As the turnovers mounted, the lead shrunk.

Wednesday, December 05, 2001

As the turnovers mounted, the lead shrunk. Finally, they both stopped. The Ironton Fighting Tigers, guilty of 28 turnovers, saw their 16-point lead evaporate until it was just three. But some clutch scoring by Josh Sands and Andrew Harvey down the stretch helped preserve a 65-60 win over the Fairland Dragons Tuesday in the season opener for both teams.

"We made too many mistakes. We really missed Drew Mains," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said of his injured senior point guard. "There was one time I think we had five sophomores out there. But we can’t make excuses. This is what we’ve got and we have to be smarter and do a better job of taking care of the basketball.

"But give our guys credit. Fairland didn’t quit and came back and our guys made some big plays when they had to."

Sands, a sophomore, finished with 23 points including three key baskets over the final two minutes. Harvey sank four crucial foul shots during the same span.

Chris Dinwiddie, who led all scorers with 27 points, made a layup with 7:07 to play that got Fairland within 50-47. But Harvey sank two free throws with 1:53 to play that put Ironton on top 59-53.

Sands hit back-to-back shots to extend the lead to 63-53 with 1:20 left, but Dinwiddie buried a 3-pointer and two straight layups and it was 63-60 with just 38 seconds remaining.

Harvey converted both ends of a one-and-one with 24 seconds on the clock to ice the win.

"Our kids never quit. We just ran out of time," Fairland first-year coach John McClung said. "I wondered all day how we’d start the game because it’s tough to play here. If you throw out the first quarter, we win the game."

Fairland was a dismal 3-of-16 from the field the first quarter as Ironton took a 16-8 lead. Sands scored the first nine points of the game before the Dragons finally scored at the 5:07 mark on a layup by Dinwiddie.

The Fighting Tigers went ahead 29-13 on a 3-point play by Tommy Lutz with 4:21 left in the half. Ironton was up 36-23 at the break.

Harvey’s layup early in the second half had the lead at 40-24 when Fairland got within 50-42 at the end of the quarter. The comeback continued when Michael Hill hit a 3-pointer to begin the fourth quarter and Dinwiddie’s layup had Fairland down just 50-47.

Fairland 8 15 19 18 – 60

Ironton 16 20 14 15 – 65

FAIRLAND (0-1): Darren Colburn 3-10 (0-0) 0-1 6, Dru Brooks 3-10 (1-5) 0-0 7, Chris Dinwiddie 10-24 (1-5) 6-11 27, Brad Taliaferro 3-6 (1-3) 0-0 7, Michael Hill 3-9 (1-4) 2-3 9, Ryan White 0-1 (0-1) 1-2 1, Sean McDaniel 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Matt Clark 1-2 (0-0) 0-0 2. Totals: 23-71 (4-18) 9-17 60. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Brooks (0:16 4th), Colburn (0:01, 4th). Rebounds: 24 (Colburn 10, Brooks 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 6. Assists: 3 (Brooks 2). Steals: 14 (Dinwiddie 10). Turnovers: 18. FG = 37.7 . FT% = 52.9. 3pt% = 22.2.

IRONTON (1-0): Josh Sands 10-20 (0-3) 3-6 23, Andrew Harvey 2-3 (0-0) 4-4 8, Andy Brown 3-4 (3-3) 0-0 9, Derique Bacon 4-5 (0-0) 0-3 8, Tommy Lutz 4-5 (0-0) 1-3 9, Aaron Quinn 1-3 (1-2) 0-0 3, Kevin Williams 2-5 (1-1) 0-2 5, Craig Lewis 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Ben Murphy 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Matt White 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 25-45 (5-9) 8-18 65. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 35 (Bacon 9, Lutz 6, Williams 5, Quinn 5). Assists: 8 (Williams 3, Quinn 2). Steals: 8 (Sands 3, Harvey 2). Turnovers: 28. FG% = 55.6. FT% = 44.4. 3pt% = 55.6.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Ironton 64, Fairland 22. Ironton: Matt White 11, Marcus Williams 11, Craig Lewis 10, A. J. McKnight 8; Fairland: Matt Pritt 7.