SOUTH WEBSTER – When it comes to the postseason tournament, looks do not count.

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

SOUTH WEBSTER – When it comes to the postseason tournament, looks do not count.

In what was termed an "ugly win" by Ironton head coach Chris Barnes, the Fighting Tigers pulled away in the second half to take a 68-50 win over the Coal Grove Hornets in the Division III sectional tournment.

"That was an ugly win, but we did what we wanted to do. And it doesn’t matter if you just win by one as long as you win in the tournament," said Barnes after Ironton advanced to Friday’s sectional championship game against Chesapeake.

Ironton (11-10) had beaten Coal Grove 81-38 earlier in the season, but Barnes noted that "we knew going in we weren’t going to win by 50. We knew we’d have to battle and we did. Buyt Bacon stepped it up the second half, Josh Sands didn’t have one of his best game but he got by, and Drew (Mains) just keeps this team running. Drew played well."

Sands scored 17 points, had five rebounds, seven assists and four steals in his best all-around performance of the season. Drew Mains finished with a season-high 14 points to go along with three assists and four steals. Derique Bacon added 11 oints.

Coal Grove (3-18) was paced by Eric Tackett with 14 points. J.J. Hunt scored nine and Justin Gibson had nine points and seven rebounds.

Although Ironton went ahead 9-3, Oak Hill battled back to take a 14-12 first quarter lead. The Fighting Tigers finally got the lead back on two Aaron Quinn free throws with 6:24 on the clock.

"We wanted to be aggressive," Hornets coach Darrell Humphreys said. "Our kids executed in the game. They got beat 51 points back in December and they showed a lot of mental toughness. The end of the third quarter was the difference."

Coal Grove closed to within 36-31, but Mains had two straight layups before two baskets by Tackett got Coal Grove to within 40-35.

Kevin Williams then came up with a 3-pointer and a layup off a steal as Ironton finish the third quarter ahead 47-35.

Two straight layups by Ben Murphy extended the Ironton lead to 59-41 wtih 4:37 to play. Ironton maintained its lead and Michael McGraw’s 3-pointer with 1:08 left capped the win.

Coal Grove 14 9 12 15 – 50

Ironton 12 18 17 21 – 68

COAL GROVE (3-18): J. J. Hunt 2-10 (1-4) 4-4 9, Caleb Potter 2-6 (0-1) 0-1 4, Brandon Waller 1-6 (0-0) 0-0 2, Eric Tackett 6-10 (0-1) 2-2 14, Jimmy Lemon 3-5 (0-0) 3-6 9, Justin Gibson 2-4 (0-0) 2-2 6, Tommy Pemberton 3-8 (0-1) 0-2 6, Tim Elliott 0-0 (0-0) 0-2 0, Zach Nance 0-2 (0-2) 0-0 0, Shane Bridges 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Darius Porter 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tyler Sexton 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 19-51 (1-10) 11-19 50. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 16-24=40 (Potter 10, Lemon 7, Pemberton 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 7 (Waller 4). Steals: 6 (Tackett 2, Hunt 2). Turnovers: 29. FG% – 37.3. FT% – 57.9. 3pt% – 10.0.

IRONTON (11-10): Josh Sands 6-19 (1-6) 4-4 17, Drew Mains 5-8 (0-1) 4-9 14, Craig Lewis 2-5 (0-1) 0-0 4, Derique Bacon 5-6 (0-0) 1-3 11, Tommy Lutz 1-3 (0-0) 0-0 2, Andrew Harvey 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Andy Brown 0-3 (0-1) 0-0 0, Aaron Quinn 0-4 (0-1) 2-2 2, Ben Murphy 4-4 (0-0) 0-1 8, Kevin Williams 3-7 (1-2) 0-0 7, Michael McGraw 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 3, Matt White 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Nick Collins 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 27-61 (3-12) 11-19 68. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9-20=29 (Sands 5, Lutz 4). Team/deadball rebounds: 5. Assists: 14 (Sands 7, Mains 3). Steals: 17 (Mains 4, Quinn 3, Sands 3). Turnovers: 16. FG% – 44.3. FT% – 57.9. 3pt% – 25.0.