ANSONIA – The Ansonia Lady Tigers took advantage of a Lydia Hahn steal and breakaway layup with time running out in overtime to defeat the visiting Union City Lady Indians 62-60 in non-conference play.
“Now we know if we’re in that situation again the moment is not too big for them that they can compete,” first-year Ansonia coach, Connor Custenborder said of his team’s overtime bench play.
“We fought hard,” said veteran UC coach, Sarah Black. “I am really proud of them for that.”
The Lady Tigers grabbed an early 16-8 lead after one period of play led by nine Bailey Schmit points including two 3-pointers.
Union City battled back taking period No. 2 by a 13-9 score with Gabrielle Ordonez hitting her first of three period-ending buzzer beaters, a 3-pointer, and second of five triples on the day sending the teams to the break with Ansonia holding a 25-21 first-half lead.
The Lady Indians took advantage of an Ordonez 3-point buzzer-beater to close out third-quarter action by a 22-18 count sending the game to the fourth quarter tied at 43-43. UC’s Ordonez accounted for 8 points including two treys, Camryn Fischer added 6 points and Belgium Foreign Exchange student, Luane Schoonbroodt went 5-6 at the charity stripe. Six Lady Tigers logged points in the third-quarter scorebook.
“I am extremely proud of the girls’ efforts,” Coach Black stated. “We were behind going into halftime they came out in the third quarter – they won the third quarter, they got it back to a tie ballgame.”
The teams battled to what looked like a two-point Ansonia win in fourth-quarter play with the Lady Tigers leading 56-54 and the clock winding down only to see Union City’s 5’1” junior guard, once again can a two-point buzzer beater sending the game to overtime tied 56-56.
“They made a great shot – they made the shots,” Custenborder said of the Lady Indians.
With the game tied at 60-60 in overtime, the Ansonia twins on the bench with five fouls, the clock winding down with Union City in possession of the ball, Ansonia 5’3” sophomore guard got “the steal” and drove the length of the court with a driving layup as the buzzer sounded giving Ansonia the Saturday afternoon win over the Union City Lady Indians.
“We had two seniors, leading scorers from last year (Bailey and Brenna on the bench with five fouls each) in foul trouble – bench stepped up big time, real team win,” said Coach Custenborder. “Two people we design our offense around, a lot of plays run through them, and girls that normally don’t get a lot of varsity action came in and did a really good job of taking care of the ball, being at the right spot on defense.”
“I was disappointed in our rebounding and our turnovers,” Black noted. “We had 34 turnovers, just too many turnovers, too many extra opportunities that we gave them.”
Ordonez lead Union City and all scorers with a game high 23 points and Schoonbroodt added 16 points for the Lady Indians.
Ansonia 5’11” freshman, Lndon Reichert led the Lady Tigers with 18 points and Bailey Schmit contributed 17 points.
With the win, Ansonia goes to 2-0 on the new season.
BOXSCORE:
ANSONIA 62, UNION CITY 60
ANSONIA – L. Reichert 18, Bailey Schmit 17, O. Creager 9, G. Leeper 8, L. Hahn 4, O. Schmitmeyer 4, Brenna Schmit 2 – TOTALS 19 7-18 7 62
UNION CITY – G. Ordonez 23, L. Schoonbroodt 16, C. Fisher 12, C. Kerns 6, A. Black 4, S. Smith 1 – TOTALS 15 15-19 5 60
3-POINTERS
Ansonia 7 (Bailey Schmit 4, L. Reichert 2, G. Leeper 1)
Union City 5 (G. Ordonez 5)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-09-18-15-04 62 Ansonia
08-13-22-15-02 60 Union City
