By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

If the Ironton Fighting Tigers’ season is going to be a rollercoaster, it might be called the beast.

And for various reasons.

At times, Ironton can play like a beast. At other times, their play brings out the beast in head coach Mark LaFon.

“It was a win,” said LaFon after Ironton beat the Campbell Memorial Red Devils 57-40 Wednesday in the second day of the third annual Ironton Classic.

“There were times we played well as a team and times we rebounded really well. But there were times when we didn’t run out offense, we didn’t play defense and there were times we just stopped blocking out. We’ve got to get consistent.”

Trey Fletcher had 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds as Ironton (5-1) bounced back from an 83-65 loss to Cincinnati Taft the night before. Zac Carter also had 18 points while Malcolm Morton added nine points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Dwaylon Letlo had 16 points and six rebounds for Campbell Memorial (5-3).

After Claxton LeBron hit a 3-pointer to start the game and put the Red Devils up, Ironton used a trey by Carter to ignite a 13-0 run and it was 17-5 with 1:03 on the clock. A 3-point play by Letlo made it 17-8 to end the quarter.

The Fighting Tigers opened up a 26-8 lead after and 18-footer by Fletcher and a layup by Nick Culbertson midway through the second quarter.

The Red Devils scored eight straight to cut the deficit to 28-18 before Morton drained a trifecta at the buzzer and it was 31-18 at the break.

The rollercoaster continued as Ironton went up 38-20 on a baseline jumper by Carter at the 5:06 mark.

A 6-0 scoring spurt got Campbell within 42-28 only to have Carter hit a 15-footer and Morton’s steal and layup pushed the lead to 46-28 at the end of the quarter.

“We got in that mode where we just wanted to get back on offense so we could score and we just stood around on defense,” said LaFon.

Ironton switched from the rollercoaster to the monorail in the fourth quarter by keeping the lead between 17 to 21 points. Fletcher had five of his points in the quarter.

The Fighting Tigers were 23 of 51 from the field for 45 percent and limited the Red Devils to 17 of 59 for 29 percent including a mere 2 of 17 from behind the arc.

Campbell 8 10 10 12 = 40

Ironton 17 14 15 11 = 57

CAMPBELL MEMORIAL (5-3): Claxton LeBron 0 1 0-0 3, Dwaylon Letlo 7 0 2-2 16, Ty Underwood 2 0 0-0 4, Lester Hughes 4 0 0-0 8, Jose Martinez 0 0 0-1 0, Anthony Naze 2 1 0-0 7, Devin Johnson 0 0 2-2 2. Totals: 17-59 4-5 40. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 2-17. Rebounds: 15 offense, 15 defense = 30 (Letlo 6, Hughes 6, Underwood 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 1. Assists: 2. Steals: 9 (Underwood 4). Turnovers: 13.

IRONTON (5-1): Malcolm Morton 3 1 0-0 9, Travis Elliott 1 0 0-2 2, Zac Carter 4 2 4-5 18, Josh Murphy 1 0 2-2 4, Trey Fletcher 8 0 2-4 18, Josh Glover 1 0 0-0 2, Nick Culbertson 2 0 0-0 4, Nolan Johnson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-51 8-13 57. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 3-7. Rebounds: 12 offense, 25 defense = 37 (Fletcher 13, Morton 8, Culbertson 5, Elliott 4). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 9 (Elliott 4, Carter 3). Steals: 7 (Morton 3). Turnovers: 14.