By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

 

The time there was no letting up.

Playing one of their most intense defensive games of the season, the Ironton Fighting Tigers shut down the Russell Red Devils 76-45 on Tuesday.

“They all played a very solid game. We kept our intensity up,” said Ironton coach Mark LaFon. “It’s easy to let down (in a blowout). I called a timeout and they picked it back up.”

Zac Carter led Ironton with 22 points — 20 in the first half — while Trey Fletcher had 20 points and 6 rebounds. Trevor White had 8 rebounds.

Ironton’s defense forced Russell into 17 turnovers including 14 steals. Carter had four and Brown three.

The Fighting Tigers also limited the Red Devils to only 32 field goal attempts.

Kyle Skaggs led Russell with 21 points on 7 of 20 shooting.

“We mixed a lot of guys on Skaggs. Everybody did a good job on him. We knew in the second half he was going to come out firing and he did. He got his points, but he didn’t go off on us. He had to take a lot of shots,” said LaFon.

Ironton opened the game with an 8-2 run and led 20-8 before Jacob Porter hit a 3-pointer to get Russell within 20-11.

Skaggs’ 3-pointer have Russell down 32-22 midway through the second quarter, but Carter made a layup and hit two foul shots to close the half and put the lead at 39-25.

Ironton continued to pull away in the third quarter. Layups by Fletcher and White closed out the quarter and it was 61-35.

Fletcher had a dunk and Aaron Stephens made a layup with 4:08 left to give Ironton its biggest lead at 74-40.

Russell 11 14 10 10 = 45

Ironton 20 19 22 15 = 76

RUSSELL (15-10): Googie Hayes 0 0 2-6 2, Logan Dehoff 2 0 2-4 6, Kyle Skaggs 4 3 4-4 21, Tyler Parsley 0 0 2-2 2, Luke Bailey 3 0 1-2 7, Jacob Porter 0 2 0-0 6, Michael Pennington 0 0 0-1 0, Dylan Campbell 0 0 1-4 1, Hunter Couchot 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Tackett 0 0 0-0 0, Jacob Smith 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-32 12-23 45. 3-point goals: 5-13. Rebounds: 6-14=20 (Bailey 5, Hayes 4). Team rebounds: 6. Assists: 6 (Porter 2, Hayes 2). Steals: 4 (Skaggs 2). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON (13-3): Zac Carter 6 1 7-8 22, Trey Fletcher 7 1 3-6 20, Dion Brown 3 0 1-1 7, Nolan Johnson 3 0 0-0 6, Josh Glover 3 0 1-2 7, Trevor White 2 0 0-1 4, Aaron Stephens 2 0 0-0 4, Tanner Dutey 1 0 2-2 4, Darrius Boykin 0 0 0-0 0, Nate Garred 0 0 0-0 0, Sean Lawless 0 0 0-0 0, Joe Bowling 0 0 2-2 2. Totals: 29-48 16-22 76. 3-point goals: 2-8. Rebounds: 9-16=25 (White 8, Fletcher 6). Team rebounds: 2. Assists: 17 (Carter 5, Fletcher 4, White 3). Steals: 14 (Carter 4, Brown 3). Turnovers: 10. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: Carter (4th 4:32).