It’s called playing the hand your dealt. And the Ironton Fighting Tigers proved to be no card sharks.

With the varsity players at home with the flu, Ironton coach Mark LaFon took his eight-man freshman team and three junior varsity players to face the Marietta Tigers Saturday in the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League Day of Champions game for third place.

The experience and maturity of Marietta proved to be too strong for the young Fighting Tigers who lost 72-46 despite a gallant effort.

“They played hard. They tried to do all the things right fundamentally and they didn’t back down, but Marietta was just too good and too physical for us,” said LaFon.

Marietta won the earlier meeting between the two teams in the final seconds, 57-55.

J.P. Taylor led the Fighting Tigers (14-6) with 17 points including three trifectas and he also grabbed 13 rebounds. Michael Lawless added eight points and two steals while Josh Murphy grabbed four rebounds.

Anthony Tabler had a game-high 23 points for Marietta (15-5). Chris Stollar scored 12 points.

Ironton fell behind 24-9 after the first quarter and could never recover. The Fighting Tigers had just seven points in the second quarter as the spread increased to 35-16.

Marietta pulled away to a 58-33 lead after three quarters and coasted to the win.

The Fighting Tigers will play Crooksville at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday in the Division III sectional tournament at Jackson.

Ironton 9 7 17 13 = 46

Marietta 24 11 23 14 = 72

IRONTON (14-6): Michael Lawless 2 1 1-2 8, Skyler Fields 1 0 0-0 2, Jake Rawlins 1 0 0-0 2, Cody Jones 0 0 1-2 1, Mason Weisgarber 0 0 0-0 0, J.P. Taylor 4 3 0-0 17, Nolan Johnson 1 0 0-0 2, Josh Murphy 2 0 0-0 4, Wayne Evans 3 0 0-0 6, John Spencer 0 0 1-2 1, Tyler Kratzenberg 0 1 0-0 3. Totals: 19-56 3-6 46. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 5-17. Rebounds: 12-19=31 (Taylor 13, Murphy 4). Assists: 7 (Taylor 2, Evans 2). Steals: 8 (Taylor 3, Lawless 2). Turnovers: 26.

MARIETTA (15-5): Evan Brockmeirer 1 0 1-2 3, Anthony Tabler 6 3 2-4 23, Andy Arnold 2 0 1-2 5, Chris Stollar 4 0 4-5 12, Zane Eschbaugh 2 0 0-1 4, Perry Wheeler 4 0 0-1 8, Morgan Wynn 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Arnold 2 0 0-0 4, Keith Schwendemen 0 0 0-1 0, Connor Hess 1 0 2-5 5, Tyler Davis 2 0 2-2 6, Cory Kriechbaum 0 0 0-0 0, Kevin Riley 0 1 0-0 3. Totals: 28-55 12-23 72. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 4-15. Rebounds: 6-17=23 (Stollar 4). Assists: 12 (Wheeler 4). Steals: 13 (Eschbaugh 4, Tabler 3). Turnovers: 13.