Ferguson, Ironton easily claim sectional victory
Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 13, 2003
PEDRO -- Candace Ferguson brought out the good stuff.
Ferguson displayed a few new moves around the basket and the results helped the Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers to an easy 78-10 win over the Coal Grove Lady Hornets Wednesday in the Division III sectional tournament semifinals.
Ferguson, a 6-foot senior center, had 25 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots as Ironton (15-4) advanced to the sectional finals at 2:45 p.m. Saturday against South Point.
"I practice those moves every day, but I never use them. I decided to try some of them tonight," Ferguson said.
Andrea Rudmann added 16 points and six assists for Ironton. Sara Hacker had 9 points and 13 rebounds, Sarah Cartmell came off the bench to grab 15 rebounds and Rachel Wylie had 10 rebounds.
The Lady Tigers held a dominating 70-19 rebound advantage against the cold-shooting Lady Hornets. Coal Grove only managed to hit 4 of 56 field goal attempts, one in each quarter.
Ironton had 30 offensive rebounds.
"I think our size and defense bothered them," Ironton coach Amy Hughes said. "I didn't think we played with great intensity, but we executed well, we controlled the boards and we played hard. Now we have a tough challenge ahead of us."
The Lady Fighting Tigers opened the game with a 19-0 run as Ferguson scored 9 points. Kayla Lawless hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the quarter, but Hacker sank two foul shots and Cartmell's layup with 16 seconds on the clock made it 23-3.
Ferguson had 4 points and Rudmann scored 5 more as Ironton scored 13 unanswered points to start the second quarter. Kristin Lawless nailed an 18-footer at the 2:20 mark for the Lady Hornets, but Hacker made two straight baskets to finish the half and give Ironton an insurmountable 40-5 lead.
"It could have been easy for our girls to have just mailed this one in, but they played well. And give Coal Grove's girls credit. They played hard, too," Hughes said.
Kayla Lawless had 5 points for Coal Grove (2-19) while Brittani Brewer grabbed six rebounds.
Coal Grove3223--10
Ironton23171820--78
COAL GROVE (2-19):
Kristin Lawless 1 0 0-0 2, Tiffany Grove 0 0 0-0 0, Brittani Brewer 1 0 0-0 2, Jill Lovejoy 0 0 0-0 0, Tracey Tackett 0 0 0-2 0, Tabby Stormes 0 0 1-2 1, Kayla Lawless 1 1 0-0 5, Holli Swarts 0 0 0-0 0, Courtney Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Amanda Bocook 0 0 0-0 0, Maggie Young 0 0 0-0 0, Shana Klaiber 0 0 0-2 0. Totals: 4-56
(1-8)
1-6
10. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Lovejoy. Rebounds: 6-13=19 (Brewer 6, Kayla Lawless 3, Swarts 3, Tackett 3). Team/deadball rebounds: 6. Assists: 4 (Tackett 3). Steals: 5 (Moore 2). Turnovers: 23.
IRONTON (15-4):
Andrea Rudmann 7-16 (1-2) 1-1 16, Ashley Hannon 3-14 (0-3) 2-4 8, Rachel Wylie 1-2 (0-0) 4-4 6, Candace Ferguson 10-15 (0-0) 5-10 25, Sara Hacker 3-10 (0-0) 3-3 9, Sarah Cartmell 2-3 (0-0) 2-2 6, Danielle Henderson 1-4 (0-0) 0-0 2, Rachael Payne 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tenneille Young 2-3 (0-0) 0-2 4, Ali Markins 1-3 (0-0) 0-0 2. Totals: 30-71
(1-5)
17-25
78. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 30-40=70 (Cartmell 15, Hacker 13, Ferguson 11, Wylie 10, Hannon 7). Team/deadball rebounds: 6. Assists: 15 (Rudmann 6, Hannon 4, Hacker 4). Steals: 8 (Hannon 3, Rudmann 2). Turnovers: 18.