VERSAILLES – The No. 14 seed Ansonia Lady Tigers pulled off a stunning upset over the No. 4 seed Southeastern Lady Trojans 54-46 in first-round OHSAA DIV sectional play. Southeastern came into the game as the Ohio Heritage Conference South Champions.
“First tournament win in 15 years is what I have been told,” said Ansonia coach, Connor Custenborder following the game. “Very proud that we could do that for the girls.”
The Lady Trojans looked like a No. 4 seed jumping out to a 15-7 lead over Ansonia after one quarter of play.
Ansonia made a second-quarter run at Southeastern taking advantage of a Bailey Schmit 3-pointer cutting the Lady Trojans lead to 21-19 at 1:39. Southeastern drew a foul beyond the arc with time running out and went 3-3 at the line to close out first half scoring.
Southeastern took the second period 15-14 sending the teams to the halftime break with the Lady Trojans leading 28-21. Ansonia freshman London Reichert paced the Lady Tigers with nine second-quarter points including a 3-pointer.
“We have been telling London to shoot a lot more,” said Coach Custenborder. “Being a freshman, sometimes she gets a little scared to pull the trigger. We told her any game she shoots under eight shots now we have to find some kind of punishment for her because she is very good for us and we want her shooting the basketball.”
The Ansonia Lady Tigers battled back with under one minute in third-quarter play, trailing 36-28, Olivia Schmitmeyer drained a 3-pointer at 0:47, a Tigers’ steal and a Gabby Leeper jumper at the free throw line made it 36-33 Southeastern and a Bailey Schmit triple knotted the score at 36-36 with the teams heading to the final quarter of action.
“Olivia Schmitmeyer boxed out well, rebounded well, and shot well,” Custenborder said of his sophomore. “She hit a big three there too.”
Ansonia drained four third-quarter 3-pointers to get back in the game, two from Schmitmeyer and one each from Leeper and Bailey Schmit.
The Lady Tigers quickly trailed the No. 4 seed Lady Trojans 41-39 bringing a timeout from the Ansonia bench. Bailey Schmit evened the score at 41-41 going 2-2 at the free throw line and Olivia Creager gave Ansonia a 42-41 lead going 1-2 at the line with 5:02 showing on the game clock.
An Ansonia steal and Leeper layup at 4:57 gave the Lady Tigers a 44-41 lead. Reichert drilled a trey at 3:28 upping Ansonia’s lead to 47-41 and Creager canned back-to-back free throws giving the Lady Tigers a 49-41 lead followed by a Southeastern free throw for a 49-42 score.
“Shooting is something that has been a struggle for us all year but the girls work hard,” Custenborder noted. “We got to the line a lot.”
Ansonia got its first double-digit lead of the day with Leeper canning a baseline 3-pointer giving the Lady Tigers a 52-42 advantage. Southeastern scored two for a 52-44 score, Bailey Schmit went 1-2 at the line making it 53-44 with 1:46 to play, Southeastern went 2-2 at the line with 24 seconds remaining in the game and Reichert went 1-2 at the charity stripe giving the Ansonia Lady Tigers an eight-point first round upset tournament win over South Charleston’s Southeastern Lady Trojans.
“The start of the year at Union City we were down and came back and won, Waynesfield-Goshen we were down and came back and won so it’s a situation we’re somewhat familiar with,” Coach Custenborder stated. “I’m glad they stayed in it and didn’t get down. It’s been a big thing we’ve been talking about when we did go on that big losing streak about being able to flip the switch off – all right they scored, have to move on, can’t let losing by eight points turn into losing by 16, have to take it one possession at a time and get back in it and they did a good job of that today.”
Ansonia advances on the tournament trail to take on the No. 10 seed Botkins Lady Trojans, Wednesday, February 21 at Versailles with a 6 p.m. start time, a team that defeated the Lady Tigers 45-21 earlier in the season.
“They beat us by almost 20 earlier in the season so we have a big task ahead but it was in a stretch where we lost eight or nine games in a row and we were down,” Custenborder said. “I hope the girls see that we’re better than what we were against them the first time and believe in themselves.”
London Reichert led Ansonia with 17 points in the win over Southeastern.
BOXSCORE:
ANSONIA 54, SOUTHEASTERN 46
ANSONIA – L. Reichert 17, Bailey Schmit 11, G. Leeper 10, O. Schmitmeyer 8, O. Creager 6, Brenna Schmit 2 – TOTALS 6 18-32 8 54
SOUTHEASTERN – B. Nelson 21, R. Workman 8, S. Xavier 6, K. Billet 4, L. Bonifay 4, M. Sulfridge 3 – TOTALS 14 12-20 2 46
3-POINTERS
Ansonia 8 (G. Leeper 2, O. Schmitmeyer 2, Bailey Schmit 2, L. Reichert 2)
Southeastern 2 (B. Nelson 1, L. Bonifay 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
07-14-15-18 54 Ansonia
15-13-08-10 46 Southeastern
