ANSONIA – The Lady Tigers basketball team improved to 4-2 on the year with a 75-40 win over the visiting Dixie Greyhounds.
If you are playing Ansonia, you better buckle up and be prepared to go the distance because it’s 32 minutes of exciting basketball.
Ansonia showed early on how they wanted to play pushing the ball in transition and pressing full court after a made basket.
They jumped on Dixie right off the tip from sophomore London Reichert to freshman Charlotte Barga who took it in for a lay-up. Just a few second later the Tigers generated a turnover, and Charlotte drained a triple to set the tone going up 5-0 at the 7:35 mark.
Dixie sophomore Teegan Miller scored at 6:20 on a stick back to make the score 7-2.
The Tigers continued to push going up 13-4 prompting a timeout by Dixie coach Justin Keirns trying to slow the game down for his team to be more precise beating the pressure.
It was inspiring to see the coach working the sideline as his squad found success scoring three straight times all by sophomore Madison Caldwell to close the gap 13-10, prompting a timeout from Ansonia coach Connor Custenborder with 1:26 left in the period.
The Tigers roared back with a triple from senior Gabby Leeper, followed by two straight Charlotte Barga treys, one as the 1st quarter horn sounded for a 21-10 lead.
“We like to get up and down the court by playing fast, we use our press to create turnovers and also get the ball up court quickly from defense to offense so we can keep the pressure on the other team,” Custenborder said.
It was a big first quarter for Charlotte Barga with 13 points drawing praise from the coach.
“She’s a great player, she worked hard in the off season on her shot. I think she’s just going to keep developing and eventually be one of the best players in the conference. She has a great mentality, still pass first and gets her teammates involved, even when she has the hot hand,” Custenborder said.
With the Greyhounds now more focused on the perimeter and Charlotte in the 2nd quarter the Tigers showed they can score in other ways with junior Olivia Creager working in the paint on drives to the cup or posting up where she scored 8 of the 25 Tigers second quarter points.
Dixie scored 9 … but trailed at the half 47-19.
The Greyhounds came out in the 3rd quarter more aggressive and was able to draw fouls by taking the ball into the paint. They shot 12 free throws making 8 of them, a triple and a fielder from Teegan Miller was enough for them to win the period 13-12 giving coach Keirns something positive to build on.
Ansonia won the final stanza 16-8 as junior Rose Barga led the way in the second half with 11 points for the Tigers who went on to earn a WOAC league win 75-40.
The Greyhound were led in scoring by Maddison Caldwell with 11, Bethany Himan 8 and Teegan Miller with 7 points.
Dixie fell to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference. The Hounds will be back in action next Wednesday traveling to Miami Valley.
After the game coach Custenborder talked about his team and the contributions that came from all over as the Tigers handed out 19 assists in the game.
“We share the basketball well and had nearly 5 players in double figures, Charlotte Barga (18), Olivia Creager (12) Gabby Leeper (11) and Rose Barga (11) all double figures and London Reichert had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots,” Custenborder stated.
“Reichert has done a great job for us on the inside this year, anchoring the post spot and really our only girl with true post size, so her staying out of foul trouble and playing straight up and still getting blocks for us ius big,” Custenborder touted.
An area of the game coach Custenborder might be disappointed was his defense.
“We definitely want to hang our hat on the defensive end and 40 points is a lot to give up, we want to it be less than that,” Custenborder concluded.
The Tigers improved to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the WOAC. One of their two losses came at the hands of St. Henry who is the favorite to win the MAC, the other Arcanum who is a challenger for a title in the WOAC giving notice that Ansonia is going to be a tough game.
The Tigers are back in action next Thursday hosting Bradford.
Box Scores:
Score by Quarter:
Dixie: 10 … 09 … 13 … 08 – 40
Ansonia: 22 … 25 … 12 … 16 – 75
Team Scoring
Dixie: C. Miller 0-0-3/4 – 3, T. Miller 1-2-0/0 – 7, M Caldwell 0-5-1/2 – 11, McConnell 0-2-1/2 – 5, K. Loch 0-0-3/4 – 3, B Himan 2-1-2/2 – 8, K. Hypes 0-0-1/2 – 1;
Totals 3-10-11/16 – 40
Ansonia: C. Barga 3-3-3/5 – 18, G. Leeper 0-1-2/2 – 11, L. Hahn 0-1-2/2 – 4, Barga 0-5-1/2- 11, O. Creager 0-5-2/3 – 12, O. Schmitmeyer 0-1-4/4 – 6, Caldwell 0-1-0/0 – 2, L. Reichert 1-2-2/4 – 9, S. Aultman 0-1-0/0 – 2;
Totals 5-23-14/20 – 75
