Ridgway, 12-2 with both losses to undefeated Elk County Catholic by a total of eight points, went to the locker room up 29-9 and widened that gap to 51-18 by the end of the third period with Breier netting nine points for a game-high 19.
The 6-4 senior also had nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Three Elker field goals at the outset of the fourth quarter set the running clock in motion for the final 6:15.
Linsenbigler knocked down two late three-pointers to top the Golden Tide with nine points.
The final almost mirrored their first meeting, a 70-25 win by the Elkers, who shot 50 percent with 26 field goals in remaining a half-game behind DuBois Central Catholic in the AML-South.
The Golden Tide had 27 turnovers and only 16 rebounds in falling to 1-13.
Ridgway’s junior varsity won the prelim 46-16.
Curwensville goes on the road Friday to take on AML-South foe Brockway.
Allegheny Mountain League South Division – DuBois Central Catholic 5-1, Ridgway 4-1, Brockway 1-4, Curwensville 0-5.
RIDGWAY — 66
Mitchell Stark 1 0-0 2, Neil MacDonald 3 0-0 8, Jeremy Breier 7 5-6 19, Andy Breier 3 0-0 6, Justin Kazmierski 2 2-2 6, Aaron Shilk 1 0-0 3, Cory Oknefski 1 0-0 2, Ben Ames 1 0-0 2, Johnny Mitchell 3 0-0 8, Kyle Jordan 3 1-1 7, Russ Zameroski 0 0-0 0, Josh Thorwart 1 0-0 3, Max Dush 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 26 8-9 66.
CURWENSVILLE — 25
Curtis Linsenbigler 3 0-0 9, Jared Bakaysa 1 0-0 2, Ian Barrett 0 1-2 1, Noah Strickland 2 0-0 4, R.J. Olson 1 1-2 3, Nick Stewart 2 1-2 6, Avery Francisco 0 0-0 0, Devan Barrett 0 0-0 0, Jake Terry 0 0-0 0, Josh Terry 0 0-0 0, Alec Opaliski 0 0-0 0, Christian Bakaysa 0 0-0 0, Nate McKenrick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9 3-6 25.
Three-Point Field Goals – Ridgway 6 (MacDonald 2, Shilk 1, Mitchell 2, Thorwart 1); Curwensville 4 (Linsenbigler 3, Stewart 1).
Score by Quarters
Ridgway 15 14 22 15 – 66
Curwensville 9 0 9 7 – 25
Officials – Tim Barnes and Andrew Krantz.
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/07 @ Clearfield 35 – 76 0 – 1
12/08 BROCKWAY 36 – 53 0 – 2
12/11 @ Ridgway 25 – 70 0 – 3
12/15 MO VALLEY 46 – 79 0 – 4
12/16 HARMONY 44 – 45 0 – 5
12/18 @ Kane 45 – 67 0 – 6
12/21 @ West Branch 41 – 83 0 – 7
01/04 DUBOIS CENTRAL 48 – 62 0 – 8
01/06 @ Johnsonburg 49 – 64 0 – 9
01/08 @ Mo Valley ppd. 0 – 9
01/12 @ Elk County ppd. 0 – 9
01/13 @ Mo Valley 46 – 62 0 – 10
01/15 WEST BRANCH 48 – 80 0 – 11
01/16 @ Elk County 42 – 77 0 – 12
01/18 GLENDALE 84 – 54 1 – 12
01/19 RIDGWAY 25 – 66 1 – 13
01/22 @ Brockway
01/25 @ DuBois Central
01/27 @ Harmony
01/29 JOHNSONBURG
02/01 @ Glendale
02/02 @ Sheffield
02/05 KANE
02/08 CLEARFIELD