The big man came up big.

Saturday, December 16, 2000

The big man came up big. Ironton 6-foot-5 junior center Tommy Lutz had a breakout game as he scored a career-high 18 points and had six rebounds to lead the Fighting Tigers past the Fairland Dragons 50-43 Friday night.

"It finally clicked for me and everything dropped. (Coach Barnes) told them to go for me," Lutz said. "Overall it was kind of an ugly performance. We toughed it out and did what we had to do and got the win."

Josh Harmon finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Ironton (3-0) which shot just 21-of-47 from the field for 44.7 percent. They had a 34-29 rebound edge with 13 rebounds coming on the offensive end.

"Fairland slowed the game and we didn’t shoot the ball well. We’ve been shooting great, but Fairland had something to do with that," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said.

The Dragons, 1-2, were led by Josh Dunfee with 14 points and eight rebounds despite being off his game. In fact, the Dragons were only 16-of-48 from the floor for 33.3 percent.

"We didn’t get the second shot and they did," Fairland coach Joey Thacker said. "We held them to 50 points and 30 of those were off the glass.

"Dunfee is one of the best players in our league and in the area. He just had a bad night and that hurts us when we have a bad night as a whole," Thacker said.

Fairland jumped in front 6-0 to start the game, but Lutz scored seven points as Ironton rallied to take an 11-10 lead.

Isaac Hannon hit a 3-pointer to open the second quarter and a 3-point play by Lutz with 5:28 left in the half gave the Fighting Tigers their biggest lead to date at 18-12.

But the Dragons came back to within 22-21 at the half on a foul shot by Dunfee and a 3-point play by Chris Dinwiddie.

Dunfee followed up a missed shot and hit a 3-pointer as Fairland took a 26-22 lead to begin the second half. Ironton went on a 6-0 run to take the lead and a baseline jumper by Harmon at the 3:20 mark gave the Fighting Tigers the lead for good at 30-28.

Andy Brown’s 3-pointer just before the end of the quarter put Ironton ahead 35-28.

"At halftime I told them if we make one run, Fairland doesn’t have the offense to catch up," said Barnes. "Once we got up 10, I knew we were okay."

Lutz followed up a shot, Josh Sands hit a baseline jumper, and Lutz scored on a put back again as Ironton built its biggest lead at 41-28 as the fourth quarter got underway.

The Dragons got within 46-40 with 55 seconds left on a layup by Dunfee, but Lutz hit a layup and Harmon sank a foul shot and it was 49-40 with just 34 seconds to go.

Fairland 10 11 7 15 – 43

Ironton 11 11 13 15 – 50

FAIRLAND (1-2): Josh Dunfee 5-22 (1-8) 3-6 14, J. W. Jones 3-6 (0-1) 1-4 7, Drew Brooks 3-4 (1-2) 0-0 7, Glen Chapman 3-4 (0-0) 2-4 8, Darren Colburn 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0, K. C. Jones 1-5 (1-2) 1-3 4, Chris Dinwiddie 1-4 (0-2) 1-1 3, Brad Taliaferro 0-2 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 16-48 (3-16) 8-18 43. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 12-17=29 (Dunfee 8, Chapman 7, Brooks 5). Assists: 3 (Brooks 2). Steals: 4 (Colburn 2, Dunfee 1, J. W. Jones 1). Turnovers: 15. FG% – 33.3. FT% – 44.4. 3pt% – 18.8.

IRONTON (3-0): Drew Mains 2-5 (0-2) 2-4 6, Isaac Hannon 2-9 (1-7) 0-0 5, Chris Haney 0-4 (0-0) 0-0 0, Josh Harmon 6-11 (0-1) 2-5 14, Tommy Lutz 8-10 (0-0) 2-3 18, Chris Frazer 0-4 (0-0) 0-1 0, Josh Sands 2-2 (0-0) 0-0 4, Andy Brown 1-2 (1-1) 0-0 3. Totals: 21-47 (2-11) 6-13 50. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 13-21=34 (Harmon 10, Mains 7, Lutz 6). Assists: 11 (Harmon 5, Mains 3, Frazer 2, Hannon 1). Steals: 7 (Harmon 3, Lutz 2, Mains 1, Brown 1). Turnovers: 12. FG% – 44.7. FT% – 46.2. 3pt% – 18.2.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Ironton 49, Fairland 32. Ironton: Josh Sands 14, Craig Lewis 13. Fairland: C. J. Stewart 15.