GALLIPOLIS — Of all the things the Ironton Fighting Tigers did well, it was the defense that did the best.
Looking to correct Tuesday’s performance that saw Ironton lose by 30 points to Portsmouth, the Fighting Tigers did everything well in a 60-31 Ohio Valley Conference win over the Gallipolis Blue Devils on Friday.
“We need that really bad. We were pressing a little bit,” said Ironton coach Chris Barnes. “We shot the ball better. We moved the ball better. We passed the ball forward better. But the best thing is we played really good defensively.”
One player who gave a stellar defensive effort was Markel Cotton who was assigned to guard the Blue Devils Kenyon Franklin and held him to just one point. Ironton’s defense held Gallipolis to single digit scoring in 3 of the quarters.
“Markel wasn’t feeling good this week and I asked him before the game, ‘Can you guard him and keep him in front?’ and he said, ‘Coach, I got you.’ That was probably his best game. He’s got talent,” said Barnes.
“Today we needed his defense and we got it.”
A good defense needs some offense to make it all work and Ironton got a big game from Shaun Terry who scored a game-high 21 points with 14 coming in the first half.
“That looked like the Shaun Terry of last year,” said Barnes.
Braden Schreck scored 14 points for Ironton (8-3, 5-1).
“The only way you can get better shooting the ball is to shoot the ball and we’ve been putting in extra time each day just shooting the ball,” said Barnes.
Gallipolis (3-9, 1-5) got a 3-pointer from Wes Saunders to start the game but it proved to be the Blue Devils only lead.
Terry made a 3-pointer of his own and a layup before Blake Caldwell’s layup tied the game at 5. But layups by Bailey Thacker and Schreck gave Ironton the lead for good at 9-5.
Gabe Hammons scored to cut the deficit to 9-8 only to have Terry convert a 3-point play and it was 12-8 to end the quarter.
Ironton went on a 6-1 run to begin the second quarter and it was 18-9.
Tyler Roach had a layup, Bryce Markins hit a 3-pointer and Terry made a 15-footer and the lead was 25-11 and Ironton went on to take a 33-16 halftime lead.
Saunders repeated the start of the game by scoring to begin the second half, but Ironton went on a 19-1 run and the lead was 52-20 at the end of the quarter.
Ironton began emptying its bench in the fourth quarter and Judah Barnes drained a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter and made it 58-28.
Ironton plays Bexley at Ohio Dominican University at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday in the 614 Shootout.
Ironton 12 21 19 8 = 60
Gallia Acad. 8 8 4 11 = 31
IRONTON (8-3, 5-1): Shaun Terry 7 2 1-2 21, Braylon Sturgill 1 0 0-0 2, Bailey Thacker 1 1 0-0 5, Bryce Markins 1 2 0-0 8, Judah Barnes 0 1 0-0 3, Tyler Roach 2 0 1-2 5, Markel Cotton 0 0 0-0 0, Braden Schreck 6 0 2-3 14, Ashton Layne 1 0 0-0 2, Noah Patterson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 6 4-7 60. Turnovers: 10. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.
GALLIA ACADEMY (3-9, 1-5): Wes Saunders 3 1 0-0 9, Alex Blair 0 1 0-0 3, Cade Mock 4 0 3-4 11, Kenyon Franklin 0 0 1-2 1, Rees Toler 0 0 1-2 1, Dylan Sheets 0 0 0-0 0, Gabe Hammons 1 0 0-0 2, Blake Caldwell 1 0 0-0 2, Beckett Camden 1 0 0-0 2, Cory Mock 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 2 5-8 31. Turnovers: 18. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.
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