It was a first for the Ironton Junior Fighting Tigers 8th grade.

Tuesday, March 05, 2002

It was a first for the Ironton Junior Fighting Tigers 8th grade.

Not only did the Junior Tigers finish first in the Ohio-Kentucky Valley Conference regular season and tournament, but they completed the school’s first-ever unbeaten season.

Ironton has had unbeaten regular seasons only to lose in a tournament. This season marked the first perfect season including tournaments.

The Junior Tigers were 15-0 under coach Bart Burcham as they beat preseason league favorite Ashland three times, the last time in the league tournament championship game.

"This bunch played as hard as any team I’ve ever coached," Burcham said. "We didn’t have a lot of size, but we battled with all we had and played great defense."

Ironton averaged 64.6 points a game while holding opponents to 30.3 points a contest.

The offense was very balanced. Dennis Gagai averaged 13.2 points a game, Brigham Waginger 11.9, Michael Phillips 10.3, Brandon Walker 9.1, and leading rebounder Darius Lewis had a 7.0 scoring average.

2001-02 Ironton 8th Grade

Boys Basketball Results

Ironton 49 at Ashland 38

Ironton 51 Rose Hill 44

Ironton 79 Lawrence Co. 25

Ironton 53 Chesapeake 34

Ironton 76 at Russell 37

Ironton 65 Russell 28

Ironton 61 Boyd Co. 22

Ironton 83 Portsmouth 13

Ironton 52 at Law. Co. 17

Ironton 62 at Rose Hill 52

Ironton 56 at Wheelersburg 37

Ironton 65 at Portsmouth 16

Ironton 58 Ashland 35

Tournament

Ironton 54 Boyd Co. 31

Ironton 44 Ashland 41

Record: 15-0

Coaches: Bart Burcham, Tobey Schreck