Ansonia Tigers 20-for-26 free throw shooting sinks Blackhawks
UNION CITY – The Ansonia Tigers defeated the home standing Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks 49-37 in Saturday night WOAC play.
“When we play Mississinawa it doesn’t matter what either one of the team’s records are,” said Ansonia coach, Devin Limburg. “We always go at each other and we know that coming in, they know that coming in.”
“I would say it’s fun – but it’s stressful,” Limburg added with a chuckle.
Ansonia grabbed an early 13-4 lead after one period of play with Trevor Hemmerich and Garrett Stammen each with 4-points, Ian Schmitmeyer with 3-points coming at the free throw line and a Ethan Reichert basket.
“The run at the beginning was everything for us,” Coach Limburg noted. “We haven’t started like that – we don’t start like that very often so coming out ready to go like that was the difference in the game. It really got us going and that way when we had our lulls we were able to maintain that lead.”
Period No. 2 went to the Ansonia by a basket, 10-8 sending the teams to the break with the Tigers holding a 23-12 advantage.
Defense was on display in the third quarter with the Hawks taking the period 5-4 with one period to play.
Offense was the game in the fourth with Ansonia striking for 22-points while the Mississinawa Valley was just two back putting 20-points in the book.
“At the end I though our guys did a good job pulling away and finishing the game the right way,” Limburg said.
Ansonia shot a perfect 12-12 at the fourth quarter free throw line including 7-7 from Schmitmeyer to give the Tigers a hard fought victory.
“That’s new – we made free throws,” said Limburg. “That’s nice and the guys that I count on to make those free throws stepped up and they were big tonight.”
For the game, Ansonia made good on 20-of-26 free throws for 77 percent at the line.
“Free throws, 20-for-26,” said Limburg. “I’ll take that anytime.”
Ian Schmitmeyer led Ansonia and all scorers with a game high 19-points in a game that saw 15-players in the scoring column; seven Tigers and eight Blackhawks.
“Ian was very good tonight, Garrett (Stammen) was good as always, Trevor (Hemmerich) was really good, Ethan (Reichert) played well, Landyn (Bowman) made two big ones at the end. It was a good win,” said Limburg. “I thought we played really well for the most part and we battle through the rough patches.”
BOXSCORE
ANSONIA 49, MISSISSINAWA VALLEY 37
ANSONIA – I. Schmitmeyer 19, G. Stammen 13, T. Hemmerich 8, L. Bowman 4, E. Reichert 4, T. Spence 1 – TOTALS 13 20-26 1 49
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY – D. Anguiano 8, J. Loy 8, T. Woodbury 5, D. Wehrkamp 5, X. Manning 4, D. Trump 3, J. Dirmeyer 2, M. Pisano 2 – TOTALS 10 11-19 2 37
3-POINTERS
Ansonia 1 (G. Stammen 1)
Mississinawa Valley 2 (D. Trump 1, D. Wehrkamp 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
13-10-04-22 49 Ansonia
04-08-05-20 37 Mississinawa Valley
