By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

Feelings don’t matter when you win.

Ironton coach Chris Barnes wasn’t in a celebratory mood despite the Fighting Tigers 68-61 win over the Symmes Valley Vikings on Tuesday. But regardless of his feelings and his team performance, this game fell under the “ugly wins are better than pretty losses.

“Very disappointing effort is how I would put it. That’s on all of us including me. We’re going to fix that (Wednesday),” said Barnes.

“We won’t win another game the rest of the year if we show that kind of effort. We’re good enough to beat anyone we play, we were also capable of losing to anybody we play. And the Smith kid for Symmes Valley can play.”

Ironton, now 13-6, trailed the Vikings who are now 7-13, heading into the fourth quarter.

But behind the scoring of Shaun Terry and Braden Schreck, Ironton was able to rally for the win. Terry scored 24 points with 13 coming in the fourth quarter as he made three of his six 3-pointers. Schreck had 6 points in the quarter including 4-of-5 at the foul line.

“With all that said, I’m glad we won and we gutted it out when we had to and found a way to win. Free throw shooting was better except right at the end,” said Barnes.

“But congratulations to the seniors. This is a great senior group and I’m happy for them. And our two sophomore Shaun and Braden played well.”

Schreck finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Ethan White also had 8 rebounds, Terry got 7, Lincoln Barnes 6 and Landen Wilson 5.

Symmes Valley’s Ethan Smith scored 20 points and Aydan Taylor came off the bench and went 4-for-4 from behind the arc for 12 points.

Since it was senior night, Ironton started Tayden Carpenter, Amari Felder,  Barnes, Wilson and White — all seniors — with Terry and Schreck coming off the bench for the first time this season.

“Any time you have festivities it seems like you’re out of focus,” said Barnes. “That’s not our lineup we’ve used all year. Terry and Braden played great, but it took them a while to get going.

“Some guys cane make a career coming off the bench and some guys just can’t do it. It threw us off our game and we were discombobulated the whole night.”

Tayden Carpenter is the grandson of Vikings’ head coach Alvin Carpenter. The game was scheduled so they could go against each other.

“I told Tayden I hope he has a great game, but we’re coming to beat you,” Alvin Carpenter said before the game.

And the Vikings came hard.

Tayden Carpenter hit a free throw for the first point of the game and Ironton took an early 14-6 lead before a 3-pointer by Taylor tied the game at 19-all to end the first quarter.

Terry had a steal and layup to start the second quarter but Taylor hit another 3-pointer and the Vikings had their first lead.

Schreck’s putback had Ironton up 30-26 but Smith converted a 3-point play, Levi Ross made a foul shot and Smith had two straight layups to put the Vikings up 34-30.

Wilson answered with a pair of layups of his own as Ironton tied the game at 34 heading into halftime.

Smith put the Vikings up with a 15-foot to begin the second half only to have Schreck score twice as Ironton regained the lead.

But the Vikings pulled away to a 47-43 lead on a basket by Will Jones only to have Terry drill a 3-pointer just before the buzzer and it was 47-46.

Scheck had two free throws and Taylor a 3-pointer and the Vikings were up 50-48.

But Terry buried two straight trifectas and it was 53-50. Smith hit his now trey to tie the game but Terry had another 3-pointer and then a steal and layup as Ironton took the lead for good.

A layup by Carpenter and two free throws by Schreck gave Ironton its biggest lead at 65-56 with 2:42 to play.

Sym. Valley    19 15 13 14 = 61

Ironton     19 15 12 22 = 68

SYMMES VALLEY (7-13): Levi Ross 1 0 2-4 4, Levi Corn 2 1 0-0 7, Logan Simpkins 1 1 0-0 5 Aleck Beckett 2 0 1-2 5, Ethan Smith 8 1 1-1 20, Will Jones 3 0 0-0 6, Jacob Cade 0 0 2-2 2, Aydan Taylor 0 4 0-0 12. Totals: 24-56 6-9 61. 3-pt goals: 7-19. Rebounds: 10-O, 22-D = 32 (Beckett 6, Smith 5, Simpkins 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 10. Assists: 6. Steals: 3. Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON (13-6): Lincoln Barnes 2 0 1-4 5, Landen Wilson 3 2 0-1 12, Ethan White 2 00-0 4, Amari Felder 0 0 0-0 0, Tayden Carpenter 1 1 1-2 6, Shaun Terry 3 6 0-1 24, Braden Schreck 5 0 7-9 17, Bryce Martins 0 0 0-0 0, Tyler Roach 0 0 0-0 0, Markel Cotton 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-57 9-17 68. 3-pt goals: 9-27. Rebounds: 14-O, 23-D = 37 (White 8, Barnes 6, Schreck 8, Terry 7, Wilson 5). Assists: 15 (Schreck 7, Wilson 3). Steals: 4 (Terry 2). Turnovers: 5. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.