Lady Tigers survive despite no emotion
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 29, 2004
SUMMIT, Ky. - It could have been an episode of "Lost in Space."
No matter how hard coach Amy Hughes tried, the Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers could never get into the game with an intensity. But despite the lackluster effort, Ironton still managed to beat the Ashland Kittens 35-34 in the final seconds.
Mandi Boykin came up with a steal and Andrea Rudmann converted the turnover into a layup with seven seconds left to give Ironton the lead.
"That was about as poorly as we can play," Ironton coach Any Hughes said. "We knew it would be a difficult game for use coming off the loss to Christian County less than 24 hours earlier.
"We played with no emotion and no intensity. We took bad shots the whole game and turned it over when there was no pressure. The only thing good about this game is we won," Hughes said.
Ironton, 9-1,
played in the third place game at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Neither team shot well from the field, hence the low-scoring affair. Ironton was 16 of 45 for 35.6 percent and just 7 of 30 the first half
or 23.3 percent.
Ashland didn't shoot much better. The Kittens were 12 of 41 for the game for 29.3 percent and 4 of 17 from the field.
Ironton was tied 8-8 in the first quarter when Sara Hacker's layup put Ironton ahead at the end of the quarter at 10-8.
Neither team scored in the second quarter until Danielle Henderson's short runner at the 3:51 mark gave Ironton a 12-8 lead. The Lady Tigers were up 16-11 at the half.
Ashland did not make a field goal in the third quarter and Ironton went up 24-15 by making just four field goals in the quarter.
Hacker's 10-footer to open the fourth quarter gave Ironton its biggest lead at 26-15. Ashland used a pair of 3-pointers by Kim Strait and one by Ali Wilcox to get within 33-30 with 1:55 to play.
An Ironton turnover gave the ball to Ashland and Kim Gehringer scored off an inbounds play to put Ashland ahead 34-33 with 25 seconds to play.
Boykin came up with a steal with 14 seconds to play and feed Rudmann for a layup with seven seconds to go for a 35-34 lead. Ashland was forced into a turnover as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Hacker had 12 points and seven rebounds for Ironton. Straight led Ashland with 17 points and seven rebounds.
Ironton106811-35
Ashland83419-34
IRONTON (9-1):
Andrea Rudmann 3-5 (0-0) 0-0 6, Danielle Henderson 4-9 (0-0) 0-0 8, Mandi Boykin 3-9 (0-0) 2-2 8, Sarah Cartmell 0-6 (0-0) 1-2 1, Sara Hacker 6-14 (0-1) 0-1 2, Ciara Taylor 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Jessica Waddle 0-2 (0-0) 0-0 0.
Totals: 16-45
(0-1)
3-54
35. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 13-13=26 (Hacker 7, Cartmell 6, Boykin 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 10 (Boykin 7). Steals: 6 (Boykin 3, Rudmann 2). Turnovers: 14.
ASHLAND:
Heather Akers 2-9 (1-5) 0-0 5, Stephanie Dewitt 0-2 (0-0) 0-0 0, Kris Gehringer 4-8 (0-0) 1-1 9, Kim Strait 5-11 (3-7) 4-4 17, Chelsea Clark 0-5 (0-0) 0-0 0, Nikisha Farrow 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0, Kaitlin Stinger 0-1
0-0 0-0
0, Ali Wilcox 1-2 (1-1) 0-0 3, Chelsea Dietrich 0-1 90-1) 0-0 0. Totals: 12-41
(5-15)
5-5
34. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9-13=22 (Strait 7, Gehringer 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 8. Assists: 3. Steals: 5 (Strait 2). Turnovers: 23.