ANSONIA – Ansonia overcame a double-digit deficit in the first quarter Thursday evening to beat Bethel 63-47 in a Cross County Conference girls basketball game.
After falling behind 14-3 in the early stages of Thursday’s game, Ansonia took control and outscored Bethel 60-33 the rest of the way to win comfortably.
“Played well,” Ansonia coach Jim Bolin said. “Probably the best they’ve played all year.”
Ansonia held early leads at 1-0 and 3-2 but then saw Bethel go on a 12-0 run to build a 14-3 advantage. Bolin used two timeouts during that five-minute stretch in an attempt to get the Tigers on track.
“We was getting shots, but nothing was falling,” the Ansonia coach said. “If we had hit our shots, we’d been right in the game, but nothing was falling. We just ratcheted our game up a little bit and caught up and didn’t hang our heads. We could have hung our heads and quit playing, but we did not do that and it paid off in the end.”
In the final minutes of the opening quarter Ansonia started to turn things around behind strong play from Katie Werts and Trinity Henderson as the Tigers cut their deficit to 16-11 by the end of the period.
Ansonia continued to cut into the Bethel lead in the second quarter with scoring from Henderson, Werts and Bailey Stammen. With 2:12 remaining in the half, Millie Widener scored to knot the score at 26-26 then less than a minute later the Tigers regained the lead on a basket by Werts. At halftime, Ansonia held a 29-27 advantage.
Ansonia began to pull away in the third quarter and with 1:01 remaining in the quarter increased its lead to double digits on a shot by Henderson. At the end of the period the Tigers led 51-39.
The Tigers continued to add to their lead throughout the fourth quarter on their way to a 16-point win, 63-47.
Henderson led Ansonia with a game-high 24 points on Thursday while Werts added 19 points in the win.
“They’re the meat and potatoes of our team,” Bolin said. “How they go, we go. Trinity is a tremendous asset, and I can’t say enough about Katie, too. They just play, play, play and hardly take a play off. And they’re just two great kids.”
Also for the Tigers, Stammen scored 9 points, Kassy Wentworth scored 5, Widener scored 4, and Kierra Reichert scored 2.
Kenna Gray led Bethel with 22 points on Thursday. Also for the Bees, Olivia Reittinger scored 8 points, Delaney Hardert scored 6, Alaina Hawthorn scored 5, Kate Ellish scored 2, Mekanna Floyd scored 2, and Lydia Lowery scored 2.
“We’ve been working on our man-to-man all week, and they’ve been doing really great, and it showed tonight,” Bolin said of his team’s defense against Bethel.
Ansonia improved to 3-7 overall and 2-3 in the CCC with Thursday’s win. The Tigers will return to action with a home game against Covington on Jan. 11.
