Valley Independent Sentinel

VIDEO: Ansonia Advances To Second Round

by Ken Morse | Mar 9, 2010 7:42 am

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Posted to: Ansonia, Sports

The Ansonia boys basketball team earned its way into the second round of the Class S state tournament Monday after a 71-64 win over North Branford.

North Branford (ranked 24th in the tournament) had the upper hand early in the game over Ansonia (ranked ninth).

Ten Ansonia turnovers in the opening period saw them staring down the barrel of a 17-9 deficit.

The Chargers began to bang the nails out in the second period, but still needed to find a way to shut off the Thunderbirds go-to guy Ricky Angiollo, who threw down a game high 26 points.

Montrell Dobbs went hard to the rack for a put-back. Tarell Vargas (10 points) scored down on the baseline and converted two foul shots for the first extended run of the game for the Chargers.

The 6-0 run still had the Chargers looking up at a 27-19 deficit with 3:15 to go in the half. Ansonia closed the gap going on a 9-2 spurt with Maurice Brown (14 points) and Keshont Graham (9 points) knocking down long range threes.

John Lasko (12 points) scored off a steal just before the buzzer as North Branford held on to a slim 31-28 advantage at the break.

“They were playing a 3-2 zone and we were setting up our offense out on the wings,” Ansonia head coach Bill LaRovera said.

“So we made the adjustment in the second half and started to take better care of the basketball. We moved our outside guys down a little bit and that allowed us to penetrate a little better.”

Whatever was discussed at halftime the Chargers heard it loud and clear as they owned the third period by a 25-9 margin.

Reggie Finney (14 points) drove down the lane with Graham and Sheldon Clarke (12 points) hitting back-to-back threes.

At the 4:17 mark, Ansonia took its first lead at 39-37 since a 5-2 advantage early in the opening period.

Finney and Brown threw down huge three pointers to keep the momentum going.

By the end of the period the Chargers had taken over the game and owned a 53-40 lead.

Julian Sobin (6 points, 14 rebounds) scored down on the baseline and converted a pair at the line to make sure there would be no comeback by the Thunderbirds as the lead swelled to 59-42 with 5:25 remaining.

North Branford managed to put up some window dressing points during the final moments that turned a 20 point deficit at 69-49 into a 71-64 final margin.

Goodwin Tech defeated Thomaston 57-54 on Monday in the first round of the Class S state tournament and will meet Ansonia in the second round on Wednesday.

Video courtesy of Brian Barreto, of the NVL Football Blog.

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