PEDRO – Everybody is trying to get into the act.

Sunday, December 10, 2000

PEDRO – Everybody is trying to get into the act. And that’s just fine with the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

Ironton played nine players with eight scoring in a 73-44 season opening win Friday night over the Rock Hill Redmen.

"Everybody is going to get a chance to play," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "The opportunity is there. They just have to take advantage of their opportunities."

Ironton has been behind in practice playing time due to the extended football season. Four of the five starters were members of the football team. Barnes said the lack of work showed in spots.

"We missed a ton of layups, but this was a good win for us. We needed to see where we’re at. We’ve got some tough games ahead and we don’t have much time to get ready," said Barnes.

Isaac Hannon scored 19 points – 13 the first half – to lead the Ironton offense. Josh Harmon scored 16 points including 12 the second half, and Andy Brown came off the bench to score 11.

Ironton’s defense came up with 17 steals as Chris Haney had five and Drew Mains three. The Fighting Tigers also had 16 assists, five by Mains and four by Hannon.

"I’m proud of my teammates. They played really hard and gave it everything they had," Hannon said. "We knew we had to win the first game to get off to a good start. Our defense played hard. We’ve been working on it a lot."

The Fighting Tigers held a commanding 35-21 rebounding advantage. Haney led Ironton with 16 rebounds, 10 on the offensive end.

"Coach told us to box out. He told us if we box out we’ll get rebounds. I like rebounding more than scoring," Haney said.

Rock Hill, 1-1, was plagued by turnovers. The Redmen were guilty of 32 miscues which limited them to only 35 field goal attempts, 12 the first half.

"We’re improving. We’re improving every day in practice," Redmen coach Marty Mills said of his young team that does not have a senior. "I see good things, but I see some bad things, too. We can’t have so many breakdowns on defense and we’re still making too many turnovers."

David Schug scored a game-high 21 points and had five rebounds to lead Rock Hill. Isaac Kitchen had three assists and three steals while David Martin pulled down six rebounds.

Hannon hit a pair of 3-pointers the first quarter as Ironton took a 19-9 lead.

Schug’s layup to start the second quarter made it 19-11, but it was the only field goal the Redmen made in the quarter. Rock Hill was 6-of-11 at the line in the quarter as it scored just eight points.

The Fighting Tigers closed the quarter with a 12-3 run sparked by six points by Brown to push the lead to 38-17 at the break.

Martin score six points and Kitchen hit a 3-pointer the third quarter as the Redmen trailed 50-30 after three quarters, but Harmon scored 11 points the fourth quarter as Ironton continued to pull away.

Ironton 19 19 12 23 – 73

Rock Hill 9 8 13 14 – 44

IRONTON (1-0): Drew Mains 3-8 (1-3) 0-0 7, Isaac Hannon 8-20 (3-9) 0-0 19, Chris Haney 2-9 (0-0) 3-5 7, Josh Harmon 7-11 (0-1) 2-3 16, Tommy Lutz 2-7 (0-0) 0-0 4, Chris Frazer 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Andy Brown 5-7 (1-1) 0-0 11, Josh Sands 2-4 (0-1) 1-3 5, Andrew Harvey 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 31-67 (5-13) 6-11 73. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: Lutz. Rebounds: 35 (Haney 16, Lutz 5, Brown 4). Assists: 16 (Mains 5, Hannon 4). Steals: 17 (Haney 5, Mains 3). Turnovers: 17.

ROCK HILL (1-1): David Schug 8-15 (1-6) 4-12 21, Ryan Townsend 0-2 (0-0) 1-2 1, Isaac Kitchen 3-3 (1-1) 0-0 7, Gabe Ruggles 1-4 (0-0) 0-0 2, David Martin 3-5 (0-1) 2-2 8, Mitchell Kerns 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Zach Howard 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1, Ricky McDonie 0-4 (0-1) 2-2 2, Robbie McClellan 1-2 (0-1) 0-1 2. Totals: 16-35 (2-10) 10-21 44. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 21 (Martin 6, Schug 5). Assists: 8 (Schug 3, Kitchen 3). Steals: 4 (Kitchen 3). Turnovers: 32.