By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The reason the Ironton Fighting Tigers lost in overtime to the Hurricane Redskins is as simple as one, two, three.

One, two, three factors.

Those factors enabled the Hurricane Redskins to edge Ironton 68-61 in the14th Ironton Classic on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to cut down on our turnovers. We had 14 and that’s uncharacteristic of us,” said Ironton coach Chris Barnes. “The difference tonight was our turnovers, their rebounding, and (Mondrell) Dean.”

Ironton had 14 turnovers, Hurricane out rebounded Ironton 31-24 including 10-5 on the offensive glass, and Mondrell Dean scored 25 points.

The lead changed hands three times early the first quarter before Ironton went up 10-9 on a pair of free throws by Braden Schreck at the 3:03 mark. The lead was 19-15 at the end of the quarter after a putback by Dean.

The Fighting Tigers (2-1) opened up a 32-19 lead on a 3-point play by Schreck for their biggest lead of the game. But a 3-pointer by Brayden Whittington before the end of the half got Hurricane within 32-25.

Ironton lead 34-33  with 4:57 left in the third quarter when Whittington made another 3-pointer to give the Redskins a 35-34 lead.

Ironton tied the game at 48 and 50 but Hurricane went up 55-50 when Dean followed up his own miss.

Schreck hit a for shot, Shaun Terry converted two free throws and a steal by Landen Wilson results in a layup by Lincoln Barnes and Ironton tied the game with less than a minute to play.

Dean sank two free throws with 20 seconds left in regulation but Terry made two clutch shots of his own with 4 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Ironton went up 61-59 on a 13-footer by Schreck, but two costly turnovers followed and Hurricane capitalized by going on a 9-0 run to end the game.

“We got careless and had two bad turnovers in overtime that hurt us,” said Barnes.

“But even before that they hurt us on the glass and we couldn’t stop Dean. We battled to get the game into overtime but I can’t complain. We played hard and didn’t quit but (Hurricane) deserved to win.”

Schreck was the game MVP for Ironton with 23 points. Terry had 14 points and Ethan White grabbed 10 rebounds.

Whittington had 13 points and Murrell 11 for Hurricane (4-3).

Ironton faces Russell at 8 p.m. Thursday in the final game of The Classic.

Hurricane 15 10 16 16 11 = 68

Ironton     19 13 6 19 4 = 61

HURRICANE (4-3): Mondrell Dean 8 1 6-10 25, Jackson Clark 4 0 0-1 8, Brayden Whittington 2 3 0-0 13, Bryson Murrell 5 0 1-8 11, Peyton Taylor 3 0 0-0 6, Carter Richmond 1 0 0-0 2, Carson O’Dell 0 0 3-4 3, Weston Smith 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-57 10-23 68. 3-pt goals: 4-13. Rebounds: 10-O, 21-D = 31. Assists: 6. Steals: 10. Blocks: 2. Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: Taylor (2:26 OT).

IRONTON (2-1): Lincoln Barnes 2 0 0-0 4, Shaun Terry 2 2 4-4 14, Landen Wilson 0 2 1-1 7, Braden Schreck 8 1 4-5 23, Ethan White 1 1 2-4 7, Amari Felder 0 0 0-0 0, Tayden Carpenter 0 2 0-0 6, Bryce Markins 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-52 11-14 61. 3-pt goals: 8-20. Rebounds: 5-O, 19-D = 24 (White 10, Terry 7). Assists: 12 (Terry 6). Steals: 6 (Wilson 3). Blocks: 2 (White 2). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None.