CURWENSVILLE — The Curwensville boys basketball team celebrated both Senior Night and its Top 2 career scoring leaders Friday Night at Patton Hall, but visiting Harmony played spoiler in the evening’s main event by knocking off the Golden Tide 62-59 in the varsity game.
Curwensville seniors Chandler English, Davis Fleming and Hunter Tkacik were recognized prior to the start of the game and the trio also presented the family of the late Rod Kirby with a special basketball acknowledging his accomplishments. Kirby held the Curwensville program scoring record for over 50 years, graduating in 1970 with 1,271 points before going on to play football at Pitt and getting drafted into the NFL by the Buffalo Bills.
Fleming broke the program scoring record against St. Joseph’s on February 1 , and the Kirby family also presented him with a basketball during Senior Night, commemorating the achievement.
The newly crowned Curwensville scoring King promptly showcased his offensive prowess by drilling a 3-pointer just eight seconds into Friday’s game to give the Tide the early 3-0 lead.
But Fleming and the rest of the Golden Tide offense fell relatively silent for the rest of the half and trailed the Owls 25-18 at the break.
Breck Finn put the Tide on top with a trey by a 6-4 score with 2:50 left in a very low-scoring first quarter, but the Owls tied it 39 seconds later and Curwensville never led again.
Harmony ended the first on a 9-0 run and scored the first bucket of the second to take a 15-6 advantage.
The Golden Tide went 5:41 of game time without scoring, but finally broke the drought at 5:09 of the second and ended up matching the Owls 12-12 in the frame.
Finn led Curwensville in the first half with nine points, all on 3s. The Tide were 10-of-25 from behind the arc in the game.
“Our outside shot was falling well enough to keep us in the game,” Curwensville head coach Josh Tkacik said. “But we just weren’t able to get our inside-outside game working well enough and Harmony was able to be patient on their side in the half court and eventually get a good look at the rim. Hats off to them for being able to do that.”
Harmony’s brother tandem of Brady and Bryson Hagens had 20 of their team’s 25 first-half points, each netting 10.
The Owls shot 10-of-22 from the floor in the first half, while Curwensville hit on just seven of its 28 shots.
Fleming, who had just five points in the first half, gave the Tide a spark in the third, nailing a 3-pointer with 4:45 left in the frame then knocking down a short jumper from inside the foul line 38 seconds later to cut his team’s deficit all the way down to 30-28.
But Harmony responded with a 9-0 run that had it extend the lead to 11 points at 39-28. Brady Hagens scored six in the frame, while Hunter Pearce popped a pair of 3s to also net 6 and help the visitors take a 44-34 advantage to the fourth.
The Tide made another move to cut down the deficit early in the fourth as an English 3-point play made it 46-39.
But Brady Hagens ignited a 6-0 Owl run that gave Harmony its biggest lead (52-39) of the game with just 3:57 left to play.
Hagens made a nice dish to a cutting Bryson Hagens to make it 48-39, then stole the ball on Curwensville’s next possession and sent a long pass to Hunter Pearce, who laid the ball in for a 50-39 lead. After another Tide turnover, Carter Doland grabbed the loose ball, and sent it up court to Pearce, who found Brady Hagens for the finish and a 13-point lead.
Brady Hagens led the Owls with 21 points and dished out seven assists.
Curwensville whittled the Harmony lead down to 58-49 by the 1:30 mark of the fourth, but the Owls were able to drain 45 seconds of clock while the Tide committed the necessary fouls to get them on the line.
After the Owls missed two free throws, English grabbed an offensive board and scored on a putback on the other end of the floor to make it 58-51 with 38 seconds to go.
Brady Hagens hit one of two free throws on Harmony’s next possession, and Fleming responded with a long 3 to make it 59-54 with 20 seconds left to play.
Hagens hit both free throws on Harmony’s next trip up the floor and Davis matched the output by hitting 2-of-3 from the line after getting fouled on a 3-point attempt.
Fleming banked in a 3 from well behind the arc to make it 62-59 with 3.6 seconds to go, but Harmony was able to get the ball inbounds and run out the clock with a long pass to ice the game. Fleming ended the night with 24 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.
“You hope that on a special night like Senior Night you can gift your seniors players a healthy memory, something that they can look back on and remember in a positive way, but for a bunch of reasons, that wasn’t the case for us tonight,” coach Tkacik said. “They battled hard. They played hard. But in the end we didn’t execute when we needed to and Harmony was able to do just enough to sneak in and sneak out with the win.
“All three of our seniors have been here since I started. These guys have grown up in the program since elementary school. They’ll leave a big void because of how much they’ve been around the program for the last 9-10 years. It’s part of life, it’s part of growing up, but they’ll be missed.”
English, Finn and Evan McCartney all netted nine points for the Tide. English added six boards and a pair of assists.
Bryson Hagens netted 18 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists for the Owls. Hunter Pearce added 15 points, while Jacob Pearce recorded four assists.
Harmony had 22 assists as a team.
The Owls improved to 2-17 with the win, while the Golden Tide dropped to 5-14.
Curwensville is back in action Monday at Oswayo Valley.
The Tide won the JV game 39-35 in overtime.
Harmony’s Draven Lytton forced the extra period with a bank-shot 3 as time expired in regulation. But Owen Dimmick scored the only four points of the OT to give the Tide the win.
Harmony—62
Bryson Hagens 7 1-2 18, Brady Hagens 8 5-8 21, Jacob Pearce 2 0-2 4, Hunter Pearce 6 1-2 15, Carter Doland 2 0-0 4, Kacey Brothers 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 7-14 62.
Curwensville —59
Tuck Tkacik 1 1-1 3, Evan McCartney 3 0-0 9, Hunter Tkacik 1 0-0 2, Chandler English 3 3-6 9, Davis Fleming 9 3-5 24, Trenton Best 1 0-0 2, Breck Finn 3 0-0 9, Owen Dimmick 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 7-12 59.
Three-pointers: Harmony 5 (Bryson Hagens 3, H. Pearce 2); Curwensville 10 (McCartney 3, Fleming 4, Finn 3).
Score by Quarters
Harmony 13 12 19 18 —62
Curwensville 6 12 16 25 —59
GOLDEN TIDE SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/04 @ St. Joseph’s Catholic ppd. 0 – 0
12/07 OSWAYO VALLEY 67 – 56 1 – 0
12/10 @ Williamsburg 49 – 59 1 – 1
12/13 @ Juniata Valley 64 – 85 1 – 2
12/16 @ Claysburg-Kimmel 66 – 70 1 – 3
12/18 MOSHANNON VALLEY 50 – 55 1 – 4
12/20 @ Glendale 64 – 62 2 – 4
12/27 @ Clearfield 62 – 72 2 – 5
01/03 @ Keystone ppd. 2 – 5
01/07 @ West Branch 54 – 84 2 – 6
01/10 @ Harmony 60 – 45 3 – 6
01/13 WILLIAMSBURG 75 – 68 ot 4 – 6
01/17 MT. UNION 57 – 66 4 – 7
01/21 JUNIATA VALLEY ppd. 4 – 7
01/23 JUNIATA VALLEY 76 – 85 4 – 8
01/24 GLENDALE 65 – 38 5 – 8
01/28 DUBOIS CENTRAL 44 – 65 5 – 9
01/29 @ Keystone 38 – 70 5 – 10
01/31 WEST BRANCH 68 – 75 5 – 11
02/01 @ St. Joseph’s Catholic 54 – 75 5 – 12
02/04 @ Moshannon Valley 54 – 65 5 – 13
02/06 @ Marion Center ppd. 5 – 13
02/07 HARMONY 59 – 62 5 – 14
02/10 @ Oswayo Valley
02/12 CLEARFIELD
