Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

PEDRO — It didn’t take an entire game to determine the dominant team. In fact, it only took a matter of minutes.

The Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers raced to a 13-0 lead to start the game and scored 32 first quarter points to take a 32-2 lead.

It got only worse when Lexie Barrier hit a 15-footer with 3:26 left in the half for a 52-2 lead and when the smoke cleared it was 61-8 at the break.

The end result? Unbeaten Ironton won the Division III sectional championship on Saturday 84-11 over the Portsmouth Lady Trojans.

“They were locked in. I thought we passed the ball well and shared the ball well. All the players did a great job,” said Ironton coach Doug Graham.

Ironton (23-0) played virtually flawless the first half. The Lady Tigers made 23-of-43 field goal attempts and the defense forced 27 turnovers.

Sydney Webb scored all 18 of her points in the half including four 3-pointers. Barrier had 12 of her 19 points in the half.

Portsmouth missed its first 17 field goal attempts. Semajah Parker’s layup off an inbounds pass with 12 seconds left in the half was the Lady Trojans first goal.

Portsmouth was 6-of-8 from the foul line in the half.

Ironton’s defense held Portsmouth to a meager three points in the second half. The Lady Trojans finished 2-of-37 from the field as they made just one basket in each half and they finished with 39 turnovers.

After Parker’s layup early in the third quarter, Ironton outscored Portsmouth 17-0 to close out the quarter as the lead ballooned to 79-10.

Besides Webb and Barrier, Alyssa Lewis scored 12 points and Cheyenne Scott had 11 points. Webb had a big all-around game with six assists, five rebounds and five steals while Barrier had eight rebounds, five steals and three assists.

Ironton will play Chillicothe Huntington in the district tournament on Monday, Feb. 22, at 6:15 p.m. in the Waverly downtown arena.

Portsmouth 2 6 2 1 = 11

Ironton 32 29 18 5 = 84

PORTSMOUTH (5-17): Kylisha Karns 0 0 0-0 0, Faythe Lee 0 0 0-0 0, Wesleigh Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Sharia Kearns 0 0 3-4 3, Jasmine Ely 0 0 3-4 3, Shai Howard 0 0 0-0 0, Destiny McKenzie 0 0 0-0 0, Cortney Scarberry 0 0 0-0 0, Semajah Parker 2 0 1-2 5. Totals: 2-37 7-10 11. 3-point goals: 0-12. Rebounds: 12-O, 17-D = 29 (Parker 9, K. Kearns 6). Team rebounds: 2. Assists: 2. Steals: 4 (Eley 2). Turnovers: 39. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON (23-0): Jordan Hannan 3 0 1-2 7, Lexie Wise 3 0 1-2 7, Lexie Barrier 8 0 3-4 19, Sydney Webb 3 4 0-0 18, Cheyenne Scott 4 1 0-2 11, D’Laynie Keith 0 0 2-2 2, Zakia Lee 3 0 0-0 6, Alyssa Lewis 1 2 4-4 12, Haylee Stevens 0 0 0-0 0, Kaylin Easterling 1 0 0-0 2, Katie Boyer 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 33-75 11-1 87 3-point goals: 7-21. Rebounds: 28-O, 24-D = 52 (Wise 8, Barrier 8, Keith 7). Team rebounds: 7. Assists: 14 (Webb 6, Barrier 3). Steals: 21 (Barrier 5, Webb 5, Wise 5). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 8. Fouled out: None.