CURWENSVILLE – After hanging with Johnsonburg the first 16 minutes, the Curwensville boys basketball team went as cold as the night air outside Patton Hall Wednesday night as the Tide lost to the Rams 56-42.
The Tide and Rams went back and forth in a very entertaining first half, with the lead changing hands several times before Johnsonburg went into the locker room at the break, up by just one point, 25-24.
Curwensville took a 7-5 lead with 5:08 to go in the first quarter on a three point basket by Devon Barrett.
Johnsonburg then went on a 7-2 run to help them end the first eight minutes out in front, 14-11.
Playing its best basketball of the game, the Tide had a nice little 7-0 run in the middle of the second frame that gave them its biggest lead of the evening at 23-19 with 3:22 left before halftime thanks to a three-pointer by junior guard Josh Terry.
It was just the second game back for Terry after sustaining a wrist injury during the Golden Tide football season.
Johnsonburg came out, with its one point edge, and took control of the game after Curwensville took its final lead on another Barrett basket to start the third quarter.
With the Tide up 27-25 with 6:20 to play in the third the Rams cranked up both the offense and defense to put together a game breaking 16-0 run.
The run ended when the Tide’s Avery Francisco hit two free throws with just 17 ticks on the clock to go before the start of the fourth quarter.
However, the damage was done, as Johnsonburg took a 42-29 lead into the final stanza.
The Rams maintained its lead in the fourth, outscoring the Tide 14-13, to even its season record at 4-4.
For the Tide (1-5) it was the second loss on consecutive nights at Patton Hall.
Andrew Akers of Johnsonburg lead all scorers on the night with 15 points, followed by 14 from teammate Ryan Kilhoffer.
Barrett had 11 to pace the Golden Tide offense.
Tide head coach Matt Wassil said after the game, “Johnsonburg did a nice job tonight but we caused a lot of our problems. So our loss was somewhat self inflicted. We just didn’t exercise our press break and that was very discouraging.”
Wassil then pointed out what could help his team, saying, “Better execution on both ends of the floor would certainly help us. We just aren’t playing consistent enough. Then again, other than the third quarter tonight, we held our own.”
The Rams made a clean sweep of the two games played, winning the junior varsity battle 50-47.
Curwensville takes a road trip to Brockway on Friday to face the Rovers with the junior varsity game starting at 6 pm and the varsity battle to immediately follow.
Listen to the Curwensville-Brockway boys basketball game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, beginning with the pre-game show starting at approximately 7:15 pm.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
JOHNSONBURG 14 11 17 14 56
CURWENSVILLE 11 13 5 13 42
JOHNSONBURG – 56
Ryan Kilhoffer 4 6-6 14, Jacob Sheldon 2 5-10 9, Kacey Raubenstrauch 4 0-2 8, Andrew Akers 7 0-0 15, Dilen Surra 1 0-1 2, Trevor Lobaugh 1 2-2 5, Tyler Singer 0 0-0 0, Ben Freeburg 1 1-3 3, Colby Hefright 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 20 14-24 56
CURWENSVILLE – 42
Devon Barrett 4 2-2 11, Noah Von Gunden 2 0-0 4, Christian Bakaysa 2 5-6 9, Zach Marshall 2 0-0 5, Avery Francisco 0 3-4 3, Josh Terry 3 1-4 8, Dakota Bloom 1 0-0 2, Cameron Moore 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 14 11-16 42
THREE-POINTERS: Jburg (2): Akers, Lobaugh. Cville (3): Barrett, Marshall, Terry
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Tim Barnes
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 | CLEARFIELD | 38 – 81 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/12 | @ West Branch | 57 – 72 | 0 – 2 |
| 12/16 | MO VALLEY | 25 – 57 | 0 – 3 |
| 12/21 | GLENDALE | 60 – 54 | 1 – 3 |
| 01/03 | RIDGWAY | 33 – 62 | 1 – 4 |
| 01/04 | JOHNSONBURG | 56 – 42 | 1 – 5 |
| 01/06 | @ Brockway | ||
| 01/10 | @ DuBois Central | ||
| 01/11 | @ Mo Valley | ||
| 01/13 | HARMONY | ||
| 01/17 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | ||
| 01/18 | WEST BRANCH | ||
| 01/20 | @ Kane | ||
| 01/24 | @ Ridgway | ||
| 01/27 | BROCKWAY | ||
| 01/30 | KANE | ||
| 01/31 | @ Harmony | ||
| 02/01 | @ Glendale | ||
| 02/03 | @ Johnsonburg | ||
| 02/06 | @ Clearfield | ||
| 02/07 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | ||
| 02/10 | SHEFFIELD |