ANSONIA – Despite knowing they were going to be young this season, Ansonia girls coach Jim Bolin had high hopes back in November.
Unfortunately, the wins have not come as abundantly as desired and Tigers dropped another one on Saturday to visiting Parkway, 55-45. Ansonia was within single digits of the Panthers for most of the first three quarters, but down the final eight minutes Parkway pulled away for the victory.
Trinity Henderson led Ansonia with a game-high 23 points. She had five 3-pointers and Mariah Troutwine connected on three long balls for all of her 9 points in the game, but what the Tigers were able to do from beyond the arc, they could not match inside the paint as Parkway poured in 17 deuces compared to 7 for Ansonia.
“We are just having a rough time getting some presence and points in the paint,” Bolin said. “Everybody just kind of packs it in on us and we settle for 3’s. When you do that you have to make them and we missed quite a few of them today and ultimately we got beat. We did hit a few 3’s, but you can’t live and die by it. You have to have inside presence too and we just didn’t do that.”
At 5-foot-9, Claire Eichler was a big presence in the paint for Parkway. She finished the game with 13 points, second only to Leah Harshman’s team-high 14 points. Also establishing presence inside for the Panthers was 5-10 senior Stephanie Schaaf, who totaled 8 points.
“It’s been our story all year long,” Bolin said. “We can’t score in the paint. They had pretty good size compared to us and they pretty much dominated the boards. They also got several putback opportunities. We can stop the initial shot, but if they keep putting it back and making it that is hard to stop. Trinity always plays a good game. She is a go-getter and never stops. She will be a hard one to replace next year.”
Ansonia has three games left this week before the tournament. They play at Covington on Monday, at Twin Valley South on Thursday and then close the regular season at home against Riverside on Saturday.
Score by quarters
Parkway^12^17^13^13^-^55
Ansonia^10^15^9^11^-^45
Individual scoring
Parkway – Stephanie Schaaf 4 0 8, Shaelyn Thomas 1 0 2, Kristine Kirby 2 0 4, Clara Hellwarth 2 1 5, Rachel Barrett 1 0 2, Elise Darrigan 2 0 6, Leah Harshman 5 3 14, Claire Eichler 4 5 13. Totals: 21 9 55.
Ansonia – Trinity Henderson 7 4 23, Heidi Runkel 1 2 4, Kierra Reichert 2 1 5, Mariah Troutwine 3 0 9, Emily Wright 1 0 2, Emma Barga 1 0 2. Totals: 15 7 45.
3-pointers – Parkway 4 (Darrigan 2, Thomas, Harshman), Ansonia 8 (Henderson 5, Troutwine 3).
Records: Parkway (3-14), Ansonia (2-17).
