RIDGWAY – A very patient, disciplined Ridgway boys basketball team beat the Curwensville Golden Tide Tuesday night on the Elkers’ home floor, 55-23.
When the two squads met in mid-December it was Ridgway coming out on top in that game also, 65-26.
In the rematch, Ridgway utilized a very deliberate offensive approach. Not forcing shots or rushing possessions throughout the vast majority of the contest.
Matt Wassil, Golden Tide head coach, said after the game, “It was frustrating on our part because we knew what Ridgway was going to do. But we couldn’t stop them. At times we played, what I thought, was pretty good defense. We just didn’t do that the whole game.”
Ridgway took a 7-0 lead before the Tide would score on two free throws by Christian Bakaysa with 3:36 left in the first quarter. Then the Elkers went on a 10-0 run to finish the first eight minutes up 17-2.
For the Tide, they didn’t hit their first basket of the game until Avery Francisco made a lay-up with 3:06 to play before the intermission as Ridgway took a 24-9 margin into the break.
The dominance continued for the Elkers in the second set of 16 minutes as they won the final two quarters by a combined score of 31-14 that enabled Ridgway to up its 2018-19 record to 12-3.
Wassil commented about the Tide’s offensive woes, saying, “What hurt us in the first half was a lack of inside shots. At times we would come down, make one pass, miss the shot and then scramble back on defense for at times like 45 seconds. A lot of that was due to poor shot selection on our part at times.”
Bakaysa had six points for the Tide with senior Jeremy Irwin next with five.
Junior Matt Dush of Ridgway had 20 points on the night while teammate Jake Reynolds chipped in with 14.
The Elkers also won the junior varsity game, defeating the Tide by a score of 34-14. Adam Miller had six points for Curwensville.
The Tide (1-12) return home for a Friday night game against Brockway. The JV game tips off at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
Brockway knocked off the Golden Tide on January 4, on the Rovers home floor, 67-54.
Listen to the Curwensville-Brockway game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show beginning at approximately 7:15 pm.
CURWENSVILLE – 23
Ty Terry 1 0-0 3, Dakota Bloom 1 1-2 3, Jeremy Irwin 2 0-0 5, Christian Bakaysa 2 2-5 6, Avery Francisco
2 0-1 4, Lincoln Giuffre 0 0-0 0, Trevor Lansberry 0 0-0 0, Adam Miller 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 9 3-8 23
RIDGWAY – 55
Matt Dush 9 2-3 20, Jake Reynolds 6 1-2 14, Parker Rohr 1 0-0 2, Daunte Allegretto 2 0-0 4, Will Thompson 4 1-1 9 Greg Simon 1 0-0 2, Domenic Allegretto 0 0-0 0, Eric Salberg 0 0-0 0, Alex Bon 1 0-0 2, Mike Gresco 0 0-1 0, Dan Park 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 25 4-7 55
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CURWENSVILLE 2 7 7 7 23
RIDGWAY 17 7 12 19 55
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 2 Irwin, Terry RIDGWAY – 1 Reynolds
OFFICIALS: Mike Haight, Mike Zilkofski, Bob Boyer
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 36 – 67 0 – 8
01/10 @ Harmony 64 – 59 1 – 8
01/15 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 48 – 64 1 – 9
01/16 @ West Branch 40 – 56 1 – 10
01/18 @ Kane 43 – 62 1 – 11
01/21 HARMONY ppd. 1 – 11
01/22 @ Ridgway 23 – 55 1 – 12
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