CURWENSVILLE — Never in recent memory has a more rowdy environment been inside the four walls of Patton Hall for the Curwensville Golden Tide basketball team. With an Intercounty Conference showdown with the Mount Union Trojans on the docket, a packed crowd got one intense battle for 32 minutes. What started out as a big lead after two quarters ended up becoming a highly contested, tight, and intense battle between both schools.
At the final buzzer, the entire gymnasium roared with Tide pride as Curwensville held on in the late going to pull off an exciting 59-58 win for the home crowd.
Tide head coach Josh Tkacik watched his team score early, putting the opposition in a hole, but also show what he felt his team had all along.
“What I saw was Curwensville hitting our stride and playing to our potential. Those guys in that room, who have been working their tails off for years, and especially in the last nine months, finally got in sync,” he said. “Up to this point, we weren’t executing at the rim, putting the ball in the basket. On the backside, we were winning defensive rebounds, playing lights-out defense.”
Curwensville got things going in a big way in the first quarter, roaring out to an 18-8 lead on the back of Chandler English, who put up 11 of the Tide’s points in the quarter.
Defensively, the Tide would also key in on the Trojans’ lead scorer, Jayvien Brumbaugh, limiting him to only 2-for-7 in the first half. After 16 minutes, the Tide would hold a 10-point lead, and the excitement held strong for the home squad.
But, in the third quarter, things took a turn.
Curwensville’s biggest struggle, Tkacik admitted, has been coming out of the locker room with the same momentum that they took in. That was proven in the third quarter, as Brumbaugh started to get hot. In the third, he put up 10 shots, with four of them finding the net. Add in a pair of free throws, and he would account for 11 points in the third. Brumbaugh finished with a game-high 22 points, and his effort in the third suddenly took a 10-point deficit down to just a single possession.
Tkacik mentioned that in these situations, it was not unfamiliar, because his team has prepared for it.
“At practice, one thing we do is make things as competitive as possible, so we put the scoreboard up, then cut them either home or away, and say ‘here we go, whomever losing is running 16’s,” he said. “Coach Fleming and I have, in the last couple workouts, have made it a priority to get that competitive juice sustained over two hours, not just 35 minutes.”
When the fourth quarter came, the intensity picked up on both sides. Although not completely out of control, nor chippy, the Trojans and Tide would swap the lead several times. For Tkacik, the fact that his team still maintained their composure in the waning minutes made a big difference.
“In the fourth, it was very much back-and-forth. I truly felt Mount Union had the momentum, but the gift we had was the work on the front end in the first half. We had the buffer to sustain that in the second half. To that point, we were 2-for-8 at the line, so there was less of a cushion than what could have been.” Curwensville, even in victory, struggled at the line, finishing 5-for-12.
However, Curwensville would not go away, with a pair of key buckets coming from both English and Parker Wood closing the gap and keeping the crowd into it. To Tkacik, had this been a game early in the season, things would be much different.
“What I saw, our guys did not melt. Two weeks ago, that team in that room would’ve melted and Mount Union would be the one walking out with a win. Those guys have trusted myself, Coach Fleming, and each other, and starting to believe in themselves,” he said.
In the final minutes of the contest, Curwensville battled hard to get a three-point advantage after a pair of plus-one opportunities from Davis Fleming and Dan McGarry. Fleming would tie for a team-high 15 points alongside English, but it was the defense that made the biggest stand. With just over five seconds remaining, Mount Union got the ball across the midcourt line, and quickly called their final timeout to set up the final play. On the inbound, Andrew Cuff got the ball and went for the net, and although the ball did not fall, Curwensville picked up the foul and allowed Cuff to head to the line for a pair of free throws with just 0.9 seconds left. With the crowd roaring to distract Cuff, he made the first one, and suddenly Tkacik got animated in his coaching method.
“I was literally on the sidelines jumping up and down with my hands over my head to get the guys’ attention, to tell them that they had to get the rebound,” he said. “I felt they were in that mode of ‘I’m going to watch this kid shoot, and then react,’ but I’m telling them to just forget the shooter. Go get the rebound, just go get it.”
The crowd started roaring to the point where no one could hear the ball hit the hardwood, and as the ball left Cuff’s hand, it bounced off the back of the rim. The fight for the rebound was on, and McGarry would snatch it down, his fifth of the game, and held on like he was squeezing a watermelon as the final buzzer sounded, igniting the entire team and the crowd.
“I have to give a shoutout to our student section. They absolutely exploded, losing their minds when Cuff was at the line. That environment plays on a young mind, it’s huge,” Tkacik said. “Cuff missed the shot, we elevated, and McGarry grabbed it. I cannot say enough for his effort, Chandler’s effort, Parker Wood showing up again tonight. Hunter (Tkacik) giving us great defensive minutes, Braden Holland hitting a huge mid-range jump shot when we really needed it.
“It’s not just one guy, that’s what I love about these guys. They are starting to figure out how to play with one another, that way the entire group is successful.”
Curwensville did fall in the jayvee contest, 54-31.
Tkacik in a short time has changed the way Curwensville basketball has performed, despite their record at 4-6. The energy he was feeling on the home court, and the surrounding area, he felt has been astonishing. He also made it clear that a game like this, at this point in the season, was not the peak of what the team could do, but instead could be a catalyst for future success.
“The community, since I have come on, has given undying support. People that even don’t follow basketball have been coming up, saying ‘we want the best for you’. It’s fun to come into Patton Hall and you have to look for a place to sit. It’s fun to look down both sidelines and see people standing in the corners. This is a fun environment to be in,” he said. “One of the things about a game like this, yes its a milestone in a sense that we can put a marker here and say we can win in these situations. We can reflect back and say we can do this mentally, and physically, but we can’t treat this as our shining moment.”
Curwensville gets to have another helping of their home court on Friday night when they play host to Brockway. The two faced each other just last week, with the Tide picking up the victory. Junior varsity will tip at 6 p.m. with varsity to follow.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Mount Union 8 12 24 14 – 58
Curwensville 18 19 9 13 – 59
Mount Union – 58
Georgie Bilger 2 1-2 5, Bryce Danish 5 6-6 16, Ryan Plank 1 1-2 4, Andrew Cuff 4 1-2 9, Jayvien Brumbaugh 9 2-2 22, Gabe Stewart 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 11-14 58.
Curwensville – 59
Dan McGarry 2 2-2 7, Grant Swanson 1 0-0 2, Davis Fleming 5 2-4 15, Chandler English 7 0-2 15, Parker Wood 6 0-0 12, Braden Holland 1 0-0 2, Hunter Tkacik 0 0-0 0, Ty Colton 0 0-0 0, Ayden Sutika 1 0-0 2, Andrew Wassil 1 1-2 4. TOTALS 23 5-12 59.
GAME STATISTICS
Mount Union/Curwensville
- Shooting: 22-65/23-55
- Rebounds: 23/28
- Fouls: 14/11
- Turnovers: 15/19
- Three-Point Shots: Plank, Brumbaugh-2/McGarry, Flemming-3, English, Wassil