|
|
Ansonia
sophomore Allison Phillippi snags a rebound from Arcanum's
Rebecca Deniston
during second half action at Ansonia Thursday.
Phillippi scored 11 points but the Trojans
won the Cross County
Conference battle, 45-36. CNO photos by Dylan Knoop
|
|
Arcanum struggles at Ansonia in conference
victory
By George Starks
ANSONIA- For the third time this season, the Arcanum Lady Trojans and
the Ansonia Tigers squared off on the hardwood.
For the third time, the Trojans came away with a victory but it wasn’t
easy.
Holding as much as a 13 point lead in the fourth quarter, Arcanum was
forced to hold on in the end for a hard fought, 45-36 Cross County
Conference victory over the Tigers.
“I told my girls all week that we had to be ready for this game,” said
Arcanum coach Rachel Fearon. “It doesn’t matter what team it is but
when you come up against a team three times in the same season, it’s
scary. I’m just happy it ended the way it did.”
When the two teams met in the Bill Burkett, the Trojans posted a
blowout victory but got by the Tigers by only eight points at Arcanum.
Thursday, the Tigers came out ready to play and built a 9-4 lead in the
opening frame and maintained that lead for most of the quarter.
Staring at that five point deficit, the Trojans were able to close out
the first eight minutes on a 8-0 run to lead 12-9 at the end of one.
“The first quarter was rough and it seems like it takes my girls a
while to wake up and get the pace going,” said Fearon of her teams play
in the opening quarter. “Once they do, they’re on it but it’s getting
that pace.”
Leading 31-21 after three, the Trojans went up 33-21 early in the frame
but the Tigers were not ready to throw in the towel.
Ansonia went on an 8-2 run, capped off by a score in the paint by
sophomore Allison Philippi, getting the Tigers to within a 35-29 count.
Arcanum would answer the call with a 6-1 run of its own, getting the
lead back to a 41-31 lead with 1:24 left to be played.
“I think we had tired legs and weren’t responding the way I would have
liked,” said Fearon.
Ansonia had one last push left and the final run for the Tigers started
when Philippi hit one of two from the charity stripe with 51.4 seconds
left to be played.
With 28 seconds showing, the Tigers had climbed back to within a 41-36
score before the Trojans put it on ice from the foul line for the nine
point victory.
Abby O’Donnell netted 18 points for the Trojans to lead all scorers but
it was the junior’s defense of Ansonia’s Katy Fischer that caught the
praises of Fearon.
“I think Abby held Fischer to nothing in the first half,” said Fearon.
“When Fischer started bringing the ball down the floor in the second
half, we put Weaver (Josie) on her and I have to hand it to her. She
(O’Donnell) shut Falknor (TV) down in the second half the other night.
I’ve been preaching to her that her defense will take her further than
her offense and she’s starting to prove that to me.”
Even though Ansonia came out strong and had moments of brilliance,
Ansonia coach Amber Short is dealing with a work in progress in Tiger
Nation.
“We don’t put complete games together,” said Short. “When we went to
South (Twin Valley South) we played a good second half but we dug a
hole and Saturday, we had a bad first quarter and we were able to dig
our way out of it. We have those quarters where we don’t know what
we’re doing. Our defense isn’t the best and we don’t play a man defense
very often. Arcanum just outplayed us. I told the girls all we have to
do is play good defense and box out and we didn’t do either one.”
With the win, Arcanum improves to 7-10 overall and 5-5 in the CCC while
Ansonia drops to 2-14 in the CCC.
Arcanum will see action next Tuesday at Newton while Ansonia will host
Xenia Christian today in a varsity only game starting at 3 p.m.
|
|
Freshman
Alexis Abner found the going rough as she was
caught on the baseline against Ansonia.
|
|
|
|
