FLATWOODS, Ky.

Saturday, January 22, 2000

FLATWOODS, Ky. – Tell the clerk at the front desk to leave a wake-up call for the first quarter and don’t put a "snooze" button on the alarm.

Game after game, the Ironton Fighting Tigers struggle the first half, them come storm back the second half.

That was the pattern again Friday night as Ironton erased a 9-point deficit and rallied for a 73-63 win over the Russell Red Devils.

"Good teams don’t play from behind. We can’t keep doing that," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said. "The Cardiac Kids are giving their coach a cardiac.

"Our halfcourt trap took them out of their game and go us in our running game. They hurt us with their offense the first half."

Putting the hurt on Russell was Ironton’s trio of guards Jason Harmon, Isaac Hannon, and Drew Mains.

Harmon had a game-high 26 points along with five assists and six rebounds. Hannon drained five 3-pointers as he scored 17 points while Mains had 10 points and six rebounds.

Michael Henry added eight points and nine rebounds before fouling out.

"It’s the same old same old. We always come out the second half and play better. I don’t know what it is," said Harmon.

"Everyone always gets the jump on us. I guess we like to come from behind. I don’t know what it is, but we got the win."

And with the win Ironton is 4-7 record heading into next Saturday’s game at Wheelersburg. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was moved because Wheelersburg had a league makeup at Oak Hill.

Russell (6-9) was led by Matt Johnson with 19 points. John Darnell scored 13 and John Groves added 10. Travis Sparks grabbed 10 rebounds.

The lead changed hands eight times through the first quarter and a half. Russell then used an 8-0 run to go up 26-20 with 3:40 left in the half. A 3-point play by Frank McCoy with 22 seconds left gave the Red Devils at 36-27 halftime lead.

Then came the wake-up call.

Ironton outscored Russell 25-8 the third quarter with Harmon scoring 10 points including a pair of 3-pointers. Henry had all eight of his points the second half.

"The second half we went to Michael Henry and he did what we knew he could. And he would kick out and we’d get easy hoops. That’s the better way of doing it," said Barnes.

It was a string of three shots from behind the arc that gave Ironton the lead as Harmon, Hannon, and Harmon hit and turned a 40-32 deficit into a 41-40 advantage at the 4:09 mark.

Johnson’s 12-footer put Russell back on top, but a tip-in by Harmon and a 10-footer by Henry extended the lead to 45-42 and Ironton never trailed again.

A 3-pointer by Hannon at the buzzer put Ironton up 52-44 heading into the final quarter and the Fighting Tigers extended their lead to 63-50 on two free throws by Harmon with 4:04 to go.

Russell closed to within 66-59 on a foul shot by Brad Kifer with 1:41 left, but Ironton converted 8-of-12 from the line the rest of the way to clinch the road win.

Ironton was 12-of-17 at the line the fourth quarter. All 19 attempts came in the second half.