Now, isn’t the layup that shot right under the basket?<!—->.

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

Now, isn’t the layup that shot right under the basket?

It might as well have been from halfcourt during the first half Tuesday night for Ironton. The Fighting Tigers missed 16 layups the first half but still managed to get past the Rock Hill Redmen 53-40.

"It we had made our layups we would have been up by 30 at the half," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "It was just one of those nights. We’d make a good play, get the ball inside, and then miss the shot."

Ironton shot 18-of-49 from the field for the game for 36.7 percent including 10-of-31 the first half.

Rock Hill had its own shooting problems, making 8-of-22 the first half and shooting 34.8 percent for the game.

"I thought we played hard, but we didn’t play with any intensity or any emotion," said Barnes. "But give a lot of credit to Rock Hill and coach Marty Mills. They played hard the whole game, and coach Mills is doing a heck of a job. They don’t have a senior on the team and their best player was hurt."

David Schug, Rock Hill’s leading scorer, missed the game with a bad shoulder. Ironton was missing starting guard Josh Sands with a cut over his eye.

Josh Harmon had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead Ironton (10-9). Tommy Lutz got 19 points and 12 rebounds while Chris Haney had 11 points, nine rebounds, and nine steals.

David Martin had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Redmen (5-14). Rickie McDonie added 10 points.

The Fighting Tigers took a 9-2 lead after a layup by Haney, but McDonie hit a couple of 3-pointers that got the Redmen within 11-8 at the end of the quarter.

A 6-0 run to start the second quarter put Ironton up 17-8. The Redmen got within five points on Martin’s baseline jumper, and it was 27-21 on a 3-pointer by Isaac Kitchen with 25 seconds left in the half.

But Harmon drained a 3-pointer just before the buzzer and it was 30-21 at the break.

Rock Hill cut the deficit to 39-35 on a short jump by McDonie. Lutz hit the second of two foul shots and Ironton led 40-35.

Ironton shut down Rock Hill with just five points the fourth quarter and Harmon scored 11 points to break the game open.

Rock Hill 8 13 14 5 – 40

Ironton 11 19 10 13 – 53

ROCK HILL (5-14): Isaac Kitchen 2-10 (1-4) 3-5 8, Rickie McDonie 4-7 (2-4) 0-0 10, Robbie McClellan 2-12 (0-2) 0-0 4, Gabe Ruggles 2-6 (0-0) 2-2 6, David Martin 6-10 (0-1) 0-0 12, Aaron Hankins 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Donald Cade 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Roger Joseph 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 16-46 (3-11) 5-7 40. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 10-16=26 (Martin 8, McClellan 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 2 (McClellan 1, Kitchen 1). Steals: 3 (Martin 1, Kitchen 1, Ruggles 1). Turnovers: 21. FG% – 34.8. FT% – 71.4. 3pt% – 27.3.

IRONTON (10-9): Drew Mains 0-1 (0-0) 0-1 0, Isaac Hannon 0-3 (0-1) 0-0 0, Chris Haney 4-13 (0-0) 3-4 11, Josh Harmon 8-14 (1-2) 2-3 20, Tommy Lutz 5-14 (0-0) 9-12 19, Andy Brown 1-3 (1-3) 0-0 3, Andrew Harvey 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 18-49 (2-6) 15-20 53. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 16-19=35 (Lutz 12, Haney 9, Harmon 8). Team/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 9 (Mains 5, Harmon 2). Steals: 12 (Haney 9, Harmon 2, Lutz 1). Turnovers: 16. FG% – 36.7. FT% – 75.0. 3pt% – 33.3.