BROCKWAY – After committing a total of 14 first quarter turnovers, coupled with six team fouls, the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team fell in a big hole to Brockway after the first eight minutes on the Rovers home floor Friday night.
Brockway evened its record at 4-4 with the 67-54 final score.
As Golden Tide head coach Matt Wassil put it afterwards, saying, “We really struggled in the first quarter, throwing the ball away and having all those turnovers. It was difficult fighting an uphill battle in the first.”
Thanks to 10 first quarter points by Zane Puhala the Rovers gained a 24-11 edge after the first quarter.
If the Tide didn’t take care of the ball it would be a really long night. Credit Curwensville for cleaning up its ball handling in the second eight minutes or a blowout was in the making.
It was senior Christian Bakaysa of the Tide that took his turn of scoring 10 points in a quarter to cut the Rover halftime margin to 41-31.
The Golden Tide got the message from Wassil at the break and came out in the third and promptly went on a 6-0 run to cut Brockway’s lead to 41-37 with five and half minutes left in the quarter.
Then Tide freshman guard Ty Terry took over, draining three treys, with the first cutting the Rover edge to 42-40 with 4:10 left in the third.
Terry put the Tide in front 43-42 with another three-pointer at the 3:26 mark.
Brockway came back to go up 47-45 before Bakaysa gave Curwensville its final lead at 48-47 with a bucket and the subsequent free throw with 1:50 to go before the fourth quarter.
The Rovers would take a 51-48 edge after the third and then go on to outscore Curwensville 16-6 in the final frame to gain the victory.
Bakaysa had 16 for the Tide while Terry, with five treys, added 15 and Dakota Bloom put in 12 tallies.
Brockway was paced by Jon Wood’s 26 points and Zane Puhala with 24.
The two teams combined for 47 free throws with Brockway making good on 21 of 27 and the Tide nine of 20.
Wassil closed, commenting, “Once we settled down I thought we played pretty much even the rest of the way. We told the kids that they needed to take care of the ball and after the first quarter I thought we did much better in that area.”
The Rovers also won the junior varsity game by defeating the Tide by a score of 47-34. Trevor Lansberry had 19 for Curwensville.
Curwensville, still winless at 0-7, travels to DuBois Central Catholic on Tuesday with the JV game tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
CURWENSVILLE – 54
Ty Terry 5 0-0 15, Dakota Bloom 5 0-0 12, Jeremy Irwin 1 0-0 2, Christian Bakaysa 4 8-18 16, Avery Francisco 3 0-0 6, Lincoln Giuffre 1 0-0 2, Trevor Lansberry 0 1-2 1, Adam Miller 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 19 9-20 54
BROCKWAY – 67
Zane Puhala 8 7-10 24, Clayton Heckman 2 0-0 5, Jon Wood 8 10-12 26, Alec Freemer 3 2-3 8, Matthew Clark 0 0-0 0, Marcus Copelli 0 2-2 2, Lewis Painter 1 0-0 2, Brock Cramer 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 22 21-27 67
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 11 20 17 6 54
BROCKWAY 24 17 10 16 67
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 7 Terry 5, Bloom 2 BROCKWAY – 2 Puhala, Heckman
OFFICIALS: Kenny Knepp, Jeff Curtis, Ed Thorwart
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/07 @ Clearfield 32 – 77 0 – 1
12/10 @ Mo Valley 26 – 56 0 – 2
12/14 RIDGWAY 26 – 65 0 – 3
12/17 @ Penns Manor 53 – 66 0 – 4
12/19 GLENDALE 45 – 66 0 – 5
12/21 @ Leechburg 45 – 83 0 – 6
01/04 @ Brockway 54 – 67 0 – 7
01/08 @ DuBois Central
01/10 @ Harmony
01/15 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC
01/16 @ West Branch
01/18 @ Kane
01/21 HARMONY
01/22 @ Ridgway
01/25 BROCKWAY
01/28 WEST BRANCH
01/30 @ Glendale
02/01 @ Johnsonburg
02/05 DUBOIS CENTRAL
02/08 SHEFFIELD
02/11 MO VALLEY
02/13 CLEARFIELD