Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

COAL GROVE — One thing the Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers make opponents do is check all the lights in the scoreboard to see if they’re working.

Ironton racked up more than 80 points in a game for the second time this season as the Lady Tigers beat the Coal Grove Lady Hornets 86-51 on Thursday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

“When you put 86 points on the board, that’s saying something,” said Ironton coach Doug Graham. “We were aggressive going to the basket. We did really well on the offensive end.”

Yes, they did well. After its worse shooting performance on Monday, Ironton had one of its best by hitting 39-of-78 shots for 50 percent from the floor.

Lexie Barrier had a game-high 23 points, nine steals and five blocked shots to lead the unbeaten Lady Tigers (12-0, 8-0). Alyssa Lewis had a big game with 20 points and five steals while Sydney Webb added 15 points, four assists and four rebounds.

Zakie Lee grabbed six rebounds, Cheyenne Scott five rebounds, Lexie Wise five assists and D’Laynie Keith four steals.

Ironton forced 34 turnovers including 24 steals.

Coal Grove (2-9, 1-6) was led by Kaylee Beals with 16 points and Kasey Murphy with 10 points and nine rebounds. Emily Compliment and Lauren Crum had five rebounds each.

The Lady Hornets were just 16-of-43 from the field for 37 percent but converted 17-of-28 free throws.

“We fouled a little too much defensively, reaching a little too much, so we’re going to have to work on that,” said Graham. “We need to be a little more fundamentally on defense and that’s something we can correct in practice.”

Lewis scored 10 points in the first quarter as Ironton raced to a 27-12 lead. The Lady Hornets were guilty of 13 turnovers in the quarter.

A layup by Lee gave Ironton its biggest lead of the half at 49-22 with 2:53 on the clock before Coal Grove cut the deficit to 53-29 at the break.

The Lady Hornets got within 61-39 with 4:17 left in the third quarter after layups by Beals, Crum and Destiny Dolen, but Barrier scored six straight points as Ironton close the quarter with a 12-0 run and it was 73-39.

Coal Grove visits Symmes Valley at 1 p.m. Saturday and travels to South Point for a league game on Monday. Ironton travels to Portsmouth on Monday.

Ironton 27 26 20 13 = 86

Coal Grove 12 17 10 12 = 51

IRONTON (12-0, 8-0): Jordan Hannan 1 0 0-1 2, Lexie Wise 4 0 0-0 8, Lexie Barrier 10 0 3-3 23, Sydney Webb 6 1 0-0 15, Alyssa Lewis 9 0 2-2 20, Cheyenne Scott 3 0 0-0 6, D’Laynie Keith 1 0 2-2 4, Zakia Lee 4 0 0-2 8, Kaylin Easterling 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 39-78 7-10 86. 3-point goals: 1-7. Rebounds: 18-O, 15-D = 33 (Lee 6, Scott 5, Webb 4). Team rebounds: 4. Assists: 17 (Wise 5, Webb 4, Barrier 3). Steals: 24 (Barrier 9, Lewis 5, Keith 4). Turnovers: 9. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None.

COAL GROVE (2-9, 1-6): Kaylee Beals 3 1 7-10 16, Emily Compliment 3 0 1-3 7, Kasey Murphy 4 0 2-2 10, Destiny Dolen 2 0 0-1 4, Lauren Crum 1 1 2-4 7, Bailey McKnight 0 0 2-4 2, Mattie Malone 0 0 0-0 0, Amaya Waulk 1 0 3-4 5. Totals: 16-43 17-28 51. 3-point goals: 2-6. Rebounds: 14-O, 24-D = 38 (Murphy 9, Compliment 5, Crum 5). Team rebounds: 8. Assists: 2. Steals: 5. Turnovers: 34. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.