It was just a matter of shifting gears.

Trailing 20-13 midway through the second quarter, Ironton coach Amy Hughes called a timeout and got her team to shift into the next gear.

It worked as Ironton cut the deficit to two points at the half and continued into the second half as the Lady Fighting Tigers took as much as a 13-point lead in beating the Boyd County (Ky.) Lady Lions 50-42 Thursday.

“We were playing hard, but we weren’t playing as hard as we could,” Hughes said. “We were playing a little lackadaisical at times. Once we turned up the defensive pressure, we got the game going our way.”

Sara Hacker, who had 13 points and six rebounds, kept Ironton in the game early and triggered a scoring spurt to begin the second half that gave Ironton the lead for good.

Jessica Waddle also had 13 points and Danielle Henderson added 10 points. Mandi Boykin had four assists and two steals while Ciara Taylor had seven rebounds and two steals for Ironton (14-2).

“We had a good team effort,” Hughes said. “Boyd County wanted a slow pace. Our defense helped pick things up and changed the momentum.”

After Ironton took a 4-2 lead, Boyd County (6-12) came back to take 9-4 lead. Hacker hit a 3-pointer and followed up a missed shot to get Ironton within 11-9 at the end of the quarter.

The Lady Lions, bolstered by the return of starters two starters who had been out with injuries, went up 20-13 on a layup by Kendra Badgett with 4:05 left in the half.

A steal by Waddle and layup got the Lady Tigers going and a follow up shot by Mercedes Crockrel with 33 seconds on the clock got Ironton within 22-20 at intermission.

Hacker converted a three-point play to open the third quarter as Ironton went on a 7-0 run. Boykin and Waddle had three-point plays to give Ironton a 33-26 lead at the end of the quarter.

Hacker had a steal and layup and Waddle made two foul shots to give the Lady Fighting Tigers a 37-26 lead with 6:56 to play.

Layups by Waddle and Crockrel gave Ironton its biggest lead of the game at 41-38 with 3:15 to play.

Although Ironton was just 4of 8 from the foul line over the final 39 seconds, it was enough to maintain a lead.