By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
For Coach Bernie Cropper and his West Union Lady Dragons, it must have seemed like they were getting pounded by more artillery than General Pickett and his Confederate troops at Gettysburg. Playing as the host team in a first round Division III sectional tournament game, the Lady Dragons fell victim to a hot-shooting squad of Ironton Lady Tigers who came to town and fired away, nailing their target 10 times from beyond the three-point arc as they ended the season of the Lady Dragons, handing them a convincing 55-21 defeat.
The tone of the February 15 contest was set right away as the Lady Tigers scored the game;s first eight points, six of those coming on back-to-back three point goals by Kirsten Williams and Teegan Carpenter. It was over four minutes into the game before the Lady Dragons got on the board on a drive and score by Ashlah Staten. Staten followed that up with another bucket to cut the Ironton lead to four, but a drive and score by point guard Evan Williams gave the visitors a 10-4 advantage after one.
A pair of Staten free throws opened the scoring in the second stanza as the home team stayed close and the West Union defense kept the Lady Tigers temporarily at bay. Two more Staten free throws at the 4:45 mark made it 12-8, but then the Ironton offense found its life again and finished the first half on an 11-2 run, aided by Lady Dragon turnovers, and at the intermission, the Lady Tigers had their lead out to double digits at 23-10.
Ironton opened the second half with a three-ball, but the home team stayed within striking extended distance on baskets by Nina McCann and Olivia Lewis, only to see the Lady Tigers answer with a triple from Isabel Morgan that made it 31-14. West Union again showed signs of a rally with consecutive baskets from Emmy Stapleton and Staten but a steal and score from Carpenter gave the guest a comfortable 33-18 lead as the third quarter closed.
Any thoughts that the West Union squad had of a miracle comeback were quickly dashed in the fourth quarter when the Lady Tigers simply went “bombs away” from long distance, nailing six three-pointers over the eight-minute span to literally blow the contest wide open. All the offense the Lady Dragons could muster in the final period was a basket from Staten and a free throw from Kenzie Stout as they saw their 2022-23 campaign come to a bitter end, falling to the Lady Tigers by that final count of 55-21.
The victorious Lady Tigers were led by 12 points from Isabel Morgan with Evan Williams adding 11. Ashlah Staten led the Lady Dragons with 12.
With the loss, the Lady Dragons closed the season with an overall record of 6-17 in Coach Cropper’s second year as the West Union head coach. West Union can be considered a young squad as they only lose one senior, Payton Stapleton and will return their leading scorer, Ashlah Staten, who averaged 11.5 points a game.
Ironton
10 13 10 22 —55
West Union
4 6 8 3— 21
Ironton (55): Deer 1 0-0 2, Martin 4 0-0 9, E. Williams 5 1-1 11, Carpenter 3 0-0 8, K. Williams 3 0-0 8, Henderson 1 0-0 2, Morgan 4 0-0 12, White 1 0-0 3, Team 21 1-1 55.
W. Union (21): E. Stapleton 2 0-0 4, Staten 4 4-5 12, McCann 1 0-0 2, Lewis 1 0-0 2, Stout 0 1-2 1, Team 8 5-7 21.
Three-Point Goals:
Ironton (10)- Martin 1, Carpenter 2, K. Williams 2, Morgan 4, White 1