By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

NEW MADISON — The Ansonia High School boys basketball team lost to Dayton Christian High School, 64-58, at the Patriot Activity Center in the consolation game of the Patriot Holiday Classic on Dec. 30.

It was a game where the same problems occurred for Ansonia. They started the game out slow, but had stretches of great play. It’s been a roller-coaster season for the Tigers so far.

Head coach Tony Overton said once this team can finally put it all together, they can be a really good team.

“We show glimpses of when they do grasp it, we can be pretty good. Then we’ll go through dry spells and we forget it. We get down, frustrated and then it snowballs,” Overton said.

The Tigers were down 24-30 at halftime to the Warriors. The Ansonia defense started to come together and get more stops as the first half went on.

Overton said they are getting better defensively, but still need to improve in some areas there.

The offense showed some good glimpses during the first half, but couldn’t get a run going. Dayton Christian was able to match the Tigers point-for-point during the second quarter.

Then the Tigers came out hot during the third quarter. They were able to feed the ball into the post and generate their offense from there.

With 5:30 left in the third quarter, the Tigers took a 33-32 lead. But then the Tigers went cold.

They tried to force the ball into the post, but Dayton Christian began to take that away from Ansonia. Then the Warriors started to find their stroke from beyond the arc. With 2:17 left in the third quarter, Dayton Christian had a 43-33 lead.

“When we get into the post sometimes, we stand and we become very easy to guard. Then that guy will double and we still stand,” Overton said. “That’s the stuff that we talk about everyday. It’s just a matter of them grasping it and executing it.”

The Tigers did make one last push to try and get back into the game. Senior Ian Schmitmeyer and junior Garrett Stammen each had eight points in the fourth quarter. Schmitmeyer had 15 points in the second half.

Ansonia found ways to run their offense through the post and got some stops. But, one of their weaknesses on defense showed up. Overton said their help side defense is still improving as they are still learning better technique to not let players get past them.

Dayton Christian finished the game by converting on their free throws late in the game for third place in the tournament. The Warriors were led by Brady Woodall with 26 points and Jamison Bates with 20.

For the Tigers, they were led by Stammen with 22 points and Schmitmeyer with 17.

Ansonia is now 4-6 on the season. They will next play on Jan. 6 as they travel to Newton for a WOAC matchup.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]