ANSONIA – Two big games on Saturday, January 3rd, that impact the WOAC girls basketball league title took place in Darke County, just a few miles apart from each other. Arcanum traveled to unbeaten Mississinawa Valley, and Tri-Village was at Ansonia.
Mississinawa Valley has steamrolled through the league against the top teams, adding another impressive win against Arcanum 63-38 to remain undefeated in the conference at 6-0 and 10-1 overall, putting themselves in control of the league race.
Tri-Village and Ansonia both needed a win to stay a game back and an outside shot at the crown. The two teams would lock horns in a defensive battle that went down to the wire.
The Tigers struck first in this one on a full-court lay-up from sophomore guard Shyann McKenna. The Patriots countered on a short bank shot from junior Kenna Wilcox.
Ansonia scored the next five points on a lay-up from senior Rose Barga and a triple from junior forward London Reichert to jump on top 7-2 at 4:33.
Tri-Village got three free throws from freshman Taytum Gray to answer but Reichert came right back with a left-handed lay-up to stay in front 9-5 at the three-minute mark.
Free throws were keeping the Patriots close with Tai Mize knocking down two … but Rose Barga added a triple a minute later for Ansonia to go up 12-7.
Tri-Village senior guard Adalynn Hines scored in the lane to close the gap with the Tigers leading 12-9 after one quarter.
Tri-Village dominated in the second period by scoring 16 points while holding Ansonia to just three.
TV closed to 12-11 on two free throws from Hines … then Rose Barga hit her second triple of the game at the seven-minute mark to stay in front 15-11 … but Hines on an old-fashion three drew the PATS within one, 15-14 at six minutes.
Senior guard Sydnee DeLong dropped a triple from the wing, giving Tri-Village the lead for the first time in the game, 17-15 at 5:10 of the 2nd quarter.
After getting off to a hot start, things went cold for the Tigers as they failed to score in the last 7 minutes of the first half, and the Patriots added to their lead with 8 points in the quarter from Hines, five for DeLon,g and three by Alexa Light for a 25-15 lead at the break.
The pace of play slowed considerably in the second half. In fact, the Tigers scored just one field goal in the third quarter on a lay-up from Rose Barga, but they also benefited from charity stripe by going 7-for-8, scoring nine points in the period.
Tri-Village would reach their largest lead in the game 30-18 after a Wilcox lay-up and a harm and foul three-pointer for Hines before Ansonia’s Reichert made two free throws to make cut the score to 30-20 at 2:21 of the third quarter.
Moments later, Tai Mize was whistled for a foul, the fifth team foul in the quarter to send Rose Barga to the free throw line, and as an added bonus, she shot a technical foul assessed for illegal substitution by the Patriots. She made all four charity tosses the gym was alive with excitement as Ansonia cut the lead down to 30-24 heading into the final frame.
Ansonia continued to close with a fielder from Rose Barga to start the fourth quarter.
Tri-Village got a big bucket from Hines to break the run to go up 33-26 … but senior Olivia Creager dialed in her own triple to respond for the Tigers to make it 33-29 at 6:50.
Tri-Village got a free throw from Tai Mize to go up 34-29, but the Tigers’ defense shut the PATS down over the next four minutes and added two field goals, one each from Creager and Rose Barga, to trail by just one 34-33 with 55 seconds left in the game.
While TV struggled to score, they ramped up their pressure, rattling the Tigers, creating turnovers, leading to Ansonia fouling and sending the PATS to the free throw line.
While the Patriots were just 5-for-10 at the line in the fourth quarter, it was enough to help them in the stretch secure the win 38-33 to hold off the late Tigers rally.
Tri-Village coach Brad Gray credited his defense to help his team get the win.
“I thought our defense, again, won the game for us today, especially down the stretch, we sped them up and we got a lot of stops,” Gray stated.
“I said at the beginning of the year, I really believe Ansonia is definitely one of the best, if not the best team in our league and I really believe that. I still believe that today, that’s a really good basketball team and will continue to be good because they’re so well coached. He (Coach Connor Custenborder) is doing an awesome job with them, they’re never going to be an easy game here for these next few years, I know they lose a couple important seniors, but with their sophomore class loaded and Reichert as a junior they won’t be an easy team to beat,” Gray added.
The Tigers’ defense made it tough on Tri-Village, but the Patriots’ senior leader, Adalynn Hines, took charge for her team in this one, and her play was key to helping the Patriots get the win.
“We had seven turnovers in the fourth, and four of those were untimely right after we got it down to one score, and I think (Adalynn) Hines accounted for all four of them. I told the girls all week, Hines is probably the best on-ball defender I’ve ever seen, and she creates a lot of turnovers, creates a lot of pressure, credit to her for forcing them,” coach Custenborder stated.
The Tigers gave themselves a chance in the game by riding the hot hand of Rose Barga, who led all scorers in the game with 18 points, while also leaning on their zone defense that stymied Tri-Village at times.
“We thought the zone was our best game plan to beat them. Just make sure we close out on shooters because they all shoot the ball really well. They have six or seven girls that you got to close out on hard, so we ran a 3-2 to try and get them off the top of the key and make them drive lanes,” Custenborder said.
It was Adalynn Hines who was able to take that challenge of driving the lanes and she would lead Tri-Village with 17 points.
“Hines, again, on the offensive end, did a great job of weaving in and out and getting layups and creating contact for them,” Custenborder said.
With the win Tri-Village improves to 10-1 on the year and 5-1 in the WOAC a game behind Mississinawa. Tri-Village will be back in action on Thursday hosting Dixie.
Ansonia falls to 7-3 overall and 3-2 in the WOAC. They have big back-to-back away games at Newton on Thursday and Mississinawa Valley on Saturday.
Box Scores
Score by Quarters
09 … 16 … 05 … 08 – 38 – Tri-Village
12 … 03 … 09 … 09 – 33 – Ansonia
Team Scoring
Tri-Village – S. DeLong 1-1-0/2 – 5, T. Gray 0-0-4/5 – 4, T. Mize 0-0-3/4 – 3, K. Wilcox 0-2-2/2 – 6, A. Light 0-1-1/2 – 3, A. Hines 2-3-5/6 – 17, Totals 3-7-15/20 – 38
Ansonia – S. McKenna 0-1-0/0 – 2, R. Barga 2-4-4/4 –18, O. Creager 1-1-1/2 – 6, L Reichert 1-1-2/2 – 7, Totals 4-7-7/9 – 33
