Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

Maybe Ironton’s football team doesn’t pass the ball much, but Ironton Lady Tigers’ coach Doug Graham wants his team to pass.

The Lady Tigers were guilty of 24 turnovers including 14 in the second half. Those turnovers helped the Spring Valley Lady Timberwolves rally for a 61-60 win over the Lady Tigers Friday in the fifth annual Ironton Classic.

“You can’t dribble through a press. Our girls know that. We work on it all the time. But we have a lot of young girls and a lot of inexperienced girls and they make young mistakes,” said the Lady Fighting Tigers’ coach.

Ironton trailed 7-0 at the start of the game but rallied to take a 13-11 first quarter lead as Ariel Schweickart scored 6 points.

A put-back by Karlee McMackin with 3:55 left in the half extended Ironton’s lead to 25-15 before the Lady T-Wolves cut the deficit to 28-21 at the break.

Kayla Blake came off the bench to hit a 3-pointer and get the T-Wolves within 33-24, but two free throws by McMackin and a free throw and layup by Alicia Murphy gave the Lady Tigers their biggest lead of the game at 38-24 with 2:52 on the clock.

But then the comeback began.

After a 3-point play by Brooke Heck, Mackenzie Morris and Madison Morris — daughters of former Marshall basketball player Bruce Morris — both scored inside to cut the deficit to 40-34.

A baseline shot by Emily Butcher cut the gap to 42-38 at the end of the quarter.

“We knew they would make a run at some point, but we lost our composure and got in a hurry and started making mistakes,” said Graham.

A layup by Madison Morris gave the T-Wolves the lead at 52-51 with 3:02 left.

Ironton trailed 58-56 on a foul shot by Schweickart with 1:35 left, but Madison Morris had another layup and it was 60-56.

Lexie Barrier made two free throws, then stole the ball and hit two more foul shots as Ironton tied the game 60-60 with 33 seconds left.

Madison Morris was fouled three seconds later and hit the first of two free throws.

Ironton turned the ball over and Butcher missed two foul shots with eight seconds left giving the Lady Tigers one more chance.

Barrier got a good look but her 3-point attempt hit the front of the rim and bounced off as time expired.

Barried had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Ironton (5-3). Schweickart scored 14 points, Murphy had 13 points and McMackin finished with 8 points and 11 rebounds.

Madison Morris led Spring Valley with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Spring Valley 11 10 17 23 = 61

Ironton 13 15 14 18 = 60

SPRING VALLEY (5-2): Sarah Kelly 3 1 0-5 9, Mackenzie Morris 1 0 1-3 3, Brooke Heck 2 0 3-5 7, Emily Butcher 0 0 0-2 0, Madison Morris 11 0 5-6 27, Kassidy Lemmons 0 0 0-0 0, Jordan Ratcliff 2 0 1-2 5, Cassandra Adkins 1 0 2-4 4, Allison McGraw 0 0 0-0 0, Sarah Dingess 0 1 0-0 3, Kayla Blake 0 1 0-0 3, Eric Mathis 0 0 0-0 0, Nicole Grove 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-60 12-27 61. 3-point goals: 3-11. Rebounds: 17-21=38 (Mad. Morris 11, Heck 6). Team rebounds: 5. Assists: 4 (Mac. Morris 3). Steals: 11 (Kelly 5). Turnovers: 18. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: Kelly (4th 0:29), Heck (4th 1:35).

IRONTON (5-3): Lexie Washington 2 0 0-0 4, Lexie Barrier 5 1 8-10 21, Macy Wise 0 0 0-0 0, Ariel Schweickart 3 0 8-12 14, Karlee McMackin 2 0 4-4 8, Alicia Murphy 2 1 6-8 13, Alana Martin 0 0 0-0 0, Taylor Hannan 0 0 0-0 0, Saige Fields 0 0 0-0 0, Jordan Hannan 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-46 26-34 60. 3-point goals: 2-10. Rebounds: 13-26=39 (McMackin 11, Barrier 10). Team rebounds: 4. Assists: 5 (McMackin 2, Barrier 2). Steals: 10 (McMackin 2, Martin 2, Washington 2). Turnovers: 24. Fouls: 26. Fouled out: Murphy (4th 0:26), Schweickart (4th 0:08).