JACKSON — The Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers can officially say they’ve seen it all.

The Jackson Ironladies used almost every kind of defense they could to try and slow down Ironton who beat them 66-37 earlier this season.

Jackson even caught a break when Ironton’s leading scorer Mercedes Crockrel picked up her second foul less than three minutes into the game and sat out the rest of the first half.

Nice shot, but no cigar. Ironton still managed to get a 42-26 Southeastern Ohio Athletic League win over Jackson on Wednesday.

“I was glad to see our girls adjust to their triangle-and-two and their box-and-one and find a way to score, and I was glad to see us play almost the entire first half without Mercedes,” said Ironton coach Doug Graham.

“But even though we did some good things, we didn’t play with any intensity and our defense wasn’t very good. I know they only scored 26 points, but we did not play well defensively.”

Besides changing their defenses, Jackson used a slow, deliberate offense and rotated 10 players in an effort to not only stay fresh themselves but to try and wear down the Lady Tigers.

It helped, but it didn’t work.

“Jackson did a good job of getting the tempo of the game they wanted and that went against us with the way we were playing defense,” said Graham. “But we still found a way to get a win.”

Ironton led 7-3 when Jackson’s Kelsey Martin hit her second 3-pointer of the first quarter. Janie Morris nailed a 15-footer just before the end of the quarter and Ironton led 9-6.

“Janie hit a couple of big shots and did some nice things considering she was really sick,” said Graham.

The Ironladies were down 11-10 on a layup by Emileigh Cooper with 6:42 left in the second quarter, but Ironton went on a 8-2 run to end the half including an 18-footer by Brea Tackett and a 15-footer by Lorna Ceaser to make it 19-12 at the break.

Crockrel’s layup and Morris’ 17-footer to begin the second half put the lead at 23-12. Jackson got within 25-20 on a foul shot by Sharissa Cooper before Crockrel’s 15-footer with 38 seconds on the clock opened up a 27-20 lead.

Cortney Rister hit from the foul line and later dished to Ceaser who made a 3-point play that pushed the lead to 36-24 with 4:17 left.

Candace Chapman’s two free throws put Jackson down 36-26 with 4:03 to play, but Ironton did not allow Jackson to score the rest of the game while Crockrel made an acrobatic layup and Tackett and Morris each sank a pair of free throws.

Crockrel had 12 points as she did not miss a shot while Ceaser also had 12 points. Morris got six rebounds, two steals and three assists.

The Lady Tigers travel to Zanesville for a noon start on Saturday in a key SEOAL game.

Ironton 9 10 8 15 = 42

Jackson 6 6 8 6 = 26

IRONTON (9-3, 6-1): Mercedes Crockrel 5 0 2-2 12, Alex Taylor 2 0 1-2 5, Brea Tackett 1 0 3-4 5, Janie Morris 2 0 2-2 6, Lorna Ceaser 4 0 4-5 12, Emily Lilly 0 0 0-0 0, Cortney Rister 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 15-32 12-15 42. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 0-4. Rebounds: 6-18=24 (Morris 6, Taylor 5, Crockrel 4). Assists: 7 (Tackett 2, Morris 2). Steals: 6 (Morris 3, Crockrel 2). Turnovers: 11.

JACKSON (4-7, 1-5): Emileigh Cooper 1 0 1-4 3, Kelsey Martin 0 2 0-0 6, Sharissa Cooper 0 1 1-2 4, Candace Chapman 2 0 3-4 7, Meredith Harless 0 0 0-0 0, Kara Stiffler 0 0 0-0 0, Na’ Tyra Green 0 0 0-0 0, Nicole Chapman 1 0 0-2 2, Mallory Geiger 2 0 0-2 4. Totals: 9-33 5-14 26. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 7-13=20 (N. Chapman 4, Geiger 3, Stiffler 3). Assists: 1 (E. Cooper). Steals: 9 (Geiger 3, Martin 2). Turnovers: 12.