Prayer: Dear God, I pray for patience and I want it right now.

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Prayer: Dear God, I pray for patience and I want it right now.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers prayer for patience appears to have been answered. Ironton used a patience shot selection and unselfish play Tuesday to down the South Point Pointers 70-53.

Picking their shots, Ironton was 26-of-55 from the floor for 47 percent en route to its second win in as many games.

"The difference was our offensive patience. We’re moving the ball and we’re passing the ball better and getting better shots," Ironton coach Chris Barnes said.

"We played good defense and we’re getting balance on offense. We’ve hit about 50 percent our first two games, and we didn’t shot over 40 but a couple of times last year."

Isaac Hannon had 21 points to lead a balanced offense. Josh Harmon had 14 points, Chris Haney 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Chris Frazer came off the bench to score 13.

"We’re coming together. No one is being selfish," Harmon said. "We just came out and played hard from the start, we were hitting our shots and that got our confidence up. We knew South Point had a good team and that we had to play well."

South Point, 1-2, was led by Shane Holsinger with 17 points. Bryan Maggard had 14 points and six rebounds, and Jarred Perdue grabbed nine rebounds.

Pointers coach Mark Lafon was visibly upset with his team’s play.

‘Offensively we played as a bunch of individuals and not as a team, and we didn’t get back on defense," Lafon said. "But I don’t want to take anything away from Ironton. They hit their shots and ran their offense. They played well."

With Hannon and Haney each hitting three field goals the first quarter, Ironton jumped in front 21-9. Hannon’s 18-footer with three seconds left created more momentum going into the second quarter.

Harmon scored six points the second quarter and Frazer came off the bench to hit two more shots as the lead went to 37-25. Hannon made another shot with three seconds left – this one from 3-point range – and the lead was 40-25 at the break.

The lead was 57-36 after three quarters and when Harmon hit a 10-footer to start the fourth quarter, Ironton held its biggest lead at 23 points, 59-36.

Frazer was 4-of-6 from the line down the stretch and the Pointers could get no closer than 66-50 on a 3-pointer by Holsinger who had seven points in the quarter.