Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Somebody lied to the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

A layup is supposed to be the easiest shot to make in basketball, but the Fighting Tigers struggled to finish around the basket Friday in a 77-57 loss to the Huntington Highlanders.

“We played well and defended them well. We scored 57 points and we’re not consistently capable of scoring that many points,” said Ironton coach Mark LaFon.

“But we missed so many shots. We missed at least 15 layups. If we make our layups we easily score 80. You have to make your shots to play with a team like this.”

Despite Huntington’s pressure style defense, Ironton had just 11 turnovers.

“Phillip Kratzenberg battled. They are up in you the whole game and applying pressure. The score wasn’t indicative of what the game was like. Desmond Young played fantastic. Tristan Cox played well the first half and he stepped it up the second half,” said LaFon.

Despite the height advantage, the Highlanders only out-rebounded Ironton 35-34.

Ironton (0-2) was led by Cox with a game-high 20 points and had 8 rebounds. Kratzenberg scored 14, Young added 9 points and 5 rebounds and Joe Bowling had 5 rebounds.

Huntington — the defending Class AAA state champions and preseason No. 1 — had five players in double figures led by Anthony Meadows with 18 points.

John Dawson scored 17, Tavian Dunn-Martin and Jalen Pennington had 13 each and Ian Simms came off the bench to score 10.

A 3-point goal by Cox with two minutes left gave Ironton a 10-5 first quarter lead.

Dunn-Martin hit a shot midway through the second quarter to tie the game at 17. Kratzenberg made two fouls shots to give Ironton a 19-17 lead, but Dawson hit a 3-pointer that gave Huntington its first lead at 20-19 and they never trailed.

Free throws by Young and Kratzenberg got Ironton within 22-21 but Pennington’s basket made it 24-21 at the break.

The Highlanders (1-0) took charge to start the second half and Ironton was forced to scramble to recover the rest of the game.

“You have to take advantage of the mismatches on the floor and in the first half we did. In the second half we couldn’t do any of that. They were up in our faces,” said LaFon.

Pennington and Meadows converted 3-point plays and Pennington made two foul shots and it was 32-21.

Simms sank two free throws and it was 43-30. Joe Bowling sank a pair of foul shots with three seconds left in the quarter and Ironton trailed 45-34.

A 3-point goal by Marques Davis and a basket by Kratzenberg narrowed the gap to 48-41, but an 8-0 run opened up a 61-43 lead.

“In the second half we missed layups and then we weren’t in position to get back. We got a little tired and gave up a lot of easy baskets,” said LaFon.

Huntington continued to pull away as they converted 21 of 25 free throws in the quarter.

NOTE: Plans to honor the 2004-05 state tournament teams will be held on Jan. 23 at the Fairland game, not Tuesday as originally planned.

Ironton 10 11 13 23 = 57

Huntington 5 19 21 32 = 77

IRONTON (0-2): 2 1 7-9 14, Joe Bowling 2 0 2-2 6, Tristan Cox 5 1 7-9 20, Marques Davis 0 1 0-0 3, Desmond Young 4 0 1-5 9, Jake Isaac 1 0 0-0 2, Raphael Glover 0 0 3-4 3. Totals: 17-53 20-29 57. 3-point goals: 3-7. Rebounds: 14-O, 20-D = 34 (Cox 8, Young 5, Bowling 5). Assists: 6 (Cox 2, Bowling 2). Steals: 4. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Young (4th).

HUNTINGTON (1-0): Chase Martin 0 0 1-2 1, Thad Taylor 0 0 0-0 0, Ian Simms 2 0 6-6 10, Dajon Congleton 0 0 0-0 0, Tavian Dunn-Martin 5 0 3-4 13, Anthony Meadows 7 1 1-2 18, John Dawson 1 3 6-6 17, Simon Brown 0 0 1-4 1, Raekawn Saunders 0 0 0-0 0, J.R. Howard 1 0 2-2 4, Jalen Pennington 2 2 3-4 13, Dewey Brown 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-51 23-30 77. 3-point goals: 6-24. Rebounds: 9-O, 26-D = 35 (Meadows 6, Dunn-Martin 6). Assists: 3 (Dunn-Martin 3). Steals: 8 (Meadows 2, Brown 2). Turnovers: 9. Fouls: 24. Fouled out: None.