RIDGWAY - A very cold second and third quarters sent the Curwensville Golden Tide basketball squad down to its first defeat of the year at the hands of Ridgway Friday night on the Elkers home court, 46-25.
After taking a 10-6 first quarter lead the cold outside air blanketed the Tide offense in a way that had to be seen to believe.
Curwensville, 2-1, would score only three points in the second frame and just four in the third. A total of seven points over 16 minutes of action.
In fact, the Golden Tide didn’t score in the second eight minutes until Trey Rauckhorst hit a free throw at the 2:56 mark. The only field goal of the second quarter came with just 10 seconds left until the half by Tanner Elensky.
Ridgway took complete control of the battle by outscoring the Tide 18-3 in the second stanza to go up 24-13 at the intermission.
Two field goals would be all the Tide could muster in the third quarter as Ridgway put up 13 tallies for a 37-17 bulge going into the final eight minutes.
Tide head coach Shane Pentz said after the game, “They’re (Ridgway) obviously a very good defensive team and one of the premier teams in all of District 9, regardless even if they are a single A team.”
About his team, Pentz commented, “Our defensive rebounding was just not there tonight. We gave way too many second chance buckets, which you can’t do against a team like Ridgway. But it’s along season and we have to get ready for West Branch and move on.”
Ridgway was led by 6’4” sophomore Jeremy Brier who had a game high 14 points while Joseph Horning tallied 10.
Tanner Elensky paced the Tide with six.
Curwensville senior guard Brett Gardner struck the back of his head on the floor in the first half and as a precautionary measure did not return to the game.
Ridgway, now 3-1, went to the free throw line 17 times and made 11 while the Tide had just two free throws, making one.
A total of 31 players saw action, 17 for Curwensville and 14 for Ridgway, as both coaches had the opportunity to clear their benches.
Ridgway also won the junior varsity game by a score of 38-18 over Curwensville.
The Golden Tide are back home on Monday night against the Warriors of West Branch. All the action starts with the JV contest tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity game to immediately follow.
CURWENSVILLE - 25
Tanner Elensky 3 0-0 6, Brett Gardner 0 0-0 0, Trey Rauckhorst 1 1-2 3, Alex Olson 1 0-0 2, Austin Jacobson 1 0-0 2, Kyle Johns 2 0-0 4, Harrison Bloom 0 0-0 0, Nate Kurtz 0 0-0 0, Jason Thorp 1 0-0 3, Jake Terry 0 0-0 0, Alex Hill 1 0-0 2, Jonathan Miller 0 0-0 0, Dylan Davis 0 0-0 0, Bryce McClure, 0 0-0 0, Noah Strickland 1 0-0 3, Josh Shaffer 0 0-0 0, R J Olson 0 0-0 0, TOTALS - 11 1-2 25.
RIDGWAY - 46
Joshua Roselli 1 1-2 4, Joseph Horning 4 0-0 10, Dustin Cowan 0 0-0 0, Ben MacDonald 4 1-2 9, Jeremy Breier 5 4-4 14, Mason Stark 1 2-4 4, Cory Oknefski 0 0-0 0, Mitchell Stark 0 0-0 0, Cody Delhunty, 0 0-0 0, Nate Steis 0 0-0 0, Phil Waddell 0 0-0 0, Josh Lineberger 1 3-5 5, Mike Sorge 0 0-0 0, Jack Toncich 0 0-0 0, TOTALS - 16 11-17 46.
THREE-POINTERS: Strickland, Thorp, Horning 2, Roselli
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CURWENSVILLE 10 3 4 8 25
RIDGWAY 6 18 13 9 46
OFFICIALS: Bryan Harlan, Jeff Jovenetti, Dave Dellaquilla
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
Date
Opponent
Score
Record
12/06
MO VALLEY
ppd.
0 – 0
12/09
@ Clearfield
56 – 38
1 – 0
12/10
BROCKWAY
54 – 51
2 – 0
12/13
@ Ridgway
25 – 46
2 – 1
12/16
WEST BRANCH
12/19
@ Harmony
12/20
@ Kane
01/03
DUBOIS CENTRAL
01/08
@ Mo Valley
01/14
@ Elk County
01/16
@ Glendale
01/21
RIDGWAY
01/24
@ Brockway
01/27
@ DuBois Central
01/29
GLENDALE
01/31
JOHNSONBURG
02/04
@ Sheffield
02/05
ST. JOE’S ACADEMY
02/07
KANE
02/08
MO VALLEY
02/10
HARMONY
02/12
@ West Branch
02/14
CLEARFIELD