Different look

Todd Ceisner

SPRING MILLS — Luke Curtis relishes his role on the Philipsburg-Osceola boys’ basketball team. But at 6.3 points per game, he’s usually not the centerpiece of the Mounties’ offensive gameplan. He is, however, the headliner for P-O when it comes to defense.

Curtis was on top of his game again Friday, shutting out Penns Valley’s leading scorer Jesse DeLoof as P-O held Penns Valley to its lowest point total in more than 40 years in beating the Rams 39-21 in a Mountain League Nittany Division contest.

“Coach has said that he wanted me to have a lot of personal pride in myself to D up on these guys and to take the role as a defensive player,” said Curtis, who chipped in five points. “I love it. I love the challenge. I couldn’t do it without my teammates.”

DeLoof came in averaging 13.5 points and had burned P-O for 21 points in a 49-34 Penns Valley win in the teams’ first meeting back on Dec. 12. It was that game that got the Mounties thinking they had to try something different against DeLoof this time around.

Enter Curtis, who over the past five games has been assigned to cover Lewistown guard Elliot Searer and Indian Valley’s Austin Long, both very accomplished scorers capable of taking over a game. Curtis more than held his own against both despite the Mounties dropping each contests.

On Friday, the Mounties (8-8 overall, 6-6 Mountain League) opened in a diamond-and-one look against the Rams with Curtis tailing DeLoof everywhere in the Rams’ half-court offense. DeLoof got only a handful of looks at the basket and all of them were contested. His frustration was evident in the third quarter when he was whistled for a personal foul and a technical foul at the 3:40 mark.

“These are the things playing teams the first time around, you get a look at them,” said P-O head coach Mike Bailey. “Collaboratively, as a coaching staff, the guys are always real good at giving advice and strong suggestions to put us in a position to win. The last (several) ball games, we’ve played four great players. It just made sense.”

Penns Valley coach Terry Glunt said it was the first time this season his team had seen a defense geared toward DeLoof. But it’s not that he didn’t expect it.

“On the board in the locker room, I had written, ‘Stop Transition, one other thing and the third thing was Expect Funky,’” Glunt said, referring to a possible shift in defensive strategy by P-O. “We got funky.”

The Rams, who did not practice Thursday because after-school activities were cancelled in anticipation of poor weather, shot a miserable 8-of-45 (17.8 percent) from the field, including 5-of-35 through three quarters.

“We didn’t go over anything we wanted to do,” Glunt said. “We were prepared but the actual on-the-floor stuff, that’s important. The kids need to get those reps. We had some confusion early and we just didn’t shoot well.

“There’s a couple ways you can approach a box-and-one. One is to have confidence in the other kids to force the other team to get out and play you. The other is we could run Jesse off screens to get him the ball. I approached it that I was going to have my team beat it. I’m not going to second guess. I believe in team basketball.”

The 21 points is the third-lowest total in Penns Valley history. The record low came in a 60-17 loss to Kishacoquillas during the 1957-58 season, the second year of basketball at Penns Valley. The 1966-67 team scored 18 points in a 38-18 loss to State College.

P-O’s J.D. Mason led all scorers with 10 points and hauled down nine rebounds. Matt Curtis added eight in the win, the Mounties’ first in the Mountain League since beating Central in double overtime on Jan. 4.

P-O led 13-9 at halftime after Penns Valley (7-9, 4-7 ML) went 1-for-9 in the second quarter, the lone bucket coming on Nathan Brown’s layup that rolled in before the buzzer.

There are traffic court hearings with more points.

The Rams’ struggles continued after halftime as P-O slowly pulled away. Penns Valley missed its first 10 shots of the third before Kyle Hockenberry’s 3-pointer from the corner with 1:26 left cut P-O’s lead to 22-12.

In the final 30 seconds of the quarter, Hockenberry, who led the Rams with eight points, converted a steal — one of 18 P-O turnovers — into a layup to make it a 10-point game again, but Brandon Myers beat the buzzer with layup at the other end to give the Mounties a 26-14 advantage heading to the fourth.