ANSONIA – The Arcanum Lady Trojans earned a hard-fought 58–54 overtime win on the road Friday night, outlasting the home-standing Ansonia Lady Tigers in a bruising, physical WOAC contest.
“I’m ready to get on the bus and head home,” Arcanum coach Abbey Moore said after the exhausting victory. “All the girls that stepped on this floor tonight, whether they were in a white jersey or a black jersey, gave their all and fought hard, and fortunately, we had four more points than them when that clock hit zero.”
For Ansonia, the loss stung after a strong opening quarter.
“It sucks losing an overtime game,” Ansonia coach Connor Custenborder said. “A big component is, they’ve gotten three very good games in against three very good opponents, and that showed in the second quarter. We let ourselves get a little tired there… our game being a running clock, we just weren’t in game shape. We let them back in the game that second quarter, and they stuck with us and pulled away at the end.”
Ansonia came out firing, jumping to a 6–0 start and later stretching the margin to 11–2, prompting a quick Arcanum timeout. The Tigers kept rolling to a 17–4 lead with 2:10 left in the opening quarter before settling for a commanding 21–7 advantage after one.
Charlotte Barge dominated the quarter with 11 points, including a triple. Rose Barga added eight points with a three of her own, and London Reichert chipped in a basket.
Arcanum stormed back in the second period, slicing the Tigers’ lead to 20–13 at 5:04 and pulling within three at 22–19 with 2:16 remaining. Ansonia briefly steadied the ship when Olivia Creager scored at the rim to push the lead to 24–19, but Arcanum closed the half on a run to tie the game 25–25.
“In that second quarter, way too many turnovers,” Custenborder said. “We let ourselves get tired, didn’t get back on defense, stopped taking care of the ball, got careless because we were tired. We can’t get tired — it’s a mentality.”
Six Lady Trojans cracked the scoring column in the second frame, led by Josie Schwartz with seven points, including a three-pointer and two free throws. Matty Noe added a triple, while Ella Warren, Dlaire Hein, Caroline Long, and Ella Flatter each added baskets.
Ansonia opened the second half with a 29–25 lead, but Arcanum answered with four straight to tie at 29–29. The Tigers rebuilt the lead to 36–29 at 1:11, only to see Arcanum close the quarter strong and trail just 36–35 entering the fourth.
Five Lady Tigers scored in the period, highlighted by a Shyann McKenna triple. Arcanum was paced by Adalyn Paul, who drilled two big threes, while Long added a bucket and went 2-for-2 at the line.
“So happy for her — she needed this one,” Moore said of Paul’s performance. “She didn’t get a whole lot of minutes against Minster… the opportunity came when they went to the 2-3 zone, and that’s her time to shine. She’s a knock-down three-point shooter, and she came in and did her job.”
Ansonia held a narrow 38–37 lead at the 6:28 mark before Arcanum ripped off six unanswered points to go up 43–38. The Tigers clawed back to tie the game 46–46 with 3:30 remaining.
Arcanum briefly took a 48–46 edge, but Rose Barga calmly sank two free throws with 26 seconds left to tie the game 48–48, where it stayed to force overtime.
“I felt like we did a better job in the second half,” Custenborder said. “Their other pieces stepped up big for them. They hit a lot of big shots.”
The Lady Trojans owned the four-minute overtime period, outscoring Ansonia 10–6 to secure the conference victory and remain unbeaten in WOAC play.
“Extremely proud of my girls for handling the adversity,” Moore said. “These tests at this time of year are awesome because it’s only going to make us better at the end. Our ultimate goal is to get further than last year, so to be able to come out of here, I feel fortunate. We have to get healthy and get healed up and be ready to go on Tuesday.”
Charlette and Rose Barga led Ansonia and all scorers with 18 points each. Warren, Long, and Paul led Arcanum with 12 points apiece.
Arcanum was 14-17 at the free throw line for 82 percent shooting, and Ansonia was 9-19 for 47 percent.
BOX SCORE:
ARCANUM 58, ANSONIA 54
ARCANUM – A. Paul 12, E. Warren 12, C. Long 12, M. Noe 10, J. Schwartz 7, C. Hein 3, E. Flatter 2 – TOTALS 10 14-17 8 58
ANSONIA – C. Barga 18, R. Barga 18, L. Reichert 7, O. Creager 6, S. McKenna 3, L. Hahn 2 – TOTALS 18 9-19 3 54
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 8 (A. Paul 4, M. Noe 2, E. Warren 1, J. Schwartz 1)
Ansonia 3 (C. Barga 1, S. McKenna 1, R. Barga 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
07-18-10-13-10 58 Arcanum
21-04-11-12-06 54 Ansonia
