On Friday, Jan. 4 at St. Paul’s in Bristol, Ansonia senior guard Melissa Tirella became just the fifth girl in Ansonia High School history to reach 1,000 points for her career.
Early in the third quarter, the 5‑foot‑3 tri-captain hit an 8‑foot jumper in the lane to reach the milestone.
Tirella joins Lisa Simon, Carol Sovinski, Marta Skoniecki and current AHS assistant coach Aleisha Mott Coughlin in the 1,000-point club for Ansonia High School Girls Basketball.
Tirella has started all but three games in her four-year career, those being the first three games of her freshman season.
“She probably should have started every game of her career,” explained head coach Patrick Lynch. “Her freshman year was also my first year. After seeing her perform in our first few JV games and how she did coming off the bench for our varsity, I knew she should start but we were 2 – 0 and I’m kind of superstitious. So after we lost the third game, I figured it was time.”
The left-handed senior has been a steady fixture in the Chargers box score since. She has averaged 13.2 points per game for her career and has been the leading scorer for Ansonia since her sophomore year. She had a career-high 32 points vs. Woodland her sophomore year. She has made the All-NVL 1st team the past two years.
“She was the only sophomore on the team in 2011 and the only junior on the team last year,” Lynch explained. “Teams set up their entire game plan to stop her. It gets frustrating for her at times. I try to stay positive but it’s frustrating as a coach too.”
“As a sophomore, I snuck up on people,” Tirella said while smiling. “Now, that doesn’t happen. Coach Lynch says I have to take it as respect from the other teams but also use it as motivation to get better every day. So I try to do that.”
Although teams plan to stop her, each year her scoring average has risen. This year she is averaging just below 18 points a game and had a season-high 27 points earlier this year in a 42 – 38 victory over Oxford, in which she scored all 16 of Ansonia’s fourth quarter points.
“She took over,” said Lynch. “She had three steals that led to three layups for her. Each time, it broke a tie and she made her free throws in the final minute to secure the win for us. I think that fourth quarter by her, being a leader of our team, has turned the season around for us.”
So far, it seems as if it has. Ansonia was 3 – 3 going into that Oxford game and now their record is 7 – 3.
Tirella currently has 1,019 career points.
Assistant coach Aleisha Mott Coughlin is the school’s all-time leading scorer for girls with 1,308 points, a record that has stood since 2003 when she graduated.
There are still 10 games left in the regular season and however far the Lady Chargers can go in the postseason, so Tirella, has a chance to pass her coach on the school’s scoring list.
“With a few more performances like that Oxford game, she’ll probably pass me,” Coughlin said. “But hey, records are meant to be broken.”
