NEW MADISON – The Tri-Village Lady Patriots took advantage of an Arcanum upset win over Mississinawa Valley to move into a four-way WOAC first-place tie with a 54-36 conference win over the Ansonia Lady Tigers.
Obviously, we needed some help there,” Tri-Village coach Brad Gray said of Arcanum’s upset win. “That’s a really big win for Arcanum. Now, four teams are sitting on one loss in league play. It will be interesting to see how things play out.”
“We’ll definitely send our gratitude to Coach Abbey Moore and Arcanum, congratulations to them,” Gray added. “That’s a huge win for them and obviously helps us a lot too.”
A slow start offensively had Ansonia taking a 2-0 lead at 5:32 in the opening period with Kenna Wilcox draining her first of four 3-pointers on the day to give Tri-Village a 3-2 lead with 5:12 on the first quarter board. The teams played to a 10-10 tie with under two minutes to play before Tri-Village took a 14-12 lead to the second quarter.
The Lady Patriots defense shut out the Lady Tigers 14-0 in second-quarter play. Wilcox accounted for seven points, including a trey; Tai Mize contributed five points, including a triple, and Alexa Light went 2-2 at the line for a 28-12 Tri-Village halftime lead.
“Same thing we had on Thursday,” said second-year Ansonia head coach Connor Custenborder. “Just one quarter is killing us. We have to put it together for a whole game.”
Quarter No. 3 went to the Lady Patriots by a 16-9 count, with Wilcox accounting for seven Tri-Village points, including a 3-pointer, and Adalynn Hines and Kaley Brandon also canned treys in the period.
“Tai has continued to do a good job from the point position,” Coach Gray said. “Alexa Light stepped up today, and it’s good to see her gaining some confidence. She’s starting to step out and hit some mid-range shots; she even had a three today. Seeing her put the ball in the basket is huge. Kaley Brandon came off the bench and gave us really good minutes. She got some quality rebounds for us. We are so undersized, we need everybody to buy into rebounding and she helped us on the glass today.”
Ansonia battled back to take the final quarter 15-10, getting a 3-pointer each from Charlotte Barga, Gabby Leeper, and Autumn Best.
“We got a lot of energy from some girls on our bench,” Custenborder noted. “Autumn Best came in the second half and helped us out a lot. She brought some great energy for us, getting some hands in the passing lanes, and pushing in transition. She did a great job for us off the bench today.”
“We up there in the league in rebounding, and we definitely got out-rebounded today, which is saying a lot. Tri-Village is an undersized team from what they are used to having, and for them to still out rebound is not something we can have and expect to win.”
“Ansonia is a good up-and-coming team; they have a lot of young talent,” said Coach Gray. “Custenborders do a great job there. Connor and his mom bring that Versailles mentality, and they are getting those kids to believe the way they play with that kind of effort and relentless want to.”
“To get that win for us is a big one because they’re a headache for teams moving forward, not just this year but the next few years as well,” Gray concluded.
Wilcox led Tri-Village and all scorers with a game-high 23 points.
“It’s a great team win, but Kenna Wilcox had a day today,” Gray said. “She has been playing well for us, particularly in the second half of ballgames, but seeing her come out and get us going right from the start was great.”
Tri-Village improves to 9-3 overall and 5-1 in the WOAC. Ansonia stands at 6-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play.
BOXSCORE:
TRI-VILLAGE 54, ANSONIA 36
TRI-Village – K. Wilcox 23, A. Light 10, T. Mize 9, A. Hines 7, K. Brandon 5 – TOTALS 8 14-20 8 54
Ansonia – C. Barga 9, O. Creager 9, A. Best 6, G. Leeper 5, L. Hahn 3, L. Reichert 3, R. Barga 1 – TOTALS 6 3-4 7 36
3-POINTERS
Tri-Village 8 (K. Wilcox 4, T. Mize 2, A. Light 1, A. Hines 1)
Ansonia 7 (C. Barga 3, G. Leeper 1, L. Hahn 1, O. Creager 1, L. Reichert 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
14-14-16-10 54 Tri-Village
12-00-09-15 36 Ansonia
