By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The keys in basketball are to play defense, hit some shots, don’t turn the ball over and rebound.

Oh, yeah. About that last one.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers were out-rebounded for the second straight night as they lost another tough game in the Ironton Classic by falling 53-47 to the Russell Red Devils on Thursday.

“We’re in these games. The turnovers was better, our offensive rebounding is okay, our defensive rebounding is a problem,” said Ironton coach Chris Barnes.

Ironton was out-rebounded 31-19 including 13-5 on the offensive glass.

Russell (8-3) got 18 points and 12 rebounds from Damon Charles while Caleb Rimmer had 13 points and 8 rebounds.

Ironton (2-2) was led by Ethan White — named the team’s game MVP — with 18 points and 10 rebounds. He also blocked 4 shots. Braden Schreck had 11 points 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Barnes said he was pleased with the effort and the play of the team when you consider they’ve had four games and just 10 practices coming off the football field.

“My guys are a little bit down. I tried to tell them that last week was back-to-back. This week is back-to-back. It’s not like we had four days a week to work on our backside (defense), let’s prepare for screens. We’re doing this on the fly,” said Barnes.

“We came here (Thursday) to watch film for 30 minutes. This is our third week. I told them these four games would be our scrimmages in November and now we should be ready to start our season.”

The games was tied 6 times and there were 9 lead changes. The final lead change came at the end of the third quarter on a layup by Rimmer that gave Russell the lead for good at 40-39.

The Red Devils went on a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter to lead 49-39. Shaun Terry made a layup with 1:21 left in the game for Ironton’s first points in the quarter.

Ironton will have to regroup quickly with Fairland visiting Tuesday and South Point next Friday.

“Now we have to right the ship. We have two big boys coming in here: Fairland and South Point back-to-back. Those games are huge,” said Barnes.

“I’m not going to slice it any other way than it is. If you want to compete for the league championship — and last year we played until the last day and had a chance to win it — you either have to split because every team has a lost, or win them both.”

Russell 15 10 15 13 = 53

Ironton 11 13 15 8 = 47

RUSSELL (8-3): Noah Quinn 0 0 0-0 0, Elijah Neel 1 2 0-1 8, Carson Blum 2 1 0-0 7, Tatum Fleming 0 0 0-0 0, Gavin Carter 2 1 0-0 7, Caleb Rimmer 6 0 1-2 13, Damon Charles 8 0 2-4 18, Zaylen Carter 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 4 3-7 53. 3-pt goals: 4-10. Rebounds: 13-O, 18-D = 31 (Charles 12, Rimmer 8). Assists: 11 (Terry 3, Schreck 2). Steals: 4. Blocks: 5 (White 4). Turnovers: 6. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON (4-3): Lincoln Barnes 1 0 0-0 2, Shaun Terry 2 1 0-0 7, Landen Wilson 0 1 0-0 3, Amari Felder 0 1 0-0 3, Braden Schreck 4 0 3-6 11, Ethan White 6 2 0-0 18, Hayden Carpenter 0 1 0-0 3. Totals: 19-44 3-6 47. 3-pt goals: 6-15. Rebounds: 5-O, 14-D = 19 (White 10, Schreck 6). Assists: 11 (Terry 3, Schreck 2). Steals: 4. Blocks: 5 (White 4). Fouls: 11. Fouled out: None.