VERSAILLES –The Ansonia Lady Tigers dropped a first-round OHSAA DVII girls tournament game to the Jackson Center Lady Tigers.
“We didn’t put the ball in the hole today,” said second-year Ansonia coach Connor Custenborder. “We struggle shooting. Credit to Jackson Center; they are a great defensive team.”
Ansonia took a 9-6 lead after one quarter of play, with London Reichert scoring four points, Olivia Creager three, and Rose Barga a two-point basket.
The Ansonia girls used an Olivia Creager 3-pointer to push their second-quarter lead to 16-7 at 4:18 and made it a double-digit 18-7 lead with a C Barga reverse layup. Jackson Center battled back to close out the second with a first-quarter 9-6 matching score, sending the teams to the break with Ansonia leading 18-12.
The second half was all Jackson Center as the team outscored Ansonia 12-4 in the third and fourth quarters to advance in tournament play with a 10-point win over Ansonia.
“We have to continue to do things that are working,” said Custenborder. “We just didn’t do that today.”
Jackson Center shot an impressive 12-of-13 (92 percent) from the free throw line, and Ansonia shot a respectable 9-15 (60 percent) at the charity stripe.
“We have a lot coming back next year,” Coach Custenborder noted. “We had 13 wins this year which ties as far back as Max Preps goes, so we want to try and break that next year.”
BOXSCORE:
JACKSON CENTER 36, ANSONIA 26
JACKSON CENTER – P. Reese 14, M. Reichert 10, T. Reichert 5, K. Reese 3, H. Bensman 2, D. Lichtenburg 2 – TOTALS 9 12-13 2 36
ANSONIA – R. Barga 9, C. Barga 7, O. Creager 6, L. Reichert 4 – TOTALS 7 9-15 1 26
3-POINTERS
Jackson Center 2 (P. Reese 2)
Ansonia 1 (O. Creager 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
06-06-12-12 36 Jackson Center
09-09-04-04 26 Ansonia
