UNION CITY, Ind. – Ansonia was within striking distance at halftime Tuesday night, but Union City pulled away in the second half to defeat the Tigers 66-48.
“We just kind of ran out of gas,” Ansonia girls basketball coach Jim Bolin said. “The third quarter really hurt us and fourth quarter they just kind of took over and won the basketball game.”
Union City, which celebrated its 2017 state runner-up team prior to Tuesday’s game, showed its talent early on with 22 points in the opening quarter. Ansonia’s Trinity Henderson, Bailey Stammen, Kassy Wentworth and Kierra Reichert combined for 12 first quarter points as the period ended with the Tigers facing a 10-point deficit, 22-12.
Reichert, Henderson, Wentworth and Katie Werts combined for 8 points in the second quarter, but that was enough for Ansonia to cut into its deficit. Ansonia limited Union City to just 5 points in the frame to pull within 27-20 entering halftime.
“We switched up from our man and went to a zone,” Bolin said of the second quarter defense. “I didn’t think we could really do much with it because they’ve got about three or four different shooters, but they did a good job on it.”
Ansonia couldn’t keep the high-powered Union City squad down for long, however. The home team scored 20 points in the third quarter, including 5 in the final 15 seconds, to increase its lead to 49-35.
Ansonia wasn’t able to recover and ultimately lost by 18, 66-48.
“I thought we played good in spurts,” Bolin said. “They’d get up 10, 11, and we’d get back within 5, 4, but they’re just too quick and we didn’t take care of the ball, basically. We got rebounds, and we just let them take the ball away from us. We can’t do that against a good team.”
Wentworth led Ansonia with 19 points in Tuesday’s game. Also for the Tigers, Werts scored 10 points, Henderson scored 8, Stammen scored 6, and Reichert scored 5.
Justiss Cantu led Union City with a game-high 26 points, Mackenzie Green scored 15, Maddy Cox scored 14, Kahlee Dowler scored 7, Mya Carpenter scored 2, and Sophia Spence scored 2.
Ansonia fell to 4-10 with Tuesday’s loss. The Tigers will return to action on Thursday in a Cross County Conference game at Tri-County North.
