Chance Short
chance.short@irontontribune.com

CHESAPEAKE — The Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers put on a clinic of half-court offense in the second quarter against the Chesapeake Lady Panthers in their 51-42 victory on Thursday night.
Ironton (6-5, 5-4) took an early 8-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter, but superb defense and excellent ball rotation led to a lopsided first half.
The lady Fighting Tigers worked the ball around against the Panther zone defense to find good open shots and Evan Williams capitalized on her opportunities. Williams scored 9 points in the quarter to help outscore Chesapeake 16-3 in the second.
Chesapeake (9-4, 6-3) had trouble finding the rim in the second quarter only scoring 3 points on a long ball from Brooklyn McComas. The Lady Panthers found themselves down big at the half trailing 24-10.
“We had really good practices this week,” said Ironton head coach Doug Graham.
“We have repped our sets probably 250 times. It’s not fluent yet, but they are starting to get them. They executed those plays and finished some open looks. I can only give X and O’s. The girls have to go out and make shots and make reads and they did that tonight.”
Isabel Morgan and Lilly Zornes opened up the second half with 3-pointers to extend the Ironton lead and force a timeout by Chesapeake. Zornes would go down with a knee injury shortly after and not return.
The Lady Panthers took back some momentum with a pair of triples from Ashlee Conley after the timeout. Emily Duncan added 6 points in the quarter as well to shrink the Lady Fighting Tiger lead to 33-24.
The two teams shot it even in the final quarter and good free throw shooting from Ironton secured the win. They shot 11-of-18 from the charity stripe and finished with three players in double digits.
Evan and Kirsten Williams scored 14 points apiece while Morgan tallied 12 points.
Duncan led the Panthers with 16 points and Maddie Ward totaled 9 points.
Next Thursday, Ironton travels to South Point and Chesapeake will host Coal Grove.
Ironton 8 16 9 18 = 51
Chesapeake 7 3 14 8 = 42
IRONTON (6-5, 5-4): Mary Lackey 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Chasity Cecil 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Lilly Zornes 2-3 2-2 0-0 6, Teegan Carpenter 1-1 0-0 3-6 5, Katelyn Cecil 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Kirsten Williams 2-5 2-4 6-7 12, Isabel Morgan 3-7 2-3 4-8 16, Evan Williams 4-7 0-0 8-10 12. Totals: 12-33 21-31 51. 3-pt goals: 6-9. Rebounds: 18 (Carpenter 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 6. Steals: 4 (E. Williams 2). Blocks: Lackey 1. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.
CHESAPEAKE (9-4, 6-3): Kandace Pauley 0-2 0-0 0-0 0, Brooke Anderson 1-3 0-2 4-6 6, Maddie Ward 3-11 1-4 2-3 9, Emily Duncan 7-14 1-2 1-3 16, Ashlee Conley 3-6 2-4 0-0 8. Totals: 20-52 7-12 42. 3-pt goals: 5-13. Rebounds: 28 (Duncan 9). Team/deadball rebounds: 7. Steals: 3 (Anderson 2). Blocks: None. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: Anderson.