CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Golden Tide boys basketball team played its first home game in two days short of a year Friday evening. The last time the Tide took to the court in Patton Hall was on January 31, 2020 in a 56-27 loss to Johnsonburg.
Curwensville hosted visiting Brockway and battled the Rovers until the end, coming up short in a 57-55 heartbreaking loss for coach Matt Wassil’s Tide.
What really fueled the victory for the Rovers was a big 21 point first quarter, which Wassil addressed after the game saying, “You can’t bury yourself right at the start of the game in the first quarter. We needed to come out and play better defense, and we didn’t tonight at the beginning.”
The Rover offensive out burst found the Tide down 21-12 heading to the second quarter.
Although things settled down for Curwensville, they were still down at the half 28-19, after playing to an even 7-7 send quarter. But things got interesting and better in the final 16 for the Golden Tide.
The Tide picked up its intensity, especially on the defensive end, and outscored the Rovers 23-15 to trail by just one, 43-42, heading into the quarter.
Brockway would hold on however with a 14-13 advantage in the fourth to pick up the hotly contested victory.
And Wassil liked what he saw from his team in the second half, commenting, “We really played very well from the outset of the third quarter. I thought we played very good defense and just fell short in the fourth quarter. And that’s why I tell the guys that you need to play all 32 minutes.”
Curwensville’s Trevor Lansberry was high scorer on the night with 24 points while Ty Terry pumped in 18. Both Terry and Lansberry connected on four three-pointers.
The Rovers had three players in double figures, each with 11 points in Lewis Painter, Noah Adams and Marcus Bennett.
The Tide had a good night from the charity stripe, making 11 of 13, while the Rovers also shot well from the line making 9 of 11.
Brockway also won the junior varsity contest, topping the Tide 32-20. High scorer for the Tide was Carson Spencer with nine points.
The Golden Tide (1-4) visit Clearfield Saturday with a tip-off time of 11 am.
BROCKWAY – 57
Marcus Copelli 4 0-0 9, Lewis Painter 5 1-2 11, Jared Marchiori 4 0-0 8, Austin Schmader 0 2-2 2, Noah Adams 2 6-6 11, Marcus Bennett 5 0-1 11, Aiden Bullers 2 0-0 5
TOTALS – 22 9-11 57
CURWENSVILLE – 55
Trevor Lansberry 7 6-8 24, Ty Terry 5 4-4 18, Scott Condon 3 1-1 7, Mike Lezzer 1 0-0 2, Jason Rowles 0 0-0 0, Dan McGarry 1 0-0 2, Carson Spencer 0 0-0 0, Landon Swatsworth 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 18 11-13 55
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BROCKWAY 21 7 15 14 57
CURWENSVILLE 12 7 23 13 55
THREE-POINTERS: BROCKWAY – 4 Copelli, Adams, Bennett, Bullers
CURWENSVILLE – 8 Terry 4, Lansberry 4
