The question was: How do you stop Andrew Burleson? The Ironton Fighting Tigers are still looking for the answer.

Wednesday, January 31, 2001

The question was: How do you stop Andrew Burleson? The Ironton Fighting Tigers are still looking for the answer.

Burleson poured in 38 points to lead the Wheelersburg Pirates to a 70-46 Tuesday win over the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

"We just didn’t have an answer for Burleson," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "We tried several different things and we couldn’t stop him. He’s the best player we’ve faced the last two years. He’s a Division I (college) player."

Burleson was the only Pirate in double figures. Bryan Yelley had eight points and eight rebounds.

Wheelersburg (12-1) came into the game ranked 10th in the Associated Press Division III poll.

Ironton (8-7) was led by Tommy Lutz with 11 points and six rebounds. Chris Haney had 13 rebounds, four steals, and three assists while Josh Sands added nine points.

Ironton was missing starting point guard Drew Mains due to a death in the family.

‘We’re getting caught in a quarters eligibility problem. We don’t have the numbers, we don’t have the depth, and I didn’t expect Isaac (Hannon) to miss so much with an illness," said Barnes.

"Josh Sands is playing well but he can only play three quarters or he’ll have too many quarters, and Andrew Harvey has fewer quarters than Sands. The same thing goes for (Ben) Murphy and (Derique) Bacon."

Actually the game was close until midway through the third quarter.

Josh Harmon tied the game at 2-2 only to have Burleson’s layup give Wheelersburg the lead for good. Burleson had 11 points as the Pirates took a 14-9 lead.

Ironton got within one point on four occasions the second quarter including 22-21 on a 17-footer by Hannon with 2:22 left in the half.

But Harmon and Lutz each picked up their second foul and were forced to the sidelines. Burleson then scored seven points including a 3-pointer with one second left that put the Pirates ahead 33-23.

"We did a pretty good job defensively the first half, but we got in foul trouble and we had matchup problems," said Barnes. "Our biggest problem was putting the ball in the basket."

For the game, the Fighting Tigers were just 19-of-57 for 33 percent. The Pirates were 26-of-49 for 53.1 percent.

Lutz followed up his own missed shot with 4:40 left in the third quarter and Ironton was down just 35-27, but the Pirates closed with a bad 8-3 run to take a 43-29 lead.

Forced to press and gamble, Ironton gave up too many easy baskets in transition as Wheelersburg scored 27 points the last quarter. Burleson made a layup with 1:35 left that gave Wheelersburg its largest lead of the night at 67-41.

Whelrsbrg 14 19 10 27 – 70

Ironton 9 14 6 17 – 46

WHEELERSBURG (12-1): Paul Miller 2-5 (1-3) 2-2 7, Dustin Chamberlin 2-5 (0-3) 0-0 4, Geoff Givan 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Bryan Yelley 3-5 (0-1) 2-2 8, Andrew Burleson 15-23 (2-2) 6-9 38, Dusty Winebrenner 3-6 (1-2) 0-0 7, Miles Ferguson 0-3 (0-2) 1-2 1, Nate Weaver 0-1 (0-1) 2-4 2, Ryan Hickman 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1. Totals: 26-49 (4-14) 14-19 70. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 7-24=31 (Yelley 8, Givan 8, Burleson 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 1. Assists: 7 (Givan 2, Yelley 2). Steals: 8 (Burleson 4, Yelley 2). Turnovers: 15. FG% – 53.1. FT% – 73.7. 3pt% – 28.6.

IRONTON (8-7): Josh Sands 4-15 (1-4) 0-0 9, Isaac Hannon 2-12 (0-6) 2-2 6, Chris Haney 2-8 (0-0) 1-1 5, Josh Harmon 2-6 (0-1) 0-0 4, Tommy Lutz 4-10 (0-0) 3-4 11, Andy Brown 1-2 (1-1) 0-0 3, Derique Bacon 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Craig Lewis 2-3 (0-0) 0-0 8, Ben Murphy 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 19-57 (2-12) 6-7 46. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: Lutz. Rebounds: 10-17=24 (Haney 13, Lutz 6). Team/deaball rebounds: 3. Assists: 6 (Haney 3). Steals: 7 (Haney 4). Turnovers: 16. FG% – 33.3. FT% – 85.7. 3pt% – 16.7.

Junior Varsity: Ironton 49, Wheelersburg 46. Ironton: Craig Lewis 13, Kevin Williams 10, Ben Murphy 8. Wheelersburg: Nate Weaver 20.