CURWENSVILLE — The pair of losses during the prior week took a lot out of the Curwensville Golden Tide. After a strong beginning to the year, a pair of tough and tight losses took a lot of wind out of their sails. With an Inter County Conference battle on the horizon with the Claysburg-Kimmel Bulldogs, the first time the two squads have ever taken to the hardwood against one another, they were looking for answers.
Despite not getting all the answers they may have wanted, the Tide certainly felt a lot different in this contest. The Bulldogs began to rally in the second half, pulling to within a possession, but late foul shooting and timely rebounds allowed Curwensville to get back to the winning ways with a 67-59 triumph.
“Those are the type of games, much like Williamsburg and Juniata Valley last week, you want to play in,” Tide head coach Josh Tkacik said afterwards. “It’s a nice metric to see how sound we are as a group. We had that tonight, in front of our home crowd. It was maybe a bit tighter than it needed to be, and to come out on top is huge.”
Curwensville got out to a quick start, pulling to a quick two-possession advantage that they would hold onto for the entire first eight minutes. Deep shots from Davis Fleming, plus some tight battles in the paint with Parker Wood, pushed the Tide to a 21-13 lead after eight minutes. The battle in the paint began in the second quarter as the Bulldogs began to push the pace, causing the Tide to commit fouls and get into tight spots.
What kept the Bulldogs in the game was their ability to rebound, either getting second chances at the basket or preventing Curwensville from getting another. Claysburg ended up winning the rebound battle, 35-32, and it pulled the Bulldogs to within five points.
“That’s so frustrating because of our size. We are a great rebounding team, that’s something we pride ourselves on. For that to happen tonight, just so frustrating,” Tkacik said.
Still, despite the trouble on the boards, Curwensville held a seven-point advantage heading into the locker room.
The second half had Curwensville playing a bit conservative as Wood would have three fouls to his name. But Tkacik said that most of their key guys were beginning to play smarter and push harder to not get fouls. In doing so, they would outscore the Bulldogs in the third, 18-12, to take a 13-point lead into the final quarter.
That is when Claysburg began finding some momentum as Breyden Haney started getting hot, and draining bucket after bucket. He put up 10 of his game-high 22 points in the final quarter, pulling his team to within a possession of the lead.
Time out after timeout was called to get the team riled up and make a gameplan on both sides to either capture the lead, or somehow hold off the charge.
The plan was to play aggressive, for Curwensville, and get forced to the line.
That ultimately took that three-point gap and made it impossible as the Tide would get forced to the line multiple times in the final quarter. With the rule change regarding the two-shot opportunity, Curwensville took advantage, finishing 16-for-26 at the line, including 10-for-17 in the final quarter.
“In the game, with how the rule has changed this year, it is going to be a back-breaker for many teams. It was a back-breaker for us earlier, and then it was a back-breaker for Claysburg,” Tkacik said. “We were able to keep that lead out in front of them to the very end.”
Both squads finished with four players in double figures. The Bulldogs, aside from Haney, saw Aidan Simpson bucket 13 points, Cury Waiter pulling off a double-double courtesy of 11 points and 13 rebounds, plus Elias Ritchey accounting for 10 points. Curwensville was led by Davis Fleming, who put up 19 points on the night. Wood finished the game with 15 points, finishing one board short of a double-double, while Grant Swanson put 14 points on his stat line. Chandler English finished off his night with 13 points, also coming up one board shy of a double-double.
Curwensville did fall in the junior varsity contest, 51-31, to start the night.
At 3-2, the week doesn’t get any easier as Curwensville will have a pair of games before the Christmas holiday, and already Tkacik was looking ahead to Thursday’s contest when Glendale comes to Patton Hall for a Mo Valley and ICC showdown.
“We want to carry everything over into Thursday. Glendale is a much different opponent than what Claysburg gave us tonight in how they approach the game,” Tkacik said. “They are also not the same Glendale that they were a year ago. They are significantly better, so we got to be ready to play. These Glendale kids and Curwensville kids, they know each other because of different sports and social media. They are familiar with one another.
“We have to be ready to step up from the opening tip, to heading into halftime, and come out of the locker room ready to close it out.”
Tip-off for junior varsity will be at 6 p.m. with the varsity action to follow.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Claysburg-Kimmel 13 12 12 22 – 59
Curwensville 21 11 18 17 – 67
Claysburg-Kimmel – 59
Breyden Haney 8 2-4 22, Elias Ritchey 4 2-3 10, Anthony Napolitino 0 0-0 0, Christian Treon 0 0-0 0, Aidan Simpson 6 1-2 13, Cury Waiter 5 1-4 11, Paydden Knisely 0 0-0 0, Landen Douglas 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 24 6-13 59.
Curwensville – 67
Grant Swanson 4 3-4 14, Davis Fleming 6 5-7 19, Chandler English 6 1-3 13, Braden Holland 0 3-4 3, Hunter Tkacik 0 1-2 1, Louie Tkacik 1 0-0 2, Parker Wood 6 3-6 15. TOTALS 23 16-26 67.
GAME STATISTICS
Claysburg-Kimmel/Curwensville
- Shooting: 24-63/23-54
- Rebounds: 35/32
- Fouls: 21/18
- Turnovers: 9/10
- Three-Point Shots: Haney-4, Douglas/Swanson-3, Fleming-2
GOLDEN TIDE SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/06 @ Harmony 79 – 60 1 – 0
12/08 @ St. Joe’s Catholic 69 – 45 2 – 0
12/11 WILLIAMSBURG 53 – 63 2 – 1
12/14 @ Juniata Valley 81 – 95 2 – 2
12/18 CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL 67 – 59 3 – 2
12/21 GLENDALE
12/22 BUCKTAIL
12/28 CLEARFIELD
01/02 HARMONY
01/05 @ Brockway
01/08 WEST BRANCH
01/11 @ Mo Valley
01/16 @ Williamsburg
01/19 @ Mt. Union
01/23 JUNIATA VALLEY
01/26 @ Glendale
02/02 @ West Branch
02/05 KEYSTONE
02/06 MO VALLEY
02/10 @ DuBois Central Catholic
02/13 @ Clearfield
02/15 @ Bucktail
