CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville high school boys basketball team turned the tables on Brockway Friday night to pick up its second victory of the year 63-60,on the Golden Tide’s home court.
The Rovers had already beaten Curwensville, at Brockway, on January 4, 67-54.
On this night it was the free throw line that was huge for Curwensville, as the Tide connected on 22 of 36 from the charity stripe.
Brockway actually had more field goals than the Tide, 23-18.
Tide Head Coach Matt Wassil commented, “The kids did everything I asked them to do tonight and I just kept telling them not to slow down. And I thought we had the same advantages tonight as when we played Brockway the first time.”
Each team had a main man on offense, and for the Golden Tide it was senior Christian Bakaysa scoring 30 points while Rover junior Alec Freemer had a game high of 35.
The Tide did take a 14-10 lead after the first quarter and extended it to as many as nine points twice in the second eight minutes.
Freshman guard Ty Terry hit a three-pointer with 6:58 to go before the half to put Curwensville up 19-10 and then at the 5:20 point of the second, Bakaysa hit two free throws to once again put the Tide up nine at 21-12.
Curwensville continued to stretch its lead, watching it grow to 15 on a basket by Dakota Bloom with about four minutes to play in the third.
The Rovers cut into the Tide margin the rest of the third quarter and trailed only by seven, 42-35, heading into the final eight minutes of action.
Freemer scored 15 points in the fourth and his three-point basket made it 56-53 Curwensville with just 1:22 to play.
But, again, it came down to foul shooting as the Golden Tide went to the line 19 times in the fourth quarter and made good on 11 of them to seal the three point victory.
Bakaysa was 14 of 18 from the line as Curwensville on the evening was 22 of 36 with Brockway going just five of 13.
Freshman Ty Terry had 14 points, with four treys, for Curwensville to help out Bakaysa.
Brockway ended the game with nine three pointers as Freemer connected on five from beyond the arc.
Wassil added, “We still need to learn how to win and put the game away, because we did get sloppy at times in the fourth when the game was still up for grabs.”
The Rovers defeated the Tide in the junior varsity game 40-38. High scorers for the Tide with 12 points each were Caleb Vance and Adam Miller.
Curwensville (2-12) is home on Monday night against West Branch at Patton Hall. The JV game will tip off at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
The Warriors beat the Golden Tide earlier in January, at West Branch, 56-40.
You can listen to the Curwensville-West Branch game on WOKW-FM 102.9, starting with the pre-game show at approximately 7:15 pm.
BROCKWAY – 60
Jon Wood 3 0-2 7, Alec Freemer 13 4-5 35, Matt Clark 2 0-0 6, Marcus Copelli 3 0-0 7, Brock
Cramer 0 0-0 0, Alden Bullers 0 0-0 0, Dakota Reasinger 0 0-0 0, Lewis Painter 2 1-6 5, TOTALS – 23 5-13 60
CURWENSVILLE – 63
Ty Terry 5 0-0 14, Dakota Bloom 3 1-4 8, Jeremy Irwin 1 4-8 6, Christian Bakaysa 8 14-18 30, Avery Francisco 1 2-4 4, Lincoln Giuffre 0 0-0 0, Adam Miller 0 1-2 1, TOTALS – 18 22-36 63
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BROCKWAY 10 10 15 25 60
CURWENSVILLE 14 14 14 21 63
THREE-POINTERS: BROCKWAY – 9 Freemer 5, Clark 2, Wood, Copelli CURWENSVILLE – 5 Terry 4, Bloom
OFFICIALS: Marvin Martell, Lee Martell, Andrew Sorbera
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 63 – 60 2 – 12
01/28 WEST BRANCH
01/30 @ Glendale
02/01 @ Johnsonburg
02/05 DUBOIS CENTRAL
02/08 SHEFFIELD
02/11 MO VALLEY
02/13 CLEARFIELD