ANSONIA – The Arcanum Lady Trojans earned a 47-41 WOAC road win over the Ansonia Lady Tigers.
“We are very fortunate to come out of here with a win,” said Arcanum coach, Abbey Moore. “Connor and Kim (assistant coach Kim Custenborder) are doing a great job here with this program and those girls show a lot of fight and a lot of determination and hopefully that wears off on us a little bit.”
Arcanum took the opening quarter 12-8 with Brooke Anderson, Rylee Leeper, and Caroline Long each contributing 4 Lady points. Ansonia had five players score 2 points each in the first including Lydia Hahn, Rose Barga, Olivia Creager, Olivia Schmitmeyer, and London Reichert.
Arcanum raced out to a 26-13 lead by the end of the first half taking advantage of Lady Tigers foul trouble including 5’11” Landon Reichert riding the bench due to two fouls. Alexis Gibbons paced the Lady Trojans with 7 second-quarter points.
“That’s a big loss (Reichert), not just her, we had the twins (Bailey and Brenna Schmit) too, both had three fouls in the first half which is not the best for our team, two of our primary ball handlers and one who has been our leading scorer the past two games.”
“They got yelled at pretty good at halftime but they took it the right way which is a big thing,” added Custenborder. “It’s a culture thing we’re trying to change our first year here. Trying to change and get them to accept being yelled at, to accept coaching and they have done a really good job of that.”
Ansonia battled back with a strong third quarter outscoring the visitors 18-8 sending the teams to the final quarter with Arcanum holding a slim 3-point 34-31 advantage. Five Lady Tigers dented the third quarter board led by five Bailey Schmit points. Ansonia was 8-12 at the third-quarter free-throw line while Arcanum did not make a third-quarter trip to the charity stripe.
“The quality of officials is high,” Coach Moore stated. “I would never put that on the officials that that is the difference in a ball. If they decide to call it tight that game we as a team and as players on the floor have to make that adjustment. There’s going to be games where they let you play and there’s going to be games that they’re not and that is not their fault, that’s our fault for not making that adjustment. We have to make those adjustments.”
Fourth-quarter play went to the Lady Trojans by a narrow 13-10 score led by 6 Anderson points giving Arcanum a 6-point Thursday night conference win.
“They all played well,” said Coach Custenborder. “It was a team effort to get back in that game.”
Arcanum was whistled for 17 fouls and Ansonia was tagged with 20 fouls in the game. The Lady Trojans were 11-22 at the free throw line for 50 percent while Ansonia was 10-18 for 55 percent shooting.
Anderson led Arcanum and all scorers with a game-high 12 points.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 47, ANSONIA 41
ARCANUM – B. Anderson 12, A. Gibbons 8, Matty Noe 8, A. Miller 6, R. Leeper 6, C. Long 5, C. Hein 2 – TOTALS 12 11-22 4 47
ANSONIA – G. Leeper 9, Bailey Schmit 7, R. Barga 6, L. Reichert 6, O. Creager 4, O. Schmitmeyer 4, L. Hahn 3, Brenna Schmit 2 – TOTALS 10 12-17 3 41
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 4 (A. Miller2, C. Long 2)
Ansonia 3 (G. Leeper 3)
SCORE by QUARTERS
12-14-08-13 47 Arcanum
10-03-18-10 41 Ansonia
