Going 3 – 0 against a team of comparable talent is almost impossible.
The fourth-seeded Ansonia girls basketball found out the hard way on Saturday at Holy Cross of Waterbury in a 52 – 41 loss to fifth-seeded Woodland in the NVL quarterfinals.
Woodland raised its record to 14 – 7 and will play top-seeded Torrington on Monday at Kennedy High School.
Ansonia, who beat the Hawks 48 – 41 on Jan. 5 in Woodland and 47 – 34 at home on Feb. 9, dropped to 13 – 8 and awaits its seedings for the Class M tournament, which will be released on Friday at casciac.org.
Ansonia senior co-captain Kristen Mooney takes a shot Saturday.
There were four ties and two lead changes early in the first quarter before Ansonia took a 10 – 8 lead when junior Catherine Devellis (two points, one tieup, one forced turnover) hit a layup in the waning seconds from sophomore Rebecca Behrendt (seven points, nine rebounds, one assist), which was the score after the opening quarter.
The Chargers did well on the glass in the first quarter with 5 – 7 freshman Tierney Lawlor grabbing five rebounds in the quarter and junior Nicole Kachoulas (two points, one rebound, one steal) scoring on a putback off the offensive glass. Lawlor (eight points, 16 rebounds, three assists, one steal, one forced turnover, one tieup) was a force on the boards all game and had eight rebounds in the first half.
“I just had to box out and be tough,” Lawlor said.
Ansonia built its lead to nine points in the second quarter, 26 – 17, courtesy of freshman Melissa Tirella swishing three 3‑pointers. Lawlor set up the first trey and Mooney assisted on the other two off kickout passes.
“Kristen Mooney gave me good passes and I was able to shoot,” Tirella said.
Tirella (11 points, four assists, one steal, one tieup) finished the first half with nine points, two assists and a steal to give the Chargers a 26 – 19 halftime lead. Mooney (11 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, one steal, one blocked shot) had seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists at the break.
Defensively, the Chargers forced 11 turnovers, seven in the first half.
Lawlor came out strong in the second half, setting up Mooney’s layup and scoring on a putback off the offensive glass. She gave Ansonia its largest lead, 33 – 21, by draining a 3‑pointer off a feed from senior co-captain Jeanne Whalen (one rebound, one assist, one steal, one forced turnover, one tieup) with 5:35 left in the third quarter.
After Lawlor’s trifecta, the Chargers became ice cold from the field and only managed a free throw by Behrendt and Lawlor for the rest of the quarter. Woodland cut the lead to five, 35 – 30 with junior Lindsay Feducia (16 points, four assists) hitting a layup and jumper for the Lady Hawks and senior Katie Alfiere (six points, 12 rebounds) scoring on a putback off the offensive glass.
Mooney and Tirella took turns scoring on give-and-gos to make it 39 – 32 with 7:23 remaining in the game but Woodland came back with a 10 – 0 surge to go up 42 – 39 with 2:59 to go and took its first lead since the first quarter with 5:34 left at 40 – 39 on junior Kelsey Deegan’s (four points) jump shot.
Ansonia didn’t score again until Behrendt’s putback with 1:37 remaining to make it 44 – 41. The Chargers didn’t help themselves by shooting 17 – 73 from the field, 4 – 19 from the 3‑point land, 3 – 8 from the foul line and committing eight, second half turnovers, 13 overall. Conversely, the Hawks were 21 – 58 from the field, 0 – 9 from 3‑point land and 10 – 24 from the foul line.
“They adjusted and went to a man-to-man defense and we started to turn the ball over,” Ansonia coach Patrick Lynch said.
The Chargers hope to bounce back with a long run at Class M.
“I hope they respond well,” Lynch said. “They know what it’s like to lose and at states, we won’t get a second chance after a loss.”
