By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

The Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers’ growing pains didn’t hurt so much this time.

The young Lady Tigers took a step forward as they avenged an earlier 57-49 loss by beating the Huntington High Lady Highlanders 50-39 Wednesday in the tip-off game of the Ironton Classic.

“Growth as a team was the big thing and we did a better job rebounding,” said Ironton coach Doug Graham. “We know what we’re always going to get with Alex (Taylor) and Nikki (Elswick), but the other girls stepped up big and that was a big part of beating (Huntington).”

Elswick had another big game with 23 points, 16 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots. Taylor scored 11 points to go with five rebounds, four assists and three steals.

But Karlee McMackin, Alisha Murphy, Ariel Schweickart and Arden Sparks combined for 16 points and eight rebounds as Ironton outrebounded Huntington 39-30.

Telequia Hamilton led Huntington (2-3) with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Kiana Evans added 11 points and Kiki Smith 10.

“We did a pretty good job keeping Hamilton off the offensive boards and limiting their second chance points,” said Graham.

Hamilton had just one putback basket.

“My main goal was to shut (Hamilton) down on the offensive boards. Coach Graham said we had to play with strength and intensity,” said Elswick.

“We knew they were one of the top Triple-A teams in West Virginia and we want to show them what we could do.”

Huntington took a 4-0 lead but Ironton (5-1) came back to take a 12-8 lead at the end of the quarter.

The Highlanders were up 21-16 on a 10-footer by Hamilton with 3:11 left in the half.

Four different players scored as Ironton came back to tie the game 23-23 at the half.

Ironton’s defense held Huntington to one of 11 shooting in the third quarter. Elswick had seven points and Taylor four as Ironton took a 34-23 lead before a steal and layup by Hamilton at the 1:48 mark.

A driving layup by Schweickart put Ironton up 36-25 at the end of the quarter.

The Lady Tigers led by as many as 16 points when Elswick made it 47-31 with a free throw at the 1:35 mark of the fourth quarter.

Ironton plays a key game at Oak Hill on Monday.

Huntington 8 15 2 14 = 39

Ironton 12 11 13 14 = 50

HUNTINGTON (2-3): Kiki Smith 2 2 0-2 10, LaKisha Adkins 1 0 0-0 2, Abby Steele 1 0 0-0 2, Anitra Hawarny 1 0 0-0 2, Telequia Hamilton 5 0 2-4 12, Dominique Gibson 0 0 0-0 0, Kiana Evan 2 2 1-2 11, Taylor Bruer 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-57 3-8 39. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 4-18. Rebounds: 14 offense, 16 defense = 30 (Hamilton 13). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 6 (Smith 3). Steals: 9 (Smith 4, Hamilton 3). Turnovers: 12. Blocked shots: 6 (Hamilton 4, Hawarny 2).

IRONTON (5-1): Alex Taylor 4 0 3-9 11, Nikki Elswick 5 2 7-11 23, Ariel Schweickart 1 0 2-2 4, Alisha Murphy 1 0 0-0 2, Karlee McMackin 3 0 0-0 6, Arden Sparks 1 0 2-2 4, Torie Klaiber 0 0 0-0 0, Emily Davis 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-39 14-24 50. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 2-3. Rebounds: 11 offense, 28 defense = 39 (Elswick 16, Taylor 5, Schweickart 4). Team/deadball rebounds: 8. Assists: 10 (Taylor 4, Schweickart 3, Murphy 2). Steals: 9 (Elswick 3, Taylor 3). Turnovers: 17. Blocked shots: Elswick 3, Taylor 1.