The Ironton Fighting Tigers turned the heat up Saturday night, and it proved to be quite warm for the Eastern Eagles.

With the defensive pressure forcing 36 turnovers, Ironton breezed past the Eagles 71-46.

The turnovers not only limited Eastern's field goal attempts, but Ironton converted 16 of those mistakes directly into points.

"We caused turnovers in spurts," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said. "When you get turnovers in spurts, you look to capitalize on them. That's how you get your points. We turned 16 into points and that's the percentage we want in tournament time."

Eastern shot 56 percent from the field, but the Eagles attempted just 32 shots. Ironton finished a respectable 28 of 60 for 47 percent including 8 of 18 from behind the 3-point arc.

Dennis Gagai led Ironton (16-3) with 21 points as he bombed in 5 of 8 from the 3-point range. He also had six rebounds and four steals.

Brigham Waginger had 18 points, four rebounds, and eight assists while Josh Sands finished with 16 points, four assists, and four steals. Joe Zornes had eight points plus six steals.

Nathan Grubb scored 19 points for Eastern. Robert Gross, a 6-foot-6 center, had 12 points and five rebounds. Cody Dill led with nine rebounds.

It was the play of Dill and Gross in the first quarter that kept Eastern in the game. Gross scored six points while Dill had six rebounds.

Coach Zornes said the play of Nick Collins off the bench was a key.

"Their big guy (Gross) hurt us on the boards the first quarter. Nick came in and did a good job keeping him off the boards," coach Zornes said.

A layup by Grubb with eight seconds left in the first quarter gave the Eagles a 19-15 lead. But Ironton's pressure forced 11 turnovers in the second quarter and Eastern managed to take just three shots from the field.

Gagai hit three 3-pointers in the quarter including the final bomb with 1:21 on the clock that gave Ironton a 37-22 halftime lead.

"We knew it would be a fullcourt game coming in, and we did a pretty good job with it," coach Zornes said.

The Fighting Tigers extended the lead to 48-26 on a 3-pointer by Gagai at the five minute mark. Eastern got within 16 points at the close of the quarter.

But the Fighting Tigers continued to pull away in the fourth quarter. Sands made two foul shots with 3:05 left that pushed the lead to 27 points at 67-40.

In the reserve game, Ironton rolled to a 70-18 win. Brandon Walker had 16 points, Chad Miller, Brian Wirzfeld, and Josh Adkins scored 11 each, and Tyler McDaniels and Shawon Miller had seven each.

Eastern1931212-46

Ironton15221321-71

REEDSVILLE EASTERN (13-6):

Nathan Grubb 8-12 (0-2) 3-6 19, Alex Simpson 2-3 (0-0) 0-0 4, Adam Dillard 0-3 (0-3) 2-2 2, Robert Gross 5-6 (0-0) 2-2 12, Cody Dill 2-4 (0-0) 1-3 5, Derek Baum 0-2 (0-1) 0-0 0, Chris Carroll 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Chris Meyers 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Alex McGrath 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 18-32

(0-6)

8-13

46. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 3-21=24 (Dill 9, Grubb 6, Gross 5). Team/dead ball rebounds: 3. Assists: 7 (Grubb 5). Steals: 2. Turnovers: 36. FG%- 56.3. FT%- 61.5. 3pt%- 00.

IRONTON (16-3):

Josh Sands 6-14 (1-4) 3-3 16, Brigham Waginger 7-13 (2-4) 2-2 18, Dennis Gagai 8-14 (5-9) 0-0 21, Joe Zornes 3-7 (0-0) 2-2 8, Derique Bacon 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Nick Collins 1-5 (0-0) 0-0 2, Patrick Kouns 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Brandon Walker 1-2 (0-1) 0-0 2, Shawon Miller 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Chad Miller 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Tyler McDaniels 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2. Totals: 28-60

(8-18)

7-7

71. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 8-11=19 (Gagai 6, Waginger 4, Collins 3). Team/dead ball rebounds: 2. Assists: 17 (Waginger 8, Sands 4). Steals: 22 (Zornes 6, Sands 4, Gagai 4). Turnovers: 9. FG%- 46.7. FT%-100. 3pt%- 44.4.