Don’t tell the Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers it’s basketball season.

With quarter scores that looked more like a baseball game, the Lady Tigers used a strong defensive effort to beat the Coal Grove Lady Hornets 39-27 Tuesday in their season opener.

“We’re not a big offensive team, so we have to play good defense,” said Ironton coach Doug Graham. “We need to do a better job blocking out, but the defense was the difference. We held them to single digits in three quarters.”

Coal Grove connected on just 10-of-40 field goal attempts and leading scorer Jordyn Cox was limited to 9 points. Danielle Carpenter had 11 points and five rebounds to lead Coal Grove.

Lady Hornets coach Nick Miller attributed the low offensive output to Ironton’s defense.

“They played good defense. That’s the first time the defense didn’t let us go to the basket, “ said Miller. “They forced us to take shots from the outside that we didn’t want to take. We got shots but they didn’t fall.”

Coal Grove (1-1) had a good defensive effort of its own. Ironton was 16-of-44 from the floor — 36 percent — but dominated the glass by out-rebounding the Lady Hornets 39-to-21.

Mercedes Crockrel had a solid all-around performance with a game-high 22 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Lorna Ceaser hauled down 13 rebounds and Janie Morris grabbed nine more.

“They were more aggressive around the boards than we were,” said Miller.

Taylor Sexton and Abby Nance had six rebounds each for Coal Grove.

Coal Grove was leading 7-4 after a layup by Sexton midway through the first quarter, but Ceaser’s baseline shot put Ironton up for good at 9-7 and Crockrel followed up her own shot and it was 11-9 at the end of the quarter.

Ceaser and Alex Taylor had layups to begin the second quarter as the lead went to 15-9.

Two baskets by Carpenter cut the deficit to 15-13, but Crockrel converted a three-point play with less than a minute to play in the half and Ironton was up 18-13.

The Lady Hornets got within 20-18 when Chelsea Delong hit 2-of-3 foul shots. Crockrel asserted herself again with a layup and a 12-footer to push the lead to 25-18. But Cox hit a trey and Carpenter’s putback made it 25-23.

A foul shot by Ceaser and a steal and layup by Crockrel with 1:10 left extended the lead to 35-27 and sealed the outcome.

Coal Grove 9 4 10 4 = 27

Ironton 11 7 7 14 = 39

COAL GROVE (1-1): Abby Nance 1 0 1-2 3, Danielle Carpenter 5 0 1-2 11, Jordyn Cox 1 2 1-2 9, Taylor Sexton 1 0 0-0 2, Chelsea Delong 0 0 2-3 2, Kelli McMackin 0 0 0-0 0, Keesha Wyatt 0 0 0-2 0. Totals: 10-40 5-11 27. 3-point goals: 2-11. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 10-11=21 (Sexton 6, Nance 6, Carpenter 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 2. Steals: 5 (Carpenter 2). Turnovers: 13.

IRONTON (1-0): Mercedes Crockrel 9 0 4-5 22, Brea Tackett 0 0 0-0 0, Janie Morris 1 0 0-0 2, Lorna Ceaser 2 0 3-6 7, Alex Taylor 3 0 0-0 6, Emily Lilly 0 0 0-0 0, Cortney Rister 1 0 0-0 2, Nikki Elswick 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-44 7-11 39. 3-point goals: 0-3. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: Tackett (4th 2:36). Rebounds: 18-21=39 (Ceaser 13, Morris 9, Crockrel 9). Team/deadball rebounds: None. Assists: 6 (Morris 3, Crockrel 2). Steals: 7 (Crockrel 2, Morris 2). Turnovers: 15.