With 3:02 to play, Ironton was whistled for a technical foul due to six players on the defensive end of the floor after a substitution.

The rest of the game, it just seemed like Ironton had six players on defense.

The Fighting Tigers used another strong defensive effort to beat the South Point Pointers 59-31 Saturday night.

"We played hard, strong defense," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said. "I didn't think we played real well offensively, but we did play hard on defense and kept the pressure on them."

The defense forced the Pointers into 26 turnovers and limited South Point to an 11 of 37 shooting effort from the floor, or just 29.7 percent.

Ironton, 8-2, had trouble with its shooting in the first quarter. The Fighting Tigers were one of 7 to begin the game, but improved as the game continued and ended up shooting 46 percent from the floor.

Brigham Waginger had 11 points, six rebounds and four steals to lead Ironton. Josh Sands finished with 10 points and Dennis Gagai had 10 points and four steals.

Seth Craft had eight points and seven rebounds for the Pointers (5-7). Quentin Smith and Zane Joy seven each.

After Ironton went in front 7-0, South Point came back to tie the game when Craft converted a three-point play at the 1:48 mark of the first quarter. But a steal by Nick Collins led to a layup by Marcus Williams for a 10-7 Ironton lead at the end of the period.

Waginger and Sands hit 3-pointers and Collins a 15-footer as Ironton opened up an 18-9 lead midway through the second quarter.

Smith's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 20-14, but Ironton outscored the Pointers 6-1 the rest of the half to lead 26-15.

The second half began with a steal and layup by Waginger, a 3-pointer by Gagai, and a three-point play by Gagai that pushed the lead to 34-15.

"Once we hits some shots, that got us started," coach Zornes said.

"We want to push the ball, but sometimes we have to change gears and pull it up and play a halfcourt game. We pushed it too much in the first half, but we did it in the second half. We adjusted well and I'm proud of that."

The Fighting Tigers pulled away to a 41-23 lead at the end of the third quarter and continued to grow in the fourth quarter.

Two foul shots by Patrick Kouns and a layup by Williams put Ironton up 53-27 with 3:38 to go.

A follow up shot by Greg Linn with 56 seconds left gave the Fighting Tigers their biggest lead at 59-50.

In the reserve game, Ironton won 52-25 as Brandon Walker scored 12 points while Tyler McDaniels and Michael Phillips had nine each. Rocky Roe and J.T. Terry got six each for the Pointers.

South Point7888-31

Ironton10161518-59

SOUTH POINT (5-7):

Seth Craft 3-11 (0-1) 2-3 8, Quentin Smith 2-6 (1-3) 2-2 7, Justin Workman 1-3 (0-0) 0-2 2, Aaron Quinn 1-4 (0-0) 0-0 2, Caleb Copley 0-3 (0-0) 0-0 0, Jay Graham 1-5 (0-3) 0-0 2, Tyler Staton 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Dave Colley 0-0 (0-0) 0-1 0, Zane Joy 3-4 (0-0) 1-5 7, James Hastings 0-0 (0-0) 1-4 1, Ryan Hong 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, J.T. Terry 0-0 (0-0) 2-2 2. Totals: 11-37

(1-7)

8-19

31. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 3-23=26 (Craft 7, Smith 5). Assists; 2. Steals: 4 (Workman 2). Turnovers: 26. Team/dead ball rebounds: 4. FG% – 29.7. FT% – 42. 3pt% – 14.3.

IRONTON (8-2):

Josh Sands 4-10 (2-5) 0-0 10, Brigham Waginger 5-7 (1-1) 0-0 11, Dennis Gagai 3-11 (2-8) 2-5 10, Joe Zornes 2-4 (0-1) 4-8 8, Derique Bacon 1-1 (0-0) 0-1 2, Nick Collins 2-7 (0-0) 0-0 4, Marcus Williams 4-4 (0-0) 0-0 8, Patrick Kouns 0-2 (0-0) 2-4 2, Shawon Miller 0-2 (0-2) 0-2 0, Greg Linn 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Marcus Royal 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Brent McBride 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tyler McDaniels 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Michael Phillips 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 23-50

(5-17)

8-20

59. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9-26=35 (Collins 7, Waginger 6, Bacon 5, Zornes 5). Team/dead ball rebounds: 1. Assists: 11 (Collins 3, Gagai 2, Waginger 2, Sands 2). Steals: 16 (Zornes 4, Waginger 4, Gagai 4). Turnovers: 13. FG% – 46. FT% – 40. 3pt% – 29.4.