VERSAILLES – After upsetting the No. 4 seed Southeastern Lady Trojans in OHSAA DIV first-round tournament play, the No. 14 seed Ansonia Lady Tigers dropped a second-round tournament game to the Botkins Lady Trojans 52-35.
“We didn’t want to be done,” said first-year coach, Connor Custenborder. “They kept fighting, they wanted to play.”
Ansonia struggled in the opening period of play with the Lady Trojans jumping out to a 19-7 lead with Gabby Leeper accounting for four Lady Tiger points.
The Lady Tigers battled back taking the second quarter by a double-digit 16-6 advantage sending the game to the halftime break with Ansonia trailing by a slim two-point 25-23 score. Bailey Schmit paced Ansonia with six second-quarter points including 4-4 at the charity stripe.
“We switched up our defense and we did a much better job,” Custenborder said of the second-quarter play. “They have a lot of fight in them, they have a lot of resilience, they have been through a lot.”
Botkins took the third quarter 11-8 to lead 36-31 after three complete with Rose Barga, Brenna Schmit, Olivia Creager, and Olivia Schmitmeyer each knocking down a two-point basket for the Lady Tigers.
“They shoot the ball well as a team so we had to close off super hard,” said Coach Custenborder. “We did a better job boxing out.”
The Lady Trojans took advantage of Ansonia turnovers to put the game away in the fourth outscoring the Lady Tigers 16-4 to advance in tournament action.
“We have to take care of the ball – it’s been our problem all year,” Custenborder noted. “We led our conference in steals but we also led in turnovers too, so it’s been a big issue for us all year.”
Ansonia senior twins, Bailey and Brenna Schmit played their final varsity basketball game for the Lady Tigers program.
“We’re going to miss our two seniors,” said Coach Custenborder. “They have been a big part of our program. It’s going to be tough to lose them but we played a lot of young players, we have a lot of sophomores and the eighth grade is pretty good so I am excited to get to work with them this offseason.”
BOXSCORE:
BOTKINS 52, ANSONIA 35
BOTKINS – D. Pitts 17, C. Paul 12, J. Platfoot 10, P. Platfoot, J. Metz 4, M. Frey 3 – TOTALS 12 10-19 6 52
ANSONIA – G. Leeper 7, B. Schmit 7, R. Barga 6, O. Creager 6, B. Schmit 5, O. Schmitmeyer 2, L. Reichert 2 – TOTALS 13 6-12 1 35
3-POINTERS
Botkins 6 (J. Platfoot 3, C. Paul 2, D. Pitts 1)
Ansonia 1 (Brenna Schmit 1
SCORE by QUARTERS
19-06-11-16 52 Botkins
07-16-08-04 35 Ansonia
