PORTSMOUTH – The battle of the boards wasn’t much of a battle.

Saturday, January 13, 2001

PORTSMOUTH – The battle of the boards wasn’t much of a battle. Rebounding was the difference Friday night as the Portsmouth Trojans beat the Ironton Fighting Tigers 63-46.

Portsmouth (6-3) held a commanding 33-18 rebound advantage including 15 on the offensive glass. The Trojans size advantage led to 12 second-chance points and 24 more points off layups.

"They were just too strong for us on the boards," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "They were bigger and they jumped well.

"But we played well. The game was closer than the final score would indicate. We hit a couple of lulls where we couldn’t score and they hit some big 3s that got them the lead."

Ironton led at the end of the first quarter as Tommy Lutz scored 10 points including a follow-up shot with 22 seconds left to make it 18-12.

Josh Sands, who had a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, nailed a 3-pointer with 6:37 on the clock that put Ironton ahead 23-14.

Layups by Lutz and Josh Harmon had the Fighting Tigers ahead 27-19 with 4:30 left in the half, but Larry Berry hit a 3-pointer and Jason Fleming hit back-to-back 3-pointers as Portsmouth took a 28-27 lead with two minutes to go.

Bradley Parker’s layup and D Jay Carter’ s follow-up shot with five seconds left capped a 13-0 run and gave Portsmouth a 32-27 lead at the break.

Sands tied the game at 34-34 with a 3-pointer early in the third quarter. A 15-footer by Josh Haney tied the game at 40-40 with 2:01 on the clock, but the Trojans ran off eight unanswered point to close out the quarter and led 48-40.

Lutz hit a layup to start the fourth quarter and make it 48-42, but Ironton could get no closer as the Fighting Tigers were just 3-of-15 from the field in the quarter.

Both teams emptied their benches with 23 seconds to play.

Sands had 20 points and Lutz 14 to lead Ironton (6-4). Point guard Drew Mains had six rebounds, five assists, and two steals.

R. K. Thurman had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Portsmouth (6-3). Carter and Fleming had nine points each while Berry had eight rebounds.

Ironton 18 9 13 6 – 46

Portsmouth 12 20 16 15 – 63

IRONTON (6-4): Drew Mains 0-4 (0-0) 0-1 0, Josh Sands 8-12 (4-6) 0-0 20, Chris Haney 3-7 (0-0) 0-0 6, Josh Harmon 2-8 (0-3) 0-0 4, Tommy Lutz 7-13 (0-0) 0-1 14, Isaac Hannon 0-2 (0-2) 0-0 0, Andy Brown 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0, Ben Murphy 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Andrew Harvey 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Craig Lewis 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 21-50 (4-11) 0-1 46. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 6-12=18 (Mains 6, Sands 3, Haney 3, Harmon 3). Team/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 10 (Mains 5, Harmon 4, Haney 1). Steals: 9 (Sands 4, Mains 2, Haney 2, Lutz 1). Turnovers: 14. FG% – 42.0. FT% – 00.0. 3pt% – 36.4.

PORTSMOUTH (6-3): Jason Fleming 3-10 (3-9) 0-0 9, Bradley Parker 3-9 (0-1) 0-0 6, Antonio Malone 2-3 (0-1) 2-2 6, R.K. Thurman 10-16 (0-0) 0-1 20, D Jay Carter 4-10 (0-0) 1-2 9, Derrick Thompson 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Larry Berry 4-7 (2-3) 0-0 10, Greg McKinley 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Eric Storts 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Osh Greene 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Gerald Froe 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 28-56 (5-14) 2-4 63. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 15-18=33 (Thurman 13, Berry 8, Carter 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 9 (Berry 4, Malone 3). Steals: 7 (Berry 5). Turnovers: 15. FG% – 50.0. FT% – 50.0. 3pt% – 35.7.

Junior Varsity: Portsmouth 46, Ironton 41. Portsmouth: Gerald Froe 16, Jo Jo Parker 15. Ironton: Derique Bacon 14, Chris Collins 6.