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Arcanum’s
Jamie Anderson looks to score against Ansonia Thursday in
Cross County Conference Action.
Anderson netted 18 for the Trojans as
Arcanum won the game, 41-37. CNO Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Lady Trojans hold off
stubborn A-Tiger team
By George Starks
ARCANUM- It’s been a topsey turvey year for the Lady Tigers in Ansonia
but one thing’s certain. They want to win. Arcanum found that out
Thursday when the Tigers came calling.
Ansonia, trailing 10-7 after the first quarter, came out in the second
with sharpened claws. Going on a 12-0 run to start the second, Ansonia
had built a 23-16 lead at the break. That’s when Arcanum coach Rachael
Fearon lit a fire under the bottoms of her bunch.
The Trojans got it together in the final 16 minutes to out-last Ansonia
41-37 in a Cross County Conference match-up.
“The second quarter put a scare into me. That’s all I have to say about
that,” said Fearon with a laugh. “I told them they needed to do what
they did against Tri-Village and put it all out on the floor and if
they didn’t, Ansonia was going to get its third win of the season and
we weren’t.”
Junior Jamie Anderson turned it on when Fearon needed it the most. With
sophomore standout Abbey O’Donnell on the bench with three fouls, it
was Anderson who took control on the floor. By games end, Anderson had
tallied 18 points for the Trojans to lead all scorers.
“She was all over the floor tonight and I couldn’t have asked for any
more out of her. She put it all on the floor for us and got it done,”
Fearon said of Anderson.
On defense, it was Amber Snell getting the Trojans in the heads of the
Tigers.
“Right now, Amber is playing some of the best basketball I’ve seen her
play this year, just in the last three or four games,” Fearon admitted.
“
Coming out of the break, the Trojans went on a 6-0 mini run to trim the
Tigers lead to 23-22. After an Ansonia time-out at the 4:55 mark,
Arcanum continued to pour it on. At the end of the frame, the Trojans
had gone on a 16-4 third quarter spurt, to gain a 32-27 advantage
heading into the final eight minutes.
“We knew they were going to come out and attack,” said Tigers coach
Craig Reithman. “We had the open shots and were more aggressive in the
third quarter.”
Ansonia stayed within striking distance in the fourth, closing the gap
to a 40-36 score but would never re-gain the lead. In a teaching
process, Fearon admitted that just getting back to the basics has been
key for her team.
“If you watch us closely, we are catching the ball in triple threat and
not just putting the ball on the floor as soon as we catch it,” Fearon
said. “We are starting to do step-around passes. These kids never did
that. We are doing the simple things better and it’s making a
difference. There’s a lot we need to work on and learn but we are
seeing improvement. Right now, I’m just trying to get the girls to see
team and that everybody’s important, no matter what.”
Despite coming up on the short end, Tiger coaches Craig Reithman and
Jason Hemmelgarn were more than pleased with the effort their team
displayed.
“We played hard tonight,” said Reithman. “We had good ball movement and
we were more focused on what to do than what not to do with the ball.
Arcanum came out in that half-court trap in the second half and we lost
focus of what we were doing.
“One of the things we talked about was if we could put together four
full quarters of effort and I thought we did that tonight,” Hemmelgarn
said. “We came up a little short. I give credit to the pressure Arcanum
put on us. I thought we worked hard and the effort was there. We never
quit. Our 2-3 was working but the Anderson girls tore us up.”
“It feels good to get our third win of the season,” Fearon pointed out.
“It wasn’t pretty but it was a win.”
Ansonia will host Twin Valley South on Tuesday while the Trojans will
host Greenon on Monday.
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Arcanum’s
Amber Snell applies some tight defense on Ansonia Thursday.
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