MONROE – The Ansonia Lady Tigers basketball team led for three quarters in their bid for a DVI District Title game. But in the 4th quarter shots that were going in, didn’t, while West Liberty hit three big triples to take the lead and go on to win the championship 51-41.
The Tigers got off to a great start with London Reichert scoring 7 of her 8 points in the game in the 1st quarter. Charlotte Barga hit two triples, Shyann McKenna had a trey and Olivia Creager a deuce with Ansonia jumping out to an 18-11 lead.
The scoring pace slowed as both teams locked in on defense in the 2nd frame with both netting eight points. Olivia had four, Charlotte and Shyann each had two points to give the Tigers a 26-19 lead at the break.
Two good teams with good coaching were executing the scouting report well in the 3rd quarter taking away all the things both teams wanted to do … but West Liberty would win the period 9-6 to close the gap to 32-28 heading into the final stanza.
West Liberty struck first on a triple from Arianna Weaver and then took the lead 33-32 on two free throws from Ellery Wygel.
Charlotte Barga answered with a triple at 5:25 to take back lead at 35-32 and it felt like Ansonia might have regained momentum.
West Liberty quickly tied it with a bucket in the paint and followed with a three by Addison Wallen to jump back in front 38-35.
With West Liberty guarding the perimeter hard Ansonia went back into the paint … but the shots falling in the first half, now weren’t, as WLS added a couple more scores inside to push their advantage to 42-35 with 2:35 to go.
Ansonia was unable to answer and with West Liberty in control, sealed the victory from the free throw line going 11-for-14 in the period.
In fact, the difference in the game came from the charity stripe with Ansonia just 2-for-6 and West Liberty going 14-for-21 to win the game 51-41.
After the game coach Connor Custenborder talked about the 4th quarter.
“Obviously, we didn’t want a couple of their girls to get good looks. And there in the fourth quarter, we were doing a good job guarding them from 19, 20 feet. But they just stepped out and hit probably three from 25 feet. We knew they could do it. We wanted to be out on them. But obviously you don’t expect them to make three in a quarter from that distance,” Custenborder explained.
While Ansonia came up short on the scoreboard in their quest for a district title … it was a victory for a program that is working to make playing for a district championship the standard and not the exception.
“I just told them in the locker, playing in this game needs to be a regular thing for us,” Custenborder stated.
“As coaches we can’t do anything without the girls. And we’ve gotten a group that’s come through here the last three years for us, and they have put in the work year-round, 10-11, months out of the year, you can’t do it without them,” Custenborder added.
“The three seniors we’re losing (Rose Barga, Olivia Creager, Lydia Hahn) is big they were at all the stuff, really going to miss them. The leadership those three brought, it’s going to be really hard to replace. They would make sure girls came to stuff. If girls weren’t at stuff in the off season, they would text, hey, you need to come. For my three years here, those three girls have been leaders. Not often do you have sophomores be leaders, and they were leaders all the way up through so they’re going to be hard to replace,” a choked up Custenborder said.
“Very, very proud of all our girls,” Custenborder concluded.
While the three graduating seniors may not have won a district championship, the impact they have left for the program will be felt and seen in the years to come.
The Ansonia girls basketball team has excited the community and school that will inspire the youth girls, who are now dreaming to be a Rose Barga, an Olivia Creager or Lydia Hahn, that’s the kind of motivation needed to keep building a program, one that will make playing in a district title game the norm … and eventually district champions!
Box Score
Score by Quarters
11 … 08 … 09 … 23 – 51 West Liberty Salem
18 … 08 … 06 … 09 – 41 Ansonia
Team Scoring
WLS – Weaver 1-3-5/6 – 14, Poppe 0-5-0/0 – 10, Wallen 2-1-4/5 – 12, Wygal 0-0-3/6 – 3, Astorino 2-2-2/4 – 12, Totals 5-11-14/21 – 51
ANS – C. Barga 4-1-0/0 – 14, McKenna 1-1-0/0 – 5, R. Barga 0-1-0/2 – 2, Creager 0-6-0/0 – 12, Reichert 0-3-2/4 – 8, Totals 5-12-2/6 – 41
