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Ansonia
senior Logan Moody shoots over a Russia player Tuesday at ‘The
Jungle’.
Moody never scored but the Raiders scored a 69-51 victory over
Ansonia. CNO Photo by Dylan Knoop
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Ansonia suffers
second loss of season
By George Starks
ANSONIA- Despite posting his third double-double of the season,
in four games, Ansonia senior Dusty Holcomb (16- points/11 rebounds)
couldn’t do it by himself. In fact, Zach Brown added 11 points in
support but in the end, D-IV powerhouse Russia, rolled over Ansonia
69-51 in non-conference action Tuesday.
Russia jumped out to a commanding 21-2 lead in the first quarter.
Ansonia put four more points on the board before the horn sounded but
trailed 21-6 after one.
“We dug ourselves a big hole,” said Ansonia coach Darrick Barga. “They
wanted to push the ball and we had find the shooters in transition.
When we doubled we didn’t want to foul. We wanted to make the shooter
shoot over two people and we were doing that. He was missing but we
were fouling and he was getting to the free throw line and making free
throws.
“We weren’t guarding the ball the way we needed to,” Barga continued.
“We needed to guard the basketball and not allow dribble penetration
and that killed us.”
Down 21-6, the Tigers came out to start the second frame on fire.
Ansonia went on a 12-0 run, closing the gap to 21-17 with 4:38
remaining in the half.
By the end of the half, Ansonia was staring a 39-23 score in the face.
“We were right there when we put ourselves within five,” acknowledged
Barga. “I wish I would have seen it and called a time-out and given our
guys a breather. But they made another run and it killed our momentum.
That’s my fault as a coach. I should have called a time-out. My kids
used a whole bunch of energy to get back in the game.”
Even though the score was lopsided as the Raiders had built as much as
a 30 point lead at one point, there were positives. One being the
ability to shut down the Raiders big man, 6-9 senior Brandon Wilson.
Averaging over 20 points a game, the Tigers held him to a dozen.
“I think we did a good job on him and I think if we don’t foul him, we
hold him to 10 or less,” said Barga. “Dusty did a great job on him and
he came to play tonight. But as a team we just weren’t ready to shoot
and you have to be ready every time you get the ball. We didn’t do
that.”
Now 2-2 on the season, Ansonia will go to West Alexandria Friday for a
Cross County Conference game with Twin Valley South. The Tigers will
look to go to 3-0 in the conference.
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