CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Golden Tide boys basketball team broke an eight game losing streak Tuesday night in defeating DuBois Central Catholic (DCC), 59-53, on the Tide’s home court.
What made the win even sweeter was the fact that the Tide had less than 24 hours to re-group after getting dumped by Clearfield Monday night, 85-37.
DCC defeated the Tide in DuBois in January 66-56.
Tide head coach Matt Wassil talked afterwards about the effort of his squad, saying, “We showed a lot of heart and guts tonight after the loss at Clearfield last night (Monday). We came out and played hard with a good effort and it’s always nice to get a win.”
Both teams couldn’t seem to find any offense in the first quarter as the score was tied at 2-2 with 5:45 to play in the first.
Then Curwensville’s Devan Barrett got a bucket, plus one, to give the Tide a three point margin.
DCC tied the game at six each before Tide sophomore Avery Francisco put in a basket with just half of a second left to give Curwensville an 8-6 lead heading into the second frame.
Curwensville upped its lead in the second eight minutes thanks to three treys, two from Josh Terry and one from Barrett to outscore the Cardinals 13-11 and take a 21-17 lead into the intermission.
The Tide had a nine point edge, 21-12, with 1:33 to go before the break but the Cardinals cut it down to four on a two pointer by Noah Pettenati and then a three pointer from Anthony Kness with 18 ticks left in the first 16 minutes.
The lead changed hands four times in the third quarter before the Tide went on an 8-0 run at the end of the third to up the lead to five, 39-34 going into the final eight minutes.
Two point buckets by Noah Von Gunden and Dakota Bloom, along with a Terry three pointer, gave the Golden Tide that 8-0 run.
It didn’t look good for Curwensville early in the fourth quarter as DCC went on an 8-0 run of its own to pull in front 43-39 with 5:58 to play and the Cardinals seemingly surging offensively.
The Tide pulled to within one, 43-42, on two free throws from Bloom and one from Barrett with just over five minutes to go in the contest.
Francisco and Terry had back to back buckets to tie the game at 46 each with a little over four minutes remaining.
The score would be tied twice more, at 48, and then again at 51 before Curwensville ended the struggle on an 8-2 run to get its fourth win of the season.
The eight points for the Tide in that game ending stretch came all from the foul line.
Terry went 3 for 4, Von Gunden and Barrett each 2 for 2, and Dakota Bloom 1 for 2.
In all, Curwensville made good on 17 of 26 from the charity stripe.
Barrett paced the Tide offense with 18 points while Terry tossed in 14.
Austen Cogley lead DCC with 14, while Pettenati added 11 points.
Cardinal sophomore Justin Miknis, who had 26 against Curwensville the first time around, was held to just eight tallies, all coming in the second half.
Wassil closed, commenting, “We did have a five to seven point lead at times and I was thinking another basket or two would be great, but give them (DCC) credit, they kept fighting back. But we didn’t break and I can’t ask for much more than that.”
In the junior varsity game it was also Curwensville coming away with a 26-22 victory over the Cardinals. Christian Bakaysa had 14 points for the Tide.
Curwensville, 4-15, will be at home on Friday night against Sheffield with the JV game tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
Listen to the Golden Tide – Wolverine game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting with the pre-game show at approximately 7:15 pm.
DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC – 53
Austen Cogley 6 2-2 14, Michael Misiewicz 1 0-2 2, Noah Pettenati 3 4-5 11, Thomas Grecco 2 0-0 4, Justin Miknis 4 0-0 8, Anthony Kness 1 0-1 3, Brandon Walker 1 4-4 7, Jonathan Kurtz 1 0-0 2, Garrett Prosper 0 0-0 0, John Swalligan 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 20 10-14 53
CURWENSVILLE – 59
Devan Barrett 5 5-7 18, Noah Von Gunden 2-3-5 7, Christian Bakaysa 3 0-2 6, Avery Francisco 4 0-1 8, Josh Terry 3 5-6 14, Dakota Bloom 1 4-5 6, TOTALS – 18 17-26 59
THREE-POINTERS: DCC – 3 Pettenati, Kness, Walker CURWENSVILLE – 6 Barrett 3, Terry 3
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLC 6 11 17 19 53
CURWENSVILLE 8 13 18 20 59
OFFICIALS: Marv Martell, Lee Martell
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 | 40 – 76 | 1 – 6 |
| 01/10 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | ppd. | 1 – 6 |
| 01/11 | @ Mo Valley | ppd. | 1 – 6 |
| 01/13 | HARMONY | 70 – 45 | 2 – 6 |
| 01/17 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | 32 – 78 | 2 – 7 |
| 01/18 | WEST BRANCH | 55 – 50 | 3 – 7 |
| 01/20 | @ Kane | 41 – 60 | 3 – 8 |
| 01/23 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | 56 – 66 | 3 – 9 |
| 01/24 | @ Ridgway | 42 – 53 | 3 – 10 |
| 01/27 | BROCKWAY | 53 – 75 | 3 – 11 |
| 01/30 | KANE | 37 – 59 | 3 – 12 |
| 01/31 | @ Harmony | ppd. | 3 – 12 |
| 02/01 | @ Glendale | 57 – 64 | 3 – 13 |
| 02/03 | @ Johnsonburg | 31 – 60 | 3 – 14 |
| 02/06 | @ Clearfield | 37 – 85 | 3 – 15 |
| 02/07 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 59 – 53 | 4 – 15 |
| 02/10 | SHEFFIELD | ||
| 02/13 | @ Mo Valley | ||
| 02/16 | @Harmony |
