Tigers showcase offense in win over Jeeps

IRONTON — Brycen Mullins made six more three-pointers on Saturday night. 

Ashton Layne, and the remainder of the Fighting Tigers in the proper Christmas spirit, lent a helping hand. 

As a result, and spearheaded by 11 total triples and 27 first-period points, Ironton's boys’ basketball team amassed its fourth victory in as many tries — and all in five nights in its season-opening week.

The Fighting Tigers trailed nary against the previously-undefeated South Webster Jeeps, opened up a first-half lead as large as 22, and withstood a furious third-quarter Jeeps rally to win 64-46 in the annual Ironton Classic — in Saturday's showcase game inside Ironton High School's Conley Center.

The Fighting Tigers raised their perfect record to 4-0 — with all four triumphs spanning five days during the middle week of December. 

Ironton opened with a non-league comeback win at Minford on Tuesday night, prior to three runaway wins in three consecutive nights after that —at South Point in the Ohio Valley Conference opener, before another non-league win over Waterford on Friday night on the opening night of The Classic.

But the win over the Jeeps, which fell for the first time in six games, might have been the most important to first-year Ironton head coach Drew Stevens. 

"I'm really proud of the effort. We knew South Webster is a great basketball team and very well-coached. (South Webster third-year head coach) Norm (Persin) is always going to have his teams ready to play. We talked through the week with this being our fourth game, when we start making shots and mix that with our defense, we're where we need to be," said Stevens, in his postgame media interview. "I am pretty pleased with that. Energy was high tonight. Eleven threes, that's amazing. I didn't know that stat. That makes me very happy."

The Jeeps are coached by the legendary Norm Persin, who is Ohio's all-time active wins leader for boys basketball coaching career victories with now 828.

Three more wins will tie Persin with the retired Joe Petrocelli (831 wins), as the late Richard Kortokrax is the state's all-time coaching career wins leader with 890.

But the Fighting Tigers took turns tallying three-point goals, and thus denied Persin and the new-look Jeeps — the 2025 Division VII state semifinalists — the honest upset bid.

There was a 2-2 tie, the Jeeps made two free throws for a 5-4 deficit, but then Ironton opened the floodgates with 15 unanswered points — en route to leads of 27-10 following the first quarter and 40-16 in the second stanza for its largest.

The Jeeps — opening both halves in a 1-3-1 defense — closed the second quarter with a 7-3 run, then outscored Ironton 14-6 in the third frame, as the Fighting Tigers got somewhat sloppy with turnovers and missed shots.

In fact, South Webster was within nine at 46-37 with only 90 seconds left in the third. 

But the junior point man Mullins, who poured in 19 points with five three-pointers on Friday night, picked up from where he left off in the first half on Saturday night.

With 11 points on three threes in the first 16 minutes, Mullins made a three from the wing with 2:40 left in the third — followed by his fifth two minutes later, and his sixth and final trifecta just 53 seconds into the fourth.

That made it 52-37, as Layne drove the lane for the next field goal — and the Jeeps never got closer than 54-40 the remainder of the way.

The Fighting Tigers took the fourth quarter 15-9.

"In the first half, we shot the ball well. We were moving the ball, it was touching two or three people's hands before we shot the shot that we wanted. In the second half, we started shooting some quick threes. And when they were scoring, it was tough for us to get into our press. Again, our defense is our best offense. When they are missing, we're catching and we're in transition. When they're scoring, they were getting back, setting up in the 1-3-1 and we became stagnant," said Stevens. "We had some guys hit some big shots tonight."

Mullins was the marksman for a second straight night, knocking down six threes and once again topping all scorers with 20 points. 

His lone deuce came in the first quarter to make it 15-4 — the first field goal following a Jeep timeout.

Layne, with six twos and 5-of-7 free throws including 4-of-4 in the opening quarter, followed suit with 17 points —as Stephen Ison's two twos and two threes, all in the opening half, tacked on 10.

Maddix Markel scored seven points and Carson Freeman six — as both of Freeman's field goals were threes.

Markel made one three and two twos, as he was named Ironton's Most Valuable Player for the game.

Zayne Williams in the first quarter and Kayden Edwards in the second rounded out the Fighting Tigers' scoring.

South Webster made just two threes — both by senior Hunter Barnard — who paced the Jeeps with 16 points.

Fellow senior Brycin McClintic tied Barnard with five two-pointers towards 12 points, as Easton Large landed five twos towards 10.

The Jeeps' best quarter was the third — when they scored 14 and opened with nine unanswered.

But Ironton won three frames, and put the Jeep rally to rest in the fourth. 

"It's like Russian roulette sometimes. Sometimes we're going to look really good and other times, we're going to look really bad. Hopefully, we look good many more times than we do bad," said Stevens. 

The Fighting Tigers looked good on Saturday night for sure, as they returned to action on Tuesday night (Dec. 23) — and a huge early-season Ohio Valley Conference clash against visiting Chesapeake.

The Panthers were also 4-0 and 1-0 in the OVC entering Tuesday's tilt. 

Ironton then travels to and faces Fairland on Saturday night in an OVC makeup matchup.

South Webster 10   13   14     9  =  46

Ironton        27   16     6   15  =  64

SOUTH WEBSTER (5-1):

Pierce Kreischer 0 0 0-0 0, Hunter Barnard 5 2 0-0 16, Cole Bennett 0 0 1-2 1, Kaden Perkins 0 0 0-0 0, Brayden Barnard 2 0 1-5 5, Brigham Burton 0 0 0-0 0, Jaheim Froe 1 0 0-0 2, Brycin McClintic 5 0 2-2 12, Caden Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Easton Large 5 0 0-0 10; TOTALS: 18 2 4-9 46; Fouls: 12; Fouled out: None

IRONTON (4-0):

Wyatt Wolfe 0 0 0-0 0, Maddix Markel 2 1 0-0 7, Carson Blankenship 0 0 0-0 0, Ashton Layne 6 0 5-7 17, Brycen Mullins 1 6 0-0 20, Carson Freeman 0 2 0-0 6, Kayden Edwards 1 0 0-0 2, Brian Kidd 0 0 0-0 0, Stephen Ison 2 2 0-0 10, Zayne Williams 1 0 0-0 2, Dawson Philyaw 0 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 11 5-7 64. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None