ANSONIA – The Ansonia Lady Tigers set a new school scoring record in varsity girls basketball with an 82-19 conference win over the Bradford Lady Railroaders.
“We did a good job of shooting the ball tonight,” said second-year Ansonia head coach Connor Custenborder.
The Lady Roaders ran into a Thursday night buzz-saw with ten Lady Tigers putting points in the scoring column led by 29 freshman Charlotte Barga points.
“It was one of those, kind of a buzz saw,” said Bradford coach Josh Siedling. “They weren’t missing, and tonight they were definitely the better team.”
Ansonia took advantage of a full-court smothering defense to jump out to a 19-2 lead after one period of play led by three Gabby Leeper 3-pointers good for nine points.
Bradford opened second-quarter play with five unanswered points and posted 13 points in the period to the Lady Tigers’ 20 points, sending the teams to the break with Ansonia leading 39-15. Rose Barge paced the Lady Tigers with eight second-quarter points.
“The second quarter, I wasn’t the most pleased giving up 13 points,” Custenborder stated. “We like to hold a team under 40, and that’s 52, so we came out a lot better defensively in the second half.”
The second half belonged to Ansonia, with the Lady Tigers taking the second half by a 43-1 score while putting a running clock in play at 5:04 in the third quarter.
Barga owned the third quarter, knocking down 18 points, including three treys, four 2-pointers, and 1-1 at the charity stripe, leading the Lady Tigers to a 30-point quarter to lead 69-16 with three periods in the book.
“Between Gabby and Charlotte, those two hit a bunch of threes, seven between the two of them,” noted Coach Custenborder. “That’s pretty good.”
With the game well in hand with just under four minutes to play and the team short of the school scoring record, Coach Custenborder went to his bench, bringing five new players to the court.
“To be completely honest, I didn’t know we were that close to it,” Coach Custenborder said of the record. “I just wanted them to play well, and we played well in the second half.”
Ansonia freshman Autumn Best was fouled, hitting a running floater from the left side at 1:29, and was all net on the free-throw for an old-fashioned three-point play, setting a Lady Tigers new high watermark at 82 points.
“The bench did good,” Custenborder said. “They were in getting the ball in the basket. That’s what they have to do, and they did a good job in the JV game too. They did a good job finding the open person and scoring.”
“We played hard to the end,” said Coach Siedling. “Small details become big details in games like this. “We have work to do, but on to the next one, on to the next one.”
The Ansonia varsity squad dresses four freshmen, Charlotte Barga, Shyanne Mckenna, Lydia Klingshirn, and Autumn Best, who are part of a team with a bright future.
“It’s a great freshman class,” said Custenborder. “Very excited to have them for three more years, but we’re also focused on winning now. We have a good team now that can win, so we’re excited about the future, but now we’re focused on this season.”
C. Barge led Ansonia and all scorers with a game-high 29 points.
BOXSCORE:
ANSONIA 82, BRADFORD 16
ANSONIA – C. Barga 29, R. Barga 15, G. Leeper 11, O. Creager 8, L. Reichert 5, K. Caldwell 4, L. Hahn 3, S. Mckenna 3, A. Best 3, O. Schmitmeyer 1 – TOTALS 21 13-18 9 82
BRADFORD – M. Wood 6, R. Dotson 4, L. Canan 3, H. Evans 3 – TOTALS 4 5-9 1 16
3-POINTERS
Ansonia 9 (C. Barga 4, G. Leeper 3, S. Mckenna 1, L. Reichert 1)
Bradford 1 (L. Canan 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
19-20-30-13 82 Ansonia
02-13-01-00 16 Bradford
