
UNION CITY – The Ansonia Lady Tigers traveled across the state line and came home with a 58-24 non-conference win over the Union City Lady Indians.
“We like to hold the other team’s best player below their average, and she (Oaklee Reichard) is averaging close to 23,” said Ansonia coach Connor Custenborder. “We held their team to 24, so we did a good job defensively.”

Ansonia bolted out to an early 17-3 first-quarter lead led by Olivia Schmitmeyer’s two 3-pointers, four Olivia Creager points, and a Gabby Leaper triple.
The Lady Indians battled back for a 9-9 second-quarter score, with all nine Union City points coming from Oaklee Reichard’s two triples and three free throws, sending the teams to the break with Ansonia leading 26-12.

“Parts of the games, we see them doing well,” said Union City coach Sarah Black. “We see them executing things well and playing well in games against good teams. We just have to sustain that for four quarters and reach a point where we can do that. Right now we’re trying to figure out the pieces to do that.”
Period No. 3 went to the visiting Lady Tigers 20-8, with the Lady Indians struggling with the Ansonia full-court press. Ansonia freshman Shyann Mckenna’s led the Lady Tigers with eight third-quarter points.

“It’s our goal to win the turnover battle every game,” said Custenborder. “We like to get steals; we like to create steals from our press. We work on it a lot.”
The Lady Tigers put a running clock in play midway through the fourth quarter taking the final period 12-4 led by eight Rose Barga points over the young and inexperienced Lady Indians to earn the Saturday afternoon win.
“Rose Barga stepped up big in the second half,” Custenborder stated. “She got in foul trouble in the first half and came back in and was a big asset for us.”

“The kids are playing hard,” said Coach Black. “They are inexperienced. We have a lot of young players that haven’t played at the varsity level and they are seeing players they are playing against that have varsity experience and have played more basketball and we are struggling with that. It’s hard to match up with that experience.”
Ansonia shot an impressive 7-8 at the free throw line, and Union City shot a respectable 9-17 at the charity stripe.
“Free throws were good,” Custenborder said. “That’s two games now we have only missed one. We have to be more consistent and do that every game. If we can shoot around 70 percent, that would be great.”

Oaklee Reichard led Union City and all scorers with a game-high 15 points. Ansonia got balanced scoring, led by 10 points each from Rose Barga and Creager.
“Ava Reichert played hard; she always plays hard for us. She sprints down the court, is always hustling, and sacrifices her body for the team,” Coach Black said of her freshman. “Gabby (Ordonez) was sick today so that hurt us, she wasn’t able to play her game. Oaklee Reichard to lead our team – we just didn’t have enough tools today to overcome.”
BOXSCORE:
ANSONIA 58, UNION CITY 24
ANSONIA – R. Barga 10, O. Creager 10, C. Barga 9, S. Mckenna 8, O. Schmitmeyer 8, L. Reichert 6, L. Hahn 4, G. Leeper 3 – TOTALS 18 7-8 5 58
UNION CITY – O. Reichard 15, N. Mote 7, A. Riechard 2 – TOTALS 3 9-17 3 24
3-POINTERS
Ansonia 5 (C. Barga 2, O. Schmitmeyer 2, G. Leeper 1)
Union City 3 (N. Mote 2, O. Reichard 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
17-09-20-12 58 Ansonia
03-09-08-04 24 Union City