Lady Tigers cruise in sectional opener

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 3, 2006

LUCASVILLE — If this game was an ice cream cone, it would have had a vanilla flavor.

Without much emotion or masterful game plan, the Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers used a workman-like effort to breeze past the West Union Lady Dragons 57-28 Wednesday in the Division III sectional tournament semifinals.

“We wanted to be able to come in here and play as well as we could, get a win and move on,” Ironton coach Amy Hughes said.

Email newsletter signup

“We knew West Union hadn’t won a game and that we would be emotionally flat, but considering the circumstances we played pretty well.”

Danielle Henderson and Jessica Waddle had 12 points each, Mandi Boykin 10 points and Sara Hacker 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Fighting Tigers.

Leslie Shumaker had 11 points for West Union (0-21).

Ironton, 19-2, will play Wheelersburg at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the sectional finals. Wheelersburg routed North Adams 58-32 in Wednesday’s second game.

“Wheelersburg has been playing well. They’re getting better. We’ll have a tough game. We’ll have to play well to win,” Hughes said.

The Lady Fighting Tigers went on a 12-0 run to begin the game and never looked back.

The lead was 25-10 at the half after a pair of foul shots by Boykin with eight seconds on the clock.

Ironton’s defense held West Union scoreless in the third quarter and scored 18 points to build a 43-10 lead. Kayla Wileman came off the bench to score six points in the quarter for the Lady Tigers.

The backups played most of the fourth quarter as West Union outscored Ironton 18-14. Shumaker made a layup with 7:20 left in the game for the Lady Dragons first points of the second half.

West Union dressed only six players.