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Ansonia junior Katie Werts hits in the lane for two of her 10 points
Thursday as the Lady Tigers dropped
a 55-39 loss on Mississinawa Valley
in non-conference action. CNO Photos by George Starks
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Ansonia gets
big road win
By George Starks
UNION CITY- When Ansonia and Mississinawa Valley meet in any sport, it
usually brings out the best in one team if not both.
Thursday was no exception at The Hawks Nest.
The two Cross County Conference rivals met for their annual
non-conference game and in the end, it was the Lady Tigers posting a
55-39 victory over the Hawks.
Holding a slim 15-14 lead after one quarter of play, the Tigers (4-5
overall) came out in the second quarter and held the Hawks to a mere
five points in the frame, taking a nice 31-19 lead at the break.
"In the last week, we've been focusing on the fundamentals and we've
put some emphasis on defense," Ansonia coach Jim Bolin said.
"When we focus on those two things, winning will take care of itself.
The kids are starting to learn to bring on a balanced attack."
A week ago at The Hangar, the Tigers had 25 turnovers in a loss to the
Jets.
Thursday, Ansonia committed 17 miscues.
A marked improvement from a week ago but for Bolin, it needs to get
better.
"We need to get away from the self-inflicted turnovers," Bolin stated.
"We played a good first quarter tonight but when you come into another
teams place, anything can happen an my kids know this.We played good
defense in the second quarter and it made it harder for them to come
back."
At the end of the third, the Tigers seemed to be in control holding a
43-30 lead but with eight minutes left to play, Boling made one thing
clear in the huddle,
"This game is not over yet!"
"Anytime you come into another teams gym, you got to play until the
horn sounds," said Bolin. "If you let a team hang around and you know
as well as I do, they'll start throwing things up and then they are
right there. So this game was not over at that point."
The difference maker for MV coach John Hershey may have come in the
form of foul shooting.
On the night, the Blackhawks shot a measly 7 of 22 from the charity
stripe.
Unacceptable for any coach.
"Foul shooting did hurt us," admitted Hershey. :They (Ansonia) shot
really well from the line. It seems they were there a lot. Yes that
hurt us. We missed a lot of shots in the paint and this is something we
practice everyday."
Despite the negatives, Hershey was able to find some positives in the
16 point loss.
"My girls got after it tonight and I'm very proud of them for that,"
said Hershey. "They were showing more heart and desire to go out there
and go get it. I've been trying to get that out of them for a long time
so this was a good night."
The Hawks started the night in a 3-2 zone on defense and for the first
eight minutes, it worked.
"We wanted to force them to shoot from the outside thinking we could
stop them," Hershey pointed out. "They never did hurt us on the inside
but they made some really nice shots with hands in their faces. You
just cant stop that sometimes. In the second quarter the transition
game was working but they were hitting shots and we weren't."
With the win the Tigers went to 4-5 on the year while the Hawks fell to
1-6 overall.
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Getting
physical is something that's expected when the Hawks and Tigers clash
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