On the last Friday of January, with a full moon rising in the eastern sky, the Washington Blue Lions welcomed the Jackson Ironmen to town for a Frontier Athletic Conference match-up.
Jackson won the game, 67-41.
The Ironmen are now 10-2 overall, 6-1 in the FAC.
The Blue Lions are 1-9 overall, 1-5 in the FAC.
Washington sophomore Tanner Lemaster led his team with 14 points, including one three-point field goal.
Senior Micai Claggett hit a pair of threes and finished with 10 points.
Sophomore Titus Lotz hit two threes for six points.
Jackson junior Evan Spires was the game’s leading scorer with 19 points.
Junior Tristan Prater scored 10 points and nine other players contributed to the scoring column for the Ironmen.
The lead changed hands twice in the first quarter, with Jackson going in front, 14-11 after eight minutes of play.
Jackson had its highest-scoring quarter of the game in the second, hitting for 20 points, while the Blue Lions countered with 13.
Heading into the locker room, the Ironmen were in front, 34-24.
The Blue Lions had a good start in a comeback bid in the third quarter.
Sophomore Raleigh Haithcock, Lemaster and senior Brice Cartwright scored as part of a 7-0 run to pull the Blue Lions to within three points, 34-31.
Jackson began finding the range again, going in front by as many as 13 points.
The Ironmen held a 48-36 lead as the fourth quarter began.
Jackson continued to put distance between themselves and Washington with a 19-5 fourth quarter to finish with a 67-41 victory.
Unofficially, Washington was 15 of 47 from the field for 32 percent. The Blue Lions had 26 turnovers.
Jackson made 25 of 51 shot attempts for 49 percent and turned it over 10 times.
“They are a physical basketball team,” Washington head coach Shannon Bartruff said of Jackson. “There were times tonight when we were boxing out and they were fighting over the rebound. We’ve got two or three guys just standing and watching.
“That’s what is getting us destroyed in the second half of games,” Bartruff said. “You can’t play a varsity basketball game and give a team like that 10 or 15 extra possessions, or you’ll get beat every single time. We have to be tougher and we have to be better.
“We’re just not consistent enough,” Bartruff said.
In other FAC games Friday, Hillsboro defeated Miami Trace, 73-54 and McClain got by Chillicothe, 55-52.
The Blue Lions will host Miami Trace Saturday with the freshman game starting at 4:45 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 11 13 12 5 — 41
J 14 20 14 19 — 67
WASHINGTON — John Wall 0-2-2; Brice Cartwright 1-0-2; Karson Runk 0-0-0; Micai Claggett 2 (2)-0-10; Titus Lotz 0 (2)-0-6; Raleigh Haithcock 0 (1)-0-3; Traeton Johnson 2-0-4; Tanner Lemaster 4 (1)-3-14; Isaiah Haithcock 0-0-0. TOTALS — 9 (6)-5-41. Free throw shooting: 5 of 5. Three-point field goals: Claggett, 2; T. Lotz, 2; R. Haithcock, Lemaster. Field goal shooting: 15 of 47 for 32 percent. Turnovers: 26.
JACKSON — Boston Kuhn 2 (1)-0-7; Nate Woodard 2 (1)-0-7; Trey Miller 0 (1)-0-3; Logan Miller 1-0-2; Drew Bragg 2 (1)-0-7; Holden Blankenship 0 (1)-0-3; Tristan Prater 3-4-10; Landon Erwin 1-1-3; Evan Spires 4 (2)-5-19; Braxton Hammond 2-0-4; Chris Hughes 1-0-2. TOTALS — 18 (7)-10-67. Free throw shooting: 10 of 16 for 63 percent. Three-point field goals: Spires, 2; Kuhn, Woodard, T. Miller, Bragg, Blankenship. Field goal shooting: 25 of 51 for 49 percent.
