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Ansonia team celebrates after closing out win over Legacy Christian to advance to the District Finals for the first time since 2009. (Dale Barger photo)

COVINGTON – Ansonia the 6th seed in the OHSAA DVI Girls Basketball Tournament defeated #3 Legacy Christian 48-35.  The Knights came into the game with an 18-5 record and Champions of the Metro Buckeye Conference.

The Tigers leaned on their defense holding Legacy to two points and scoreless for 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter and finished strong going a combined 17-for-20 from the free throw line to pull off the mild upset.

Sophomore Charlotte Barga set the tone early with two quick triples and her ability to get into the lane for scores as well.  She led with 16 points.

It was a tight game for both teams to start as they traded baskets and leads. Charlotte Barga hit two triples, and Olivia Creager had four points for the Tigers, but Legacy held a slim 11-10 lead at the end of the first period.

Ansonia got the lead 12-11 to start the second quarter on a baseline jumper from Autumn Best. The Knights responded at 6:36 to go up 13-12, but they wouldn’t score the remainder of the first half.

Sophomore Autumn Best off the bench hit two big jumpers in the first half.

The Tigers went on a 12-0 run in that span by sharing the basketball with five players scoring. Best added another bucket, Lydia Hahn had an old fashion 3-point play, Rose Barga a corner triple that had the Tiger crowd standing and cheering as Ansonia took a 24-13 lead at the break.

Legacy Christian known for being a physical team and able to apply pressure forcing turnovers turned up in 3rd quarter.  They came out and banged a triple to start and then forced a few turnovers to cut the margin to 24-18.

Senior Rose Barga although injured has made spot appearances in the last two games and hit a big corner three.

After spending most of the first half on the bench due to foul trouble London Reichert finished a left-handed hook for two and converted a 3-point play on the foul.  Hahn followed up with a lay-up to push the lead back out to 29-18 at the five-minute mark.

Holding a 35-25 lead Legacy’s Grace Breeding connected on a trey to help the Knights win the quarter 15-11 cutting the margin to 35-28 heading into the final stanza.

Legacy cut it to five, but fouled Reichert who made two free throws to stop the surge going up 37-30 at 6:38.  Three more free throws; one from Hahn and two from Creager made it 40-31.  Creager’s elbow jumper a few minutes later pushed it to 42-31at 3:21.

Sr. Lydia Hahn converts big old fashion 3-point play to help Tigers win over Legacy.

That’s when the Tigers spread the floor pulling the ball out making Legacy gamble for a possible lay-up, or foul Ansonia sending them to the free throw line.

”Once you get up double digits you want to make sure as a team you're getting layups or nothing. We told our girls to spread out our base offense against their 1-3-1,  pull it up higher so we can make the easier pass and if you got a driving lane or a back door cut for an easy layup, take it.  If not, take care of the basketball and make them come foul. And we we're shooting free throws the majority of the fourth quarter,” Custenborder stated.

Although London Reichert sat much of 1st half she would score 7 points in 2nd including going 5-5 from the free throw line.

Legacy was unable to break the Tigers whose free throw arsenal kept the Knights at distance the rest of the way by going 10-for-13 in the quarter and 17-for-20 in the game.

Ansonia went on to win the district semi-final game 48-35 to advance to the District Championship game on Saturday February 28th at Monroe High School.

They will take on #2 seed West Liberty Salem who ended Arcanum’s season in a 45-44 thriller.  Game time is now set for 11am.

After the game Custenborder talked about the importance of free throws and how the team has turned it around from being a 50% free throw shooting team.

“Free throws, the girls hate it, we've went from shooting 10 in practice to 20 in practice to 50 in practice. They say it takes too long to shoot 50, but honestly, since we switched our percentages have gone way up. At the start of the year, we were like right around 50% which is not very good for a varsity basketball team, so we've had to work on it more and towards the end of the year started to shoot them a lot better,” Custenborder stated.

Another key to the game was defense as the Tigers held a team scoring 54 points a game to just 35.

“Our girls do a great job of prepping for other teams. We expect them to know about 10 to 15 of the other team’s sets, and we do different stuff in all 10 to 15. It's not like just a base defense and they do a great job of executing that stuff,” Custenborder clarified.

“They have three girls that can just go get a bucket anytime they want so I’m very happy with our individual defense on them, and team defense for helping out on those drives and rotating on the backside.  When you can slow those three down you’re going to do pretty well,” Custenborder explained.

Rose Barga a key player sustained a late season injury but rather than dwell on that the Tigers had players step their game up to compensate.

Sophomore Shyann McKenna helped the Tigers handle the pressure and scored on this shot in the lane. 

“Our girls have stepped up for Rose. Lydia Hahn and Shyann McKenna have had to handle so much pressure the last couple games where Rose took a lot of that pressure away from them, really for their whole basketball careers. And they've done such a good job the last two games against teams that get after you, by taking care of the basketball,” Custenborder praised.

He also recognized the effort of senior Olivia Creager who had 12 points and sophomore Charlotte Barga who had 16 in the game.

"OC" came up big multiple times with timely shots to keep Legacy in their heels and scored 12 in the game.

“Those two “OC” (Olivia Creager) and Charlotte have stepped up their scoring a lot here as of late.  Charlotte's just been on a mission, she wants it bad, while still taking her outside shots, but she's getting to the hole so much more now, being a lot more aggressive, and that's just going to make her game so much better,” Custenborder added.

Ansonia won a district championship back in 1992 and their last appearance in a district final was in 2009.

Ansonia will need everybody at their best with reserves in practice and during the game when they play for a district championship on Saturday.

The Tigers are poised as the team has stepped up their game, and with the fans support and the energy from the reserve players in practice and on the bench to ignite them it might just be the edge they need to help bring home their 2nd ever district championship on Saturday.

Box Score

Score by Quarters

10 … 14 … 11 … 13 – 48 Ansonia (16-9) Record
11 … 02 … 15 … 07 – 35 Legacy Christian (18-6) Record

geTeam Scoring

ANS – C. Barga 2-1-8/8 – 16, Hahn 0-2-2/3 – 6, Best 0-2-0/0 – 4, R. Barga 1-0-0/0 – 3,
Creager 0-5-2/4 – 12, Reichert 0-1-5/5 – 7, Totals 3-11-17/20 – 48

LC – Allport 1-3-1/1 - 10, Dry 1-0-1/2 - 4, Combs 1-3-3/4 - 12, Breeding 1-3-0/0 - 9,
Totals 4-9-4/7 – 34

Ansonia coach Connor Custenborder gives "Mom" assistance coach Kim Custenborder a high five after defeating Legacy Christian to go to the district finals. 
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TV South's Aiden White dishes in the lane where the Panthers used their size in paint to pull out a 62-60 win over Riverside. (Dale Barger photo)

TROY – Twin Valley South survives and moves on in the OHSAA DVI boys basketball tournament with a 62-60 win over Riverside.

“I don't think we played very well. The guys agreed. We didn't play very well, but we still got the win. They (Riverside) played a great game.  We were able to survive and advance getting the first win in post season tournament for South since 2019,” said Coach Kerry Crouch who won the District 15, Division VI “Coach of the Year” in boys basketball.

South jumped out on top early on a 3-pointer from Parker Howard but the Panthers, were plagued by turnovers much of the quarter which allowed Riverside to jump out to a 15-9 first quarter lead.

Eleven of Riverside’s points came from sophomore Brody Osborne who was on the scouting report as a good three-point shooter. Osborne topped all scorers in the game with 28 points.

“Their number two (Osborne) is a great shooter, and we came in knowing he was going to shoot the ball every time he touched it, and he did, so we had to switch Trent on him in the second half,” Crouch stated.

Parker Howard opened game with a triple and scored late on this drive in the lane in TVS win over Riverside.

Trailing 19-13 In the second quarter South would work together as a team and started to feed the post and the tandem of Trent Ray and Lucas Barlow went to work as the Panthers went on a 14-0 run. 

The duo accounted for all 18 points in the quarter, Ray 10 points and Barlow 8 to surge ahead 27-19 … but the defense would give up a few easy ones at the end with the Panthers leading 27-25 at the break.

“One of the things we talked about before the game. And then during timeouts is we should be looking inside to Lucas, Trent, Parker … whoever's inside posting up,” Crouch said.

 
Lucas Barlow scores between two defenders, he asserted his size to score 20 points in the game.

That formula worked and continued into the 3rd quarter with Ray and Laiden Carver each scoring 6 points with South opening up a 43-34 lead heading into the final stanza.

The nine-point lead appeared to be the magic mark for Riverside to make a comeback or in this case a lack of focus maybe on Twin Valley South as the Pirates charged back closing the gap to 46-43 at the six-minute mark and would lend itself to an exciting final period and finish.

Over the next six minutes South was able to move ahead by four points and every time they did Riverside answered with a three as Osborne, Shoe and Hurley hit timely shots with the last one at 1:26 in the game drawing the Pirates to 56-55.

Riverside eventually tied the game on a turnover that led to a Sanford lay-up tying the game at 58 with 36 seconds left to play.

In need of a big play Trent Ray stepped up driving the lane, taking the bump and finishing an off-balance one-hander falling down drawing the foul.  He converted the old-fashion 3-point play for a 61-58 lead.

Trent Ray takes the bump and scores late.  He had 25 points to help the Panthers win their first tournament game since 2019. 

Riverside missed an opportunity to tie the game on a three-point attempt then fouled Aiden White.  White missed the first but made the more important second shot to make it a two-possession game with 3.5 seconds left to play leading 62-58.

Riverside would score at the buzzer on a lay-up, but Twin Valley South held on for the 62-60 tournament win.

Trent Ray scored 25 points to lead the Panthers … but also got a big game from Lucas Barlow with 20 points as well.

While South got the win coach Kerry Crouch had to remind his team that you can’t take any opponent lightly, especially in the tournament.

“We came in thinking that we are going to be a little better than we did. I mean, during timeouts, I kept saying we're getting seven, nine-point leads and then letting them back in,” Crouch stated.

“It’s because we're lazy, lackadaisical on the defensive end. They got some offensive rebounds they shouldn't get, even off foul shots. We had a couple turnovers, so we’ll get in practice this weekend and work at a lot on ball pressure and a lot of rebounding drills,” Crouch explained.

Crouch would like to see more consistency and focus throughout the game and praised the play of Barlow and Ray for finishing well inside.

Twin Valley South now moves on to play in second round where they will play #3 seed Springfield Emmanuel Christian at Troy High School on March 2nd at 7:30 pm.

Box Scores

Score by Quarters

09 … 18 … 16 … 19 – 62 Twin Valley South (13-10) Record
15 … 10 … 09 … 26 – 60 Riverside (6-17) Record

Team Scoring

TVS – Howard 1-1-0/2 – 5, White 0-0-1/2 – 1, Ritchie 0-2-1/2 – 5, Carver 0-3-0/0 – 6, Barlow 0-8-4/7 – 20, Ray 0-12-1/2 – 25, Totals 1-26-7/14 – 62

RIV – Osborne 3-7-5/8 – 28, Shoe 3-0-3/6 – 12, Sanford 1-2-0/0- 7, Mazareigos 0-4-0/0 – 8, Hurley 1-0-2/2 – 5, McCully 0-0-0/2 – 0, Totals 8-13-10/18 – 60


South cheerleaders on floor at Troy HS in Panthers tournament game with Riverside.
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Preble Shawnee continues to have a strong hold in the league and won their 5th straight league championship.  (Dale Barger photo)

NEW PARIS – The Western Ohio Athletic Conference held their 5th League Wrestling Championship Meet and for the fifth consecutive year Preble Shawnee would come away with the WOAC Title.

HS Team Scores

1. Preble Shawnee 235.5
2. National Trail 179.0
3. Arcanum                        129.5
4. Twin Valley South   119.5
5. Dixie                                   111.0
6. Tri-County North        34.0

National Trail wrestled well and finished second and it would earn their coach Bobby Clark the WOAC Coach of the Year honors for 2026. 

Senior wrestler in the 132 pounds weight class Zarrin Walton won his final match of season to win his weight class and in the process collect his 100^th career win.  He would be named the WOAC Wrestler of the Year for 2026.

Here are your high school winners per weight class

106

1st Trace Martin – National Trail
2nd Kyler Rathert – Twin Valley South

113

1st Kyle Bruno – Preble Shawnee
2nd Wyatt Beach – National Trail
3rd Sawyer Barnes – Tri-County North

120

1st Sam Million – Preble Shawnee
2nd Max Woodgeard – Twin Valley South
3rd Asher Jackson – Arcanum
4th Marcus Burckhard

126

1st Ross Wagner – Arcanum
2nd Remy Longfellow – National Trail
3rd Robert Allen – Preble Shawnee
4th Adam Craft – Twin Valley South

132

1st Zarrin Walton – Preble Shawnee
2nd Dylan Landis – Twin Valley South
3rd A.J. Evans – National Trail

138

1st Henry Roberts – National Trail
2nd Bentley Bostick – Dixie
3rd Braylon Gattone – Preble Shawnee
4th Riley McMurchy – Arcanum

144

1st Will Beisner – Arcanum
2nd Jackson Finch – Preble Shawnee
3rd Micah Winburn – Twin Valley South
4th Aydin Ryan – Dixie

150

1st Hunter Delver – Preble Shawnee
2nd Thomas Toschlog – National Trail
3rd Logan Roeser – Arcanum

157

1st Nathan Metcalf – Dixie
2nd Landin Maxwell – Twin Valley South
3rd Bronston Olivera – National Trail

165

1st Joseph Sherman – Twin Valley South
2nd Kylie Schul – National Trail
3rd Austin Albright – Preble Shawnee
4th Tripp Rimmer – Arcanum

175

1st Bryson Doran – Preble Shawnee
2nd Levi Petito – Arcanum
3rd Olivia Johnson – National Trail
4th Van Patterson – Tri-County North

190

1st Julian Zaragoza – Dixie
2nd Ethan Scott – Preble Shawnee
3rd Mason Kendig – Arcanum
4th Luke Bowers – National Trail

215

1st Levi Welz – Dixie
2nd Conner Wyatt – National Trail
3rd Elijah Parker – Preble Shawnee
4th Mongomery Back - Tri-County North

285

1st Nick Webber – National Trail
2nd Ryder Taylor – Preble Shawnee
3rd Thomas Arbaugh – Twin Valley South

The future looks bright for National Trail wrestling program finishing second in high school and 1st in Junior High.  Here are the team scores and placements.

National Trail won the JH Wrestling Title for 2026

JH Team Scores

1. National Trail 179.5
2. Twin Valley South 152.0
3. Dixie                                   127.5
4. Tri-County North     122.5
5. Preble Shawnee       106.0
6. Arcanum                           86.0

Here are your Junior High winners per weight class

80

1st Jude McKee – Twin Valley South
2nd Levi Childress – Preble Shawnee

92

1st Preston Miles – Arcanum
2nd RJ Palmer – National Trail

98

1st Nolan Beach – Dixie
2nd Evan Glasscoe – Arcanum
3rd Ali Geus – National Trail

104

1st Alijah Trammell – Dixie
2nd Nathaniel Horrigan – Preble Shawnee
3rd Alyssa Foster – National Trail
4th Annabelle Howard – Twin Valley South

110

1st Kash King – National Trail
2nd Jaxon Pence – Twin Valley South
3rd Liam Pennington – Dixie
4th Damian Anderson – Tri-County North

116

1st Tayvin Standifer – National Trail
2nd Logan Petito – Arcanum
3rd Carsyn Davidson – Twin Valley South
4th Amoura Claar – Tri-County North

122

1st Emmett Jacob – National Trail
2nd Zane Warren – Arcanum
3rd Michael Wilson – Dixie
4th Jake Mayes – Twin Valley South

128

1st Isaac Marto – Preble Shawnee
2nd Jaison Goecke – Twin Valley South
3rd Lucas Haney – Tri-County North
4th Ambraya Gilden – National Trail

134

1st James Parris – Tri-County North
2nd Hayden Oda – Twin Valley South
3rd Lyle Johnson – Preble Shawnee
4th Levi Saylor – National Trail

142

1st Cayden Hatcher – National Trail
2nd Noland Childers – Twin Valley South
3rd Grant Moore – Arcanum

150

1st Noah Hesler – Tri-County North
2nd Aiden Claudio – Preble Shawnee
3rd Jared Netzley – Arcanum
4th Jordan Waller – Twin Valley South

160

1st Kayden Combs – National Trail
2nd Ryder Maxwell – Twin Valley South
3rd Carder Rodefer – Preble Shawnee
4th Landen Lidstone – Dixie

172

1st Conner Haney – Tri-County North
2nd Tevin Bittner – Dixie
3rd Tatum Brubaker – Twin Valley South
4th Ezra Pence – Preble Shawnee

205

1st Liam Haynes – Dixie
2nd John Hansen – Tri-County North
3rd Dalton Saylor – National Trail
4th Kali Maggard – Twin Valley South

Congratulations to all the wrestlers participating in the WOAC Championships.

Preble Shawnee senior Wrestler Zarrin Walton in his last regular season match to win the 132# WOAC Championship recorded his 100th career win.  (Dale Barger photo)
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The Western Ohio Athletic Conference announces their final league standings and boys All-Conference Teams.

Tri-Village won the WOAC Conference Title going 11-0 in the league this year to make it back-to-back conference championships.   

Tri-Village's Trey Sagester the 2025-26 WOAC Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Tri-Village senior Trey Sagester with an all-around game averaging a league and area best 25..6 ppg, 4.5 assist, 3.9 steals and 5.1 rebounds per game was named the conference player of the year.  Sagester became the school’s all-time leading scorer and currently sits at 1945 points and poised to surpass 2000 career points with one regular season and post season games yet to play.

Tri-Village's Josh Sagester is the 2025-26 WOAC Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

Tri-Village Coach Josh Sagester’s Patriots won their third WOAC conference title in just five years of the new league.  His team currently 21-0 is positioned to make a long post season tournament run in DVI. 

Here are the first team ALL-WOAC selections

Cameron Ball                   Arcanum
Rallie Wirrig                       Bradford
Lucas Brenner                 Franklin Monroe
Cing Scott                           Mississinawa Valley
Kellen Laird                        National Trail
Luke Cornett                     Newton
Brody Morton                    Preble Shawnee
Trey Sagester                    Tri-Village
Dom Black                          Tri-Village
Noah Finkbine                 Tri-Village

Second Team ALL-WOAC

Graham Coppess         Ansonia
Jace Mote                            Arcanum
Blake Riffle                         Franklin Monroe
Tayden Blevins                National Trail
Rhett Koffer                        Newton
Braylon Dorrel                 Preble Shawnee
Brody Foxbower             Preble Shawnee
Brecken Gray                    Tri-Village
Griffin Richards              Tri-Village
Trent Ray                               Twin Valley South

SPECIAL MENTION ALL-WOAC

Jacob Schmitmeyer   Ansonia
Matthew McCans         Arcanum
Bronson Schnurpel     Bradford
Caleb Russell                   Dixie
Braden Gilbert                 Franklin Monroe
Caden Hanes                   Mississinawa Valley
Mason Cordle                  National Trail
Isaac Hainline                  Newton
Caleb Blankenship      Preble Shawnee
Koby Reynolds                Tri-County North
Carson Bedinghaus    Tri-Village
Lucas Barlow                   Twin Valley

Congratulations to all our athletes on being selected for all-conference. 


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WOAC 2025-26 Girls Basketball Finals Standings.

The Western Ohio Athletic Conference announces their girls All-Conference Teams.

Mississinawa Valley won the WOAC Conference Title going 10-0 in the league this year.  After sharing the crown with Arcanum and Tri-Village last year the Blackhawks would win it outright and back-to-back league championships. 

Mississinawa senior Brooklynn Seubert with an all-around game averaging 13.6 ppg and 6.6 rpg was named the conference player of the year.

Mississinawa with an overall record of 17-4 under the direction of first year head coach at the school, Kirk Comer was named the WOAC girls coach of the year.

Here are the first team ALL-WOAC selections

Charlotte Barga                               Ansonia
Rose Barga                                      Ansonia
Caroline Long                                  Arcanum
Paige Emrick                                   Mississinawa Valley
Brooklynn Seubert                         Mississinawa Valley
Rylee Hess                                      Newton
Bella Cherry                                    Tri-County North
Adalynn Hines                                 Tri-Village
Tai Mize                                           Tri-Village
Brylii Day                                         Twin Valley South

Second Team ALL-WOAC

Olivia Creager                                    Ansonia
Matty Noe                                              Arcanum
Cora Hoggatt                                      Mississinawa Valley
Makenna Hoggatt                           Mississinawa Valley
Morgan House                                   National Trail
Ani Cottrell                                           Newton
Brilie Hines                                           Newton
Aubrey Unger                                      Preble Shawnee
Sydney DeLong                                 Tri-Village
Taytum Gray                                        Tri-Village

SPECIAL MENTION ALL-WOAC

London Reichert                             Ansonia
Claire Hein                                           Arcanum
Bethany Himan                                 Dixie
Ava Figel                                                  Franklin Monroe
Tenlee Woodbury                            Mississinawa Valley
Taylor Reynolds                                National Trail
Mya Denlinger                                    Newton
Josie Mondello-Garrett             Preble Shawnee
Lola Grieshop                                    Tri-County North
Kenna Wilcox                                     Tri-Village
Grace Childers                                  Twin Valley South

Congratulations to all our athletes on being selected for all-conference. 

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