By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The Ironton Fighting Tigers had to be a zone. Braden Schreck was in a zone.

Ironton scrapped its usual man-to-man defense for part of the game while Schreck managed to overcome a sore and swollen ankle to hit a career high six 3-point goals as the Fighting Tigers beat the Expression Prep Lions 70-57 on Friday.

Ironton coach Chris Barnes said the height and athleticism were factors in his defensive game plan.

“I saw (Expression Prep) on film and they were very athletic and they just got a new kid from England who returned on a Visa who is 7-foot-1 and he was a problem,” said Barnes.

“That’s probably the most zone I’ve run in 20 years. We ran zone basically the whole first half and switched to man in the second half.”

Schreck finished with 24 points to lead the Ironton offense. And also had 5 rebounds. Ashton Layne had 13 points, Markel Cotton 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals, and Judah Barnes7 assists, 2 steals and 3 rebounds.

The Lions (8-13) were led by Mitchel Cox with 24 points as he hit five 3-pointers.

Wilke Dickgeisser made a layup that put the Lions up 2-0. It proved to be their only lead of the game.

Schreck answered with a 3-pointer and Layne had back-to-back layups for a 7-2 lead.

Bryce Markins layup and a 3-pointer by Tyler Roach with under a minute to play gave Ironton a 19-7 first quarter lead.

The Lions came back to get within 27-22 after Rasheed Morrison hit a couple of 15-footers only to have Schreck answer with a trifecta and it was 30-22. Cox hit a long 3-pointer just before the buzzer and it was 30-25 at the break.

Schreck opened the second half with another bomb and later Markins and Schreck hit back-to-backc 3-pointers for a 41-26 lead.The Lions closed the gap to 51-41 on a pair of free throws by Agyemang only to have Schreck sink a foul shot and it was 52-41 at the end of the quarter.

Cox hit another long 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter. Barnes made a layup by Cox made yet another trey.

Cotton then made a layup and Schreck buried a 3-pointer and it was 59-50. Cox hit a triple but Maddix Markel made a layup and Layne slammed down a dunk for a 63-50 lead.

The Lions began to foul over the final two minutes of the game but Ironton converted 7 of 8 foul shots with Schreck making 5 of 6 and Layne both his attempts.

“Braden was actually running well in warm-ups and we got together with him and his dad (Tobey Schreck) who is a coach and trusted them to make the call,” said Barnes. “Braden has never missed a game in his career. He played really well and shot the ball great.”

Ironton plays Rock Hill at 2 p.m. on Saturday in a conference make-up game and will host Expression Prep again on Tuesday in the final regular season game.

Expression 7 18 15 17 = 57

Ironton. 19 13 20 18 = 70

EXPRESSION PREP (8-13): Mitchel Cox 1 5 7-8 24, Rasheed Morrison 4 0 2-4 10, Theo Agyemang 1 1 2-2 7, Mark Brown 0 0 0-0 0, Lamin Gassama 0 0 0-0 0, Wilke Dickgeisser 3 0 1-2 7, Dual Tharijiath 1 1 0-2 5, J. Ogbo 0 0 0-0 0, N. Wyld 1 0 2-4 4, Mel Sharp 0 0 0-0 0, Andrew Dotson 0 0 0-0 0, Kaiden West 0 0 0-0 0, P. Cox 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-52 16-23 57. 3-pt goals: 7-19. Rebounds 15-O 18-D = 33 (Agyemang 8, Cox 6). Assists: 6. Steals: 4. Blocks: 3. Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON (13-7): Ashton Layne 5 0 3-4 13, Bryce Markins 1 2 0-0 8, Judah Barnes 2 0 0-0 4, Markel Cotton 1 1 0-0 5, Braden Schreck 0 6 6-8 24, Tyler Roach 0 3 0-0 9, Carson Freeman 0 0 0-0 0, Maddix Markel 2 1 0-2 7. Totals: 24-48 9-14 70. 3-pt goals: 13-26. Rebounds: 4-O 19-D = 23 (Schreck 5, Cotton 5, Layne 4, Markel 3, Barnes 3). Assists: 19 (Barnes 7, Cotton 6, Layne 3). Steals: 6 (Cotton 3, Barnes 2). Blocks: 1 (Markel). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.