ARCANUM – The Arcanum Trojans defeated the Ansonia Tigers 64-27 to open 2023-2024 WOAC play for both Darke County teams.
“We knew whatever team they put on the floor was going to come out and try and spark themselves early,” said Arcanum coach, Kevin Brackman. “We tried to get ourselves in a groove early to carry it out the rest of the way.”
Arcanum took the opening quarter 17-11 with Brady Lock and Braylen Etherington each knocking down a 3-pointer and a two-point basket to lead the Trojans with five first-quarter points. Matt Barga and Trevor Emmerich paced the Tigers with four points each.
Period No. 2 saw the Trojans break the game open with six players putting points in the book outscoring the visiting Tigers 21-8 led by Regan Christ’s six points sending the teams to the break with Arcanum doubling the score on the board 38-19.
“We tried to shake up our defense a little bit and I felt like once we got in a groove and we understood our matchups and used our defense – deflections, steals, loose balls, dives on the floor and charges, those five things that don’t show up in that white and green book,” Brackman stated. “We believe in them and we preach them, and preach them and preach them and that is why we were able to separate ourselves.”
Arcanum extended its lead to 52-27 with six Trojans once again getting into the scoring column.
The Trojans took advantage of a running clock to close out the game taking the final period by a 12-0 score to earn the conference win and go 2-0 on the young season.
“The guys believe and they’re finding joy in the game – finding joy in little things and uplifting our guys,” said Coach Brackman. “When we’ve done that we’ve got the bench to buy in.”
Christ led Arcanum and all scorers with a game-high 16 points. Arcanum limited its turnovers to five in the game.
“We try not to let that turnover number get to high,” Brackman noted. “We have to sacrifice it a little bit, there has to be wiggle room and understanding with our guys. That speaks to the unselfishness of our guys.”
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 64, ANSONIA 27
ARCANUM – R. Christ 16, B. Etherington 14, B. Lock 12, N. Koller 6, L. Flatter 6, M. McCans 5, C. Burke 2, L. Henninger 2, L. Byrne 1 – TOTALS 18 10-15 6
ANSONIA – M. Barga 10,, E. Reichert 7, T. Emmerich 6, A. Shives 3, J. Creager 1 – TOTALS 9 3-10 2 27
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 6 (R. Christ 3, B. Etherington 2, B. Lock 1)
Ansonia 2 (M. Barga 2)
SCORE by QUARTERS
17-21-14-12 64 Arcanum
11-08-08-00 27 Ansonia
