ST. MARYS — Keeping the score in the 50s with ball control and good transition defense were keys in Curwensville Area High School boys basketball coach Matt Wassil’s game plan for the Golden Tide’s District 9 Class AA quarterfinal test against No. 2 seed Coudersport Wednesday evening.
The seventh-seeded Golden Tide failed in both areas in the second quarter when they were guilty of 10 turnovers, and the high-flying Falcons exploded for 30 points and a 44-16 halftime lead on their way to a 71-47 victory in St. Marys High School’s Dutch Oven.
“Honestly, other than the second quarter when we threw the ball away after they went 1-3-1, I thought we played pretty well,” Wassil said during his post-game WOKW-FM interview. “They’re not ghosts. We threw the ball right at them a lot of times. And you can’t play that way in any stretch of a game against a team of their caliber.”
Especially not the North Tier League champs, who had soared past 70 points 17 times, reached 80 or more in 10 games and amassed 98 twice and 100 once en route to a 19-3 regular season.
Curwensville was able to extend possessions looking for a good shot in the opening quarter but made only two of seven attempts from the floor and fell behind 14-7.
After Avery Francisco’s putback offset a Derek Keglovits layup, the Falcons went on a 23-3 run to basically lock up a berth in the quarterfinals against No. 6 Brockway, which upset No. 3 Keystone 46-42. Only an old-school three-pointer by Francisco interrupted the run.
Freshman reserve Hayden Keck’s nine points highlighted Coudersport’s 30-point quarter that had contributions from all five starters.
Keck, who logged more time than usual with senior Jared Green wearing a faceguard because of a broken nose, was one of four Falcons in double figures with 14 points.
Green tallied 11, seven below his average, while junior Owen Chambers was high with 19 and senior Hunter Ricke added 11. Green and Chambers, who was averaging 24.7, both are well over 1,000 points for their careers.
“The Chambers kid is an outside shooter,” Wassil said. “We knew that if he gets open, he’s gonna score. I though we did a decent job of getting him off the three-point line, but he showed he’s more than just a one-trick pony. He’s able to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket well.”
Game honors, however, went to Golden Tide senior Josh Terry with 25 points, his 13th game with 20 or more.
The standout guard, who wound up with 460 points to average exactly 20 this season, racked up 17 points in the second half when Curwensville outscored Coudersport 30-27.
“Josh has played well for us all year,” Wassil said. “Unfortunately, I got to coach him for only two years.”
Devan Barrett, Nick Stewart and Nate McKenrick also will be graduating in June.
“All these seniors I wish I would have gotten to coach them longer. They’re a good group of kids and a little bit of a springboard for our program. So, hopefully, our underclassmen realize that, and they get in the gym and work hard and duplicate some of the things these guys have been able to accomplish.”
Francisco, a junior, just missed a double-double with nine points and a like number of rebounds.
Curwensville, co-champion of the Moshannon Valley League with West Branch, finished with an 11-12 record.
“We’re trying to grow the program, and we made a couple steps in the right direction,” Wassil said. “We shared the Moshannon Valley League title, which was one of our goals. We made the playoffs, which was one of our goals.
“We would have liked a better outcome, but we played a really good team. And they were better than us tonight.”
CURWENSVILLE — 46
Devan Barrett 1 0-0 2, Josh Terry 10 3-4 25, Christian Bakaysa 0 2-2 2, Noah VonGunden 0 1-2 1, Avery Francisco 4 1-1 9, Nick Stewart 0 0-0 0, Dakota Bloom 1 0-0 2, Nate McKenrick 1 0-0 3, Jeremy Irwin 0 0-0 0, Lincoln Guiffre 1 0-0 2, Adam Miller 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 7-9 46.
COUDERSPORT — 71
Owen Chambers 5 9-9 19, Jared Green 5 1-2 11, Hunter Ricke 5 0-0 13, Derek Keglovits 2 0-0 5, Dillon Keglovits 1 0-0 2, Hayden Keck 6 0-0 14, Kolby VanWhy 1 0-0 2, Travis Gleason 2 1-1 5, David Burd 0 0-0 0, Derek Easton 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 27 11-13 71.
Three-Point Field Goals — Curwensville 3 (Terry 2, McKenrick 1); Coudersport 6 (Ricke 3, De. Keglovits 1, Keck 2).
Score by Quarters
Curwensville 7 9 10 20 – 46
Coudersport 14 30 13 14 – 71