1/18 - Ironton 73 Portsmouth 56

[ohbuckeye2]

The Fighting Tigers Travel to Portsmouth to take on the Trojans, both coming off of tough losses, thoughts?

[trojandave]

The Fighting Tigers should be the favorite in this game; they have played better basketball overall this season than have the Trojans. This probably will be a half court game, which will certainly be in IHS's favor, given that Portsmouth has struggled offensively in half court basketball. If the Trojans can get the ball off the glass and run, that would improve their chances of a win.

[Moses Guthrie]

Will be great to see a healthy Charlie Large vs the Trojans. I know he has battled injuries throughout high school. Very happy to see him back to full strength and playing to his potential..
As far as the game goes, I'd like to see the Trojans work on a different game plan. Rather than relying on Fraulini to light it up for 30 why not continue to feed it inside to McKinley and Shipp to try to get Ironton in foul trouble.? The Tigers are similar to Portsmouth in that they are not super deep. Continue to work the inside and take it to the basket..
Go Trojans!!

[trojandave]

Moses Guthrie: What you said about working it inside makes sense, but if a team zones everyone else and face guards Fraulini, scoring is very difficult for the Trojans because of the lack of jump shots by the rest of the team. We will score some layups, of course, but we're not going to win the game with just layups. We need jump shots to offset tightly packed zones and right now other than Fraulini we don't have that component. I've seen this defensive gameplan by virtually every team, and especially against Coal Grove, Fairland, Gallia Academy, and Chesapeake. Against those 4 teams the opposing coaches game plan worked very well and led to victories all by double digits. Making a lot of turnovers makes running any type of offense even more difficult, and in almost every game PHS has made double digit turnovers, with a high of 28 vs.Chesapeake.

If Ironton plays us man, getting it inside may be easier but we still at some point have to make jump shots. The Trojans at this point of the season are what they are.......very limited offensively due to the lack of jump shooting and no real dominant post presence. Going back to the Gallia game, all 5 starters for GAHS were capable of scoring in various ways, including jump shooting. Being versatile offensively makes a player much harder to defend. We simply don't have that. The Trojans give themselves the best chance to win when they can beat teams up the court and use their athleticism.

Coach Collins is just handcuffed in what he can do offensively with this team, due to the lack of shooters. Defensively, he has tried to press full court, play man in the half court, trying to speed the game up, but offensively his options are very limited.

I wish I could be more optimistic about our Trojans, but the reality is that the offensive side of the basketball court will continue to be a challenge due to the reasons mentioned.

GO TROJANS!!

[Moses Guthrie]

I realize we are challenged offensively, that's why we have to attack the defense by drawing fouls, eventually evening the field.

[VetteMan]

The Fighting Tigers should be the favorite in this game; they have played better basketball overall this season than have the Trojans. This probably will be a half court game, which will certainly be in IHS's favor, given that Portsmouth has struggled offensively in half court basketball. If the Trojans can get the ball off the glass and run, that would improve their chances of a win.

I think you are right in that the Tigers have played a little better overall on the year than the Trojans. At times Ironton has been a little inconsistent themselves. Being that the Trojans are at home, I think that they will give one heck of an effort against a bitter rival, and that it just might be a very close game right to the final buzzer.

[biggdowgg]

We just struggle on offense as a whole in every aspect of the game not only do we not have good outside shooting other then Fraulini ,but we have one kid that has missed 40! Shots from 3 feet in ,and that was three games ago , if that don't drive a coach nuts I don't know what will.

But I'm a Trojan and always will be.

Beat the !!!

[ohbuckeye2]

End 1st QTR

Ironton ------ 24
Portsmouth - 12

[ohbuckeye2]

Halftime

Ironton ------ 33
Portsmouth - 29

[ohbuckeye2]

Scoring 1st Half

Wilson ---- 16
Large ------ 6
Carrico ---- 4
Grizzle ---- 3
A Barnes -- 2
Millison --- 2

Shipp ------ 10
Fraulini ---- 7
Lattimore - 6
McKinnley - 4
Davis ------- 2

[ohbuckeye2]

End 3rd QTR

Ironton ------ 48
Portsmouth - 39

[Flyers58]

Congrats to Ethan Wilson on scoring his 1000th point in his career with the Tigers........

[ohbuckeye2]

Final

Ironton ------ 73
Portsmouth - 56

[ohbuckeye2]

Scoring

Ironton

Wilson ----- 26 ---------- 1,000 Career Points
Large ------ 12
Grizzle ----- 11
Carrico ----- 8
A Barnes --- 8
Millison ---- 8

Portsmouth

Fraulini ---- 20
Lattimore - 18
Shipp ------ 10
McKinnley - 6
Davis ------- 2

[trojandave]

Congratulations to the Fighting Tigers on the win.......simply put, Ironton won the game because they have more offensively versatility than the Trojans......proud of my Trojans for fighting back from a 24-10 deficit, with a very good 2nd quarter, but the offense just wasn't consistent enough to keep pace with IHS. Congratulations to Ethan Wilson on scoring his 1,000 point.

[biggdowgg]

Congrats on the 1000 point club Mr. Wilson ,a great player