CURWENSVILLE — Only having two games in a span of two weeks is a hard challenge for basketball teams. There’s a lot of time to work on technique and gameplay, but not having competition makes it difficult to judge where a team stands against others. For the Curwensville Golden Tide, that is how the 2022 portion of their season began, but sitting at 1-1 it was not a terrible way to begin the year. Monday night, with the home crowd on their side, the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils roared into Patton Hall for an Inter County Conference battle.
A battle is what they got, and Curwensville brought it all game long. After an early deficit, the Blue Devils began chipping away bit by bit. But, for the entire 32 minute contest, it was the Golden Tide that led the way, holding off a late charge to secure a decisive 62-54 victory in front of the home crowd.
“You hear all the things coaches usually say when coming out of the locker room, like ‘We gotta be ready to play’ or ‘set the tone,’ but then it’s like, ‘Are we ready to get things going,’ and we showed tonight we absolutely were,” Tide head coach Josh Tkacik said in the locker room afterwards.
Curwensville rocketed off after the opening tip-off, quickly getting out to a 9-2 advantage and limiting the Blue Devils on the floor to just a trio of shots. At the same time, the Tide were managing the ball and not showing selfish play, spreading the ball as seven different players scored in the opening eight minutes. After one, Curwensville had an 18-8 advantage.
Still, Bellwood-Antis was not one to take lightly, because in the second quarter the visiting squad began chipping away at the lead. Both squads would play disciplined ball, but it was the Blue Devils making a run.
Tkacik knew this was going to be the gameplan, stating, “We knew what they were going to do, and defensively we knew what we needed to do. What we had to do was step back, refocus, and get into the game.”
Still, the contest would be close in the quarter, with Bellwood-Antis winning the quarter, but still found themselves down 33-24 heading into the locker room.
That lead suddenly was in jeopardy as the third quarter saw the Blue Devils get a spark from Caleb Beiswenger.
“I knew that everything flows through him, and we knew we wanted to try to deny him as much as possible,” Tkacik said. “That kid is lightning quick, and to be able to be in his pocket all game long is a huge challenge. Grant Swanson, and Andrew Wassil, they both met that challenge.”
Still, Beiswenger accounted for 10 of the squad’s 15 points in the third quarter, pulling the Blue Devils to within five points. He would finish with a team-high, and also game-tying high, of 18 points.
“One of the things we said at halftime was, ‘We haven’t played a third quarter, yet’ and even tonight, it was not picture perfect,” Tkacik said. “Once we got back into the mental and competitive state, I felt we were a much better team.”
As the second half progressed, even early on, both squads played one another tight, and on occasion it did get chippy; sometimes it became outright physical and some calls were made, while others possibly could have been. Tkacik admitted that it did get physical, but also knew that their squad was built for that type of play.
“I felt the officials called it fair from the start of quarter one, all the way to the end of quarter four. As a coach, you can have your mind wrapped around that as far as how they are calling the game,” Tkacik said of the officiating. “They allowed the guys to play physical, and that plays into what I’ve been preaching. We are a physical, powerful, basketball team.
“We’re not a finesse team, yet. We are a team that will crash boards, play sound defense, and be in-your-face for all quarters.”
Curwensville managed to begin pulling away in the second half as play from starters Daniel McGarry and Davis Fleming, plus play off the bench from Andrew Wassil and Chandler English, allowed the Tide to pull away to secure the victory. Fleming accounted for 18 points, plus four steals, while McGarry accounted for 11 points, plus seven rebounds and five assists. Parker Wood also made it into double figures, adding 12 points plus another six rebounds.
Tkacik was extremely pleased to be back on the court, as was the entire team. The start of his inaugural year at the helm of of the Tide has been one where they’ve seen more practice sessions than games. At the same time, he’s seeing what his team is made of.
“The 18 of us on the team, the 16 players and two coaches, all know the season’s coming. Practicing is not always what we’ll do,” he said. “When you start off with three games in a matter of three weeks, and suddenly we are back-to-back, in flu season no less, we are wanting to play. We have guys that are not 100% right now, and they just gritted it out tonight, and I just could not be more proud of them for that effort.”
For the first time all season, Curwensville actually will be back on the court just one day after being in a game, and it’s something Tkacik is glad to experience, because immediately he was focused on what his team can take away from the victory tonight.
“Intensity, defense, crashing the boards, and being patient. I felt like tonight, we knew when we had to push, but also when we had to pull back,” Tkacik said. “McGarry, many times, he saw things getting unraveled, and that senior leadership kicked in. He was telling the sophomores to slow down, and those are those intangibles you love to have from seniors.
“Then Ty Colton, what he was able to do as far as the little things like at the end of the game, subbing him and Parker in and out. We put Ty in defensively, knowing he was going to get one hand up on penetration, meaning the one he’s guarding is not going to get a clean look. It’s those small things, the little details, that made the big puzzle fit together tonight.”
Sitting at 2-1, Curwensville is back inside Patton Hall Tuesday night, as they host the Harmony Owls.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Bellwood-Antis 8 16 15 15 – 54
Curwensville 18 15 11 18 – 62
Bellwood-Antis – 54
Brayden Wagner 0 0-0 0, Caleb Beiswenger 7 2-2 18, Cory Shanafelt 0 0-0 0, Anthony Caracciolo 0 2-2 2, Chance Schreier 1 0-0 2, Conner Bardell 3 0-0 9, Vincent Cacciotti 3 0-0 9, Holden Schreier 2 2-3 12, Andrew Nycum 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 19 6-7 54.
Curwensville – 62
Dan McGarry 3 4-6 11, Grant Swanson 1 0-0 3, Davis Fleming 6 0-0 18, Chandler English 2 2-4 7, Parker Wood 6 0-1 12, Benden Holland 0 0-0 0, Hunter Tkacik 1 0-0 2, Ty Colton 0 0-0 0, Ayden Sutika 1 0-0 2, Andrew Wassil 2 2-3 7. TOTALS 24 8-13 62.
GAME STATISTICS
Bellwood-Antis/Curwensville
- Shooting: 19-55/24-50
- Rebounds: 21/30
- Fouls: 12/10
- Turnovers: 16/18
- Three-Point Shots: Beiswenger-2, Bardell-3, Cacciotti-3, H. Schreier-2/McGarry, Swanson, Fleming-2, English, Wassil