MORRISDALE — The one thing that this year’s Curwensville Golden Tide basketball team has struggled with is putting together four quarters of basketball. Whether it’s turnovers, shooting trouble, or inconsistent game play, there have been few times that the Tide have put together a solid 32 minutes of play. Knowing this, they traveled to face West Branch on Friday night, ready to hit the court hard and fast.
Three of the quarters for the Tide went really well, as they started strong and finished even stronger. However, one quarter saw their inconsistency show itself, and costing them dearly in a 56-45 loss, dropping their season record to 5-15.
Although it started out strong for Curwensville, the Warriors were matching them shot for shot. However, Curwensville’s momentum quickly came to a halt in the opening quarter. After hitting a pair of three’s to help get the Tide an early 9-8 lead, Curwensville lost the handle on the ball, and going the other way the Warriors went for the easy layup. Ty Terry went up and got the block on the opposite end, but when he came down a look of agony came across his face. Tide head coach Matt Wassil walked over to check on his top player, along with trainers, and much to the delight of both sides of the court, Terry got up and hopped over to the sidelines.
While trainers worked to tape his ankle to potentially get him back in the game, Curwensville continued to battle hard, finishing the opening quarter behind by a single possession.
Terry would come back and play a limited role in the second quarter, but it was clear his ankle was not feeling right, struggling to defend and shoot with not being able to put a lot of weight on his foot. West Branch, meanwhile, was forcing turnovers and taking them the opposite way to increase their lead on Curwensville, taking a 29-21 advantage into the locker room.
When the teams came out for the start of the second half, it got physical on both ends, with the fans questioning some of the fouls being called. Whether offensive control, or a hand check in trying to get the ball, some calls were marginal.
Warrior head coach Danny Clark even voiced his opinion on a call down on his end of the court that went Curwensville’s way, drawing the ire of the officials. This led to a stoppage to note a sideline warning for the Warriors.
The stoppage didn’t help Curwensville reset, because turnovers and sloppy decisions allowed the Warriors to get easy points, outscoring the Tide 20-4 in the frame.
Having to play a lot of younger guys in a tough situation with Terry mostly on the sidelines was tough, which head coach Matt Wassil didn’t shy away from.
“Our young kids, a lot of times, they don’t trust themselves in a varsity game. Even when Ty was in, we had opportunities for a lot of those guys to take similar shots they made in the fourth quarter, but they were tentative,” he said. “Then when they did take them, they wouldn’t make those shots, because they were tentative. In the fourth, we just realized that we had to go play.”
Despite being down 49-25 entering the final quarter, Curwensville put together their best quarter as they put up 20 points, limiting their turnovers, and holding West Branch to just seven points.
“I thought we adjusted well, understood our mistakes, and played well in the fourth quarter. But, we’re not here to play close; we are here to win,” Wassil said afterwards on his team’s play in the final quarter.
At night’s end, Davis Fleming led the Tide with 11 points, while Parker Wood played hard in the paint to pull down nine rebounds.
On the opposite end, the Warriors’ Joel Evans put up a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead all scorers. Zach Tiracorda added in another 17 points while also contributing four steals.
Curwensville officially ended the part of the schedule that had them be the visiting team, but the season is yet to come to an end, as the Tide have a pair of games next week inside Patton Hall. For Wassil, he is only looking for one thing from his team.
“We want to continue that improvement we’ve seen this year, and hopefully earlier in the game,” he said. “Hopefully our younger guys can take some confidence from this and when we play our next two games, play like that throughout the game, rather than wait on that comfortability.
“Bottom line, we want to win.”
Curwensville’s next game comes on Tuesday as they will welcome in the Clearfield Bison for a rivalry showdown. These two opened the 2021-2022 season against one another back in December, with Clearfield getting the opening-season win. Tip-off for junior varsity is at 6 p.m. with the varsity game to follow.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Curwensville 11 10 4 20 – 45
West Branch 13 16 20 7 – 56
Curwensville – 45
Andrew Wassil 1 0-2 2, Ty Terry 2 0-0 6, Tyler Lee 1 0-0 2, Danny McGarry 0 1-4 1, Davis Fleming 4 0-0 11, Chandler English 1 3-6 5, Parker Wood 4 1-2 9, Ayden Sutike 0 0-0 0, Connor Luzier 0 0-0 0, Grant Swanson 1 2-2 5, Braden Holland 1 2-2 4. TOTALS 15 9-18 45.
West Branch – 56
Joel Evans 8 2-3 18, Jackson Croyle 3 0-0 6, Isaac Tiracorda 0 0-0 0, Zach Tiracorda 7 2-2 17, Kyle Kolesar 0 0-0 0, Owen Koleno 0 4-4 4, Zach McGonigal 0 0-0 0, Matt Erich 0 0-0 0, Azadio Vargas 0 0-0 0, Sage Carr 2 0-1 5. TOTALS 22 8-12 56.
GAME STATISTICS
Curwensville/West Branch
Shooting: 15-55/22-55
Rebounds: 35/28
Fouls: 15/14
Turnovers: 24/12
Three-Point Shots: Terry-2, Fleming-3, Swanson/Z. Tiracorda, Colton-2 ,Carr