WAYNE, W.

Thursday, January 03, 2002

WAYNE, W.Va. – With about five minutes to play, this game was all but wrapped up. Then the Wayne Pioneers started to unwrap the package and nearly got a belated Christmas gift.

After blowing an 18-point lead, the Ironton Fighting Tigers held on to beat Wayne 65-63 Wednesday night.

"We’re happy to get the win, but we just didn’t play well," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "We had an 18 point lead and then we didn’t take care of the ball and we didn’t hit our free throws. All you can say about this game was we won."

Josh Sands hit a 17-footer, the came up with a steal and layup with 5:08 left to play that put Ironton up 58-40.

Ryan Wellman then sank a 3-pointer that began a 20-6 run as Ironton had eight turnovers and converted just 8-of-15 from the line during the final five minutes.

Ben Murphy made two free throws with 1:55 left to put Ironton up 62-56, but Justin Clagg answered with a layup for Wayne. Tommy Lutz got a layup with 50 seconds to play to put Ironton up by six again, but Tracy Jackson turned a steal into a layup and Clagg picked up a loose ball and drained a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to go that cut the lead to 64-63.

Andrew Harvey was fouled with nine seconds to play and hit the second of two shots to give the Fighting Tigers a 65-63 lead. Clagg’s 3-pointer missed at the buzzer and Ironton had held on for its six win in eight games.

Sands finished with a game high 29 points. Lutz had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocked shots

Playing without senior point guard Drew Mains due to toe and ankle injuries, Ironton did get some solid play from the bench. Murphy had six points and two rebounds, Steve Elswick hit a big basket in the third quarter and had four rebounds, and Aaron Quinn scored nine points.

Clagg scored 16 points to lead Wayne (1-5). Jackson had 15 points and 10 rebounds while Wellman scored 12 and John Paisley 11.

Sands scored 10 points the first quarter as Ironton went up 14-10. Jackson’s layup started the second quarter, but Sands scored seven straight points to put the Fighting Tigers up 21-12.

A free throw by Lutz had Ironton up 27-14 midway through the second quarter before Wayne got within 29-24 on Chris Kilgore’s two foul shots. Quinn’s 3-pointer with 13 seconds on the clock put Ironton ahead 32-24 at the half.

Sands hit a layup with just under six minutes in the third quarter to extend the lead to 39-24 only to have Wayne get within 44-36 on a layup by Jackson.

Elswick and Sands scored to close out the quarter and make it 48-36. That set up the exciting fourth quarter finish.

"We have to play better than this and not turn it over if we’re going to beat any good teams. I’m not taking anything away from Wayne, but we have teams like Ashland, Boyd County, Russell, Portsmouth, and Wheelersburg ahead and we can’t play against them like we did tonight," said Barnes.

Ironton hosts Boyd County, Ky., Tuesday.

Ironton 14 18 16 17 – 65

Wayne 10 14 12 27 – 63

IRONTON (6-2): Andrew Harvey 0-1 (0-1) 3-5 3, Josh Sands 11-18 (3-4) 4-8 29, Andy Brown 0-3 (0-1) 1-2 1, Derique Bacon 0-0 (0-0) 0-2 0, Tommy Lutz 6-7 (0-0) 4-9 14, Ben Murphy 2-3 (0-0) 2-2 6, Aaron Quinn 3-5 (1-1) 2-2 8, Nick Collins 0-2 (0-0) 1-2 1, Steve Elswick 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Chris Collins 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 23-40 (4-7) 17-32 65. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 6-25=31 (Lutz 10, Elswick 4). Assists: 10 (Brown 4, Murphy 2). Steals: 6 (Lutz 3, Sands 2, Brown 1). Turnovers: 21.

WAYNE (1-5): Ryan Wellman 4-13 (2-5) 2-4 12, John Paisley 5-11 (1-4) 0-0 11, Tracy Jackson 7-11 (0-0) 1-4 15, Justin Clagg 6-16 (1-3) 3-4 16, Aaron Farley 1-3 (0-0) 0-3 2, Brian Thomas 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Chris Kilgore 1-3 (0-0) 2-2 4, Kyle Wellman 1-2 (0-1) 1-1 3. Totals: 25-59 (4-13) 9-18 63. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Farley. Rebounds: 10-19=29 (Jackson 10, Farley 6). Assists: 8. Steals: 5. Turnovers: 14.