When a team is complimented by another team by saying 'we showed we could compete with them' in regards to it's superior skill after it had just beaten the complimenting team for the second time, it could give that team a sense of pride. Machismo, even.They were and are viewed as a benchmark for that other team to measure themselves against.
That is exactly what Russell experienced after beating Greenup County last week. This week, Ironton just made them a mark.
Russell treveresed the world's scariest bridge, and visited their neighbor to the north in Ohio Tuesday night, and the Fighting Tigers gave them a devil of a time.
Ironton came out quick and strong, opening on a 8-2 run which quickly balooned to a 20-8 lead, and applied unrelenting defensive preassure to coast to a 76-45 blowout. Irontont gave Russell star Kyle Skaggs fits all night with their 'D', where he had to put up shots he may not have wanted. Skaggs finished with 21 points, but had to work for them against the Tigers' tenacity shooting 7 for 20 from the field.
Ironton limited Russell to only 32 attempts at the bucket, and forced 17 turnovers, of which was 14 take-aways.
Ironton's Zac Carter had 20 of his 22 in the first half, which should be a good indication of how the rest of the night went for the Red Devils. Kyle Skaggs was held in check, and was not able to go-off in the second half, like we have grown accustomed to him doing.
Trey Fletcher also finished with 20 points and 6 rebounds for the Tigers, which included a late game, crowd pleasing dunk.
Other Ohio tid-bits:
The other school that resides in Ironton, St. Joe's Central Catholic, gave those in attendance for their game against Wellston plenty of excitement.
Of the nerve-racking kind.
Flyers' senior Justin Mahlmeister had a flair the dramatic Tuesday night, and did his best weather man impression. Kid was making it rain. Mahlmeister connected from behind the arc 8 times, in route to his 41 point scoring outburst. However, none of the points were as dramatic as the last 3.
With the game in the hands of the Golden Rockets, with a 2 point lead of 65-63, it looked as if they were were going to pull it off and hold on for the 'W'. Mahlmeister, though, took it right out of their hands.
With the buzzer going off, Mahlmeister drained a long-distance three as time expired to give the Flyers a 66-65 win. Mahlmeister also finished with 2 blocks, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists.
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