SOUTH POINT – Coach Mark Lafon gives his team an "A" for effort.

Wednesday, December 12, 2001

SOUTH POINT – Coach Mark Lafon gives his team an "A" for effort. The scores aren’t so high for the rest of the night, but they’re good enough.

South Point gave a strong effort as the Pointers held off the Ironton Fighting Tigers 75-71 Tuesday.

"I’m happy with the win and our effort. Our effort wasn’t there the last game, but it was there tonight," Lafon said after his Pointers improved to 2-1. "And I feel good about our turnovers. But we have to get better defensively. While we were good in spots, we were bad in others."

One area the Pointers did well was at the foul line where they made 25-of-36. They also used a solid running game to produce a productive offense.

Shane Holsinger lead the transition game as he made seven layups and converted 14-of-20 from the foul line. Holsinger finished with 33 points overall and also had five rebounds, two assists, and seven steals.

"We did a good job on Holsinger in the halfcourt offense, but when he got out and ran we didn’t have anyone who could run with him and he got a lot of easy shots or we fouled him," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said.

"The difference was their foul shooting. We put them on the line and they made their shots. They’re a heck of a good team."

Adam Workman finished with 13 points and Justin Eaches scored 11.

Ironton (2-1) was led by Tommy Lutz with 15 points had 13 rebounds. Andrew Harvey had 14 points and Andy Brown had 13 points including three 3-pointers.

Adam Workman hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 points while Justin Eaches had 11 for the Pointers.

South Point took a 5-0 lead and pulled ahead 16-12 at the end of the quarter. A layup by Seth Craft made it 18-12 to start the second quarter.

Ironton went on a 7-0 run capped by Josh Sands’ 3-pointer to take a 19-18 lead. South Point came back to regain the lead and went up 29-22 on two foul shots by Donte Pennington.

But the Fighting Tigers closed the half with a 9-2 run including two foul shots by Harvey with two seconds left that tied the game 31-31 at the half.

Nick Collins’ baseline jumper gave Ironton a 33-31 lead with just under six minutes on the clock, but Ironton was a mere 3-of-17 from the field in the quarter and South Point took advantage to pull away to a 48-39 lead.

The Pointers held their biggest lead at 58-46 on a 3-pointer by Eaches with five minutes left. Ironton got within 72-69 on a 3-pointer by Brown with 20 seconds left, but the Pointers sank three foul shots to set the second.

Ironton held a dominating 47-18 rebound advantage, but Pointers had just eight turnovers to Ironton’s 18.

Ironton 12 19 8 32 – 71

South Point 16 15 17 27 – 75

IRONTON (2-1): Josh Sands 3-7 (1-1) 0-0 7, Andy Brown 5-12 (3-9) 0-0 13, Andrew Harvey 3-9 (1-2) 7-10 14, Ben Murphy 0-3 (0-1) 0-0 0, Tommy Lutz 6-10 (0-0) 3-4 15, Kevin Williams 0-2 (0-0) 0-0 0, Matt White 1-4 (0-0) 0-0 2, Craig Lewis 2-2 (0-0) 1-2 5, Aaron Quinn 2-5 (0-1) 3-4 7, Nick Collins 4-7 (1-1) 0-4 9, Michael McGraw 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 26-61 (6-15) 14-24 71. Fouls: 26. Fouled out: Harvey, Collins. Rebounds: 17-30=47 (Lutz 13, Harvey 7, Collins 6). Assists: 7 (Harvey 2, Sands 2). Steals: 6 (Brown 3, Harvey 2, Lutz 1). Turnovers: 18.

SOUTH POINT (2-1): Donte Pennington 2-2 (0-0) 2-5 6, Justin Eaches 3-7 (2-5) 34 11, Shane Holsinger 9-21 (1-8) 14-20 33, Bryan Maggard 2-6 (0-0) 2-5 6, Jonathan Green 1-6 (0-2) 0-0 2, Adam Workman 3-7 (3-6) 4-4 13, Patrick McCleary 0 0 0-0 0, Seth Craft 2-4 (0-0) 0-2 4. Totals: 20-53 (6-20) 25-36 75. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Craft. Rebounds: 3-15=18 (Maggard 5, Holsinger 5). Assists: 10 (Holsinger 7). Steals: 5 (Eaches 3, Holsinger 2). Turnovers: 8.

Junior Varsity: Ironton 46, South Point 34. Ironton: Tyler McDaniels 15, Steve Elswick 9. South Point: Quentin Smith 10, Caleb Copley 6.

Portsmouth 60, Rock Hill 43

PORTSMOUTH – R. K. Thurman scored 22 points as the Portsmouth Trojans topped the Rock Hill Redmen 60-43 Tuesday.

Portsmouth, 2-0, also got 14 points from Gerald Froe.

Rock Hill (1-2) was led by David Schug with 15 points and Roger Joseph added 12.

Thurman scored seven points the first quarter while Schug countered with five points and the game was tied 11-11.

Five more points by Thurman helped the Trojans take a 25-18 halftime lead.

Joseph scored six points the third quarter but Portsmouth outscored the Redmen 17-13 to go in front 42-31.

Thurman got six more points the fourth quarter as the lead continued to grow.

In the reserve game, Portsmouth won 45-29. Sean Mullins had 13 points to lead the Redmen.

Rock Hill 11 7 13 12 – 43

Portsmouth 11 14 17 18 – 60

ROCK HILL (1-2): Isaac Kitchen 3 1 0-0 9, Rickie McDonie 1 0 1-2 3, Gabe Ruggles 1 0 2-4 4, Roger Joseph 6 0 0-0 12, David Schug 4 0 7-9 15, Donald Cade 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 1 10-15 43. Fouls: 5-3=8. Fouled out: None.

PORTSMOUTH (2-0): Jo Jo Parker 0 0 3-6 3, Bradley Parker 4 0 0-0 8, Gerald Froe 2 3 1-1 14, Antonio Malone 3 0 1-2 7, Ash Green 2 0 0-0 4, Devin Duplain 1 0 0-0 2, R. K. Thurman 9 0 4-5 22. Totals: 21 3 9-14 60. Fouls: 8-4=12. Fouled out: None.