CHESHIRE - Maybe the Ironton Fighting Tigers should just go straight to the second half.

For the second straight game, Ironton struggled with its shooting in the first half, then blistered the nets in the second half en route to an 84-56 spanking of the River Valley Raiders Saturday.

Ironton, now 16-0, was just 12 of 33 from the field in the first half and led 34-27 at the break. But the Fighting Tigers hit 22 of 34 shots in the second half for 65 percent and cruised to the win.

"The first quarter was horrible. We just missed layups and we missed a lot of free throws the first half. The second half we started making shots and we made our free throws," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said.

All five Ironton starters were in double figures led by Brigham Waginger with 24 points. Waginger also had eight rebounds, 11 assists and six steals.

Joe Zornes had his most productive night offensively with 19 points, Dennis Gagai had 14 points despite sitting out half the game in foul trouble, Marcus Williams got 11 points and nine rebounds, and Cliff Howard had 10 points as he missed much of the game in foul trouble.

The Fighting Tigers held a lopsided 37-23 rebound advantage including 18-9 in the second half.

"We did a better job rebounding in the second half. We held them to one shot and we stopped their penetration," coach Zornes said.

"Cliff controlled things inside when he was in there, and the kids like (Brent) McBride and (Brian) Wirzfeld who came off the bench did a real good job. It was a good effort out of all our kids," coach Zornes said.

Steven Harder had 14 points and six rebounds while Colby Reese had 12 points and five rebounds for the Raiders, 8-6.

Gagai had 8 points in the first quarter as Ironton took a 19-13 lead. After Howard and Gagai went to the bench with foul trouble, River Valley rallied to lead 23-21 on two foul shots by Derrick Smith with 4:28 left in the half.

Waginger took over with 6 straight points and Williams had a steal and layup as Ironton went up 29-23 and never trailed the rest of the game.

A 3-pointer by Zornes and a foul shot by Williams made it 34-27 at the break.

Ironton erupted for 31 points in the third quarter as Zornes scored 12 points and Waginger 8 including a steal and layup with 4:24 on the clock that put the lead at 52-36.

Reese sank two foul shots and it was 58-44, but Zornes hit anther trey, Waginger had a steal and layup, and Williams added a layup to extend the lead to 65-44 at the end of the quarter.

Wirzfeld had two putbacks to begin the fourth quarter and Waginger had 5 unanswered points to put the lea at 74-51 with 4:15 to play.

Ironton was missing two big men. Greg Linn is still nursing a sprained ankle and Patrick Kouns was making a football recruiting visit to Toledo.

Ironton19153119-84

River Valley13141712-56

IRONTON (16-0):

Dennis Gagai 6-12 (2-8) 0-0 14, Brigham Waginger 10-16 (0-0) 4-5 24, Joe Zornes 6-14 (3-5) 4-4 19, Cliff Howard 5-6 (0-0) 0-0 10, Marcus Williams 4-11 (0-0) 3-7 11, Brent McBride 0-3 (0-1) 0-0 0, Brian Wirzfeld 2-2 (0-0) 0-1 4, Chad Miller 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Shawon Miller 0-1 (0-0) -0 0, Michael Phillips 0-0 (0-0) 0-2 0, T.J. Keith 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 34-67

(5-15)

11-19

84. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 17-16=33 (Williams 9, Waginger 8, Howard 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 16 (Waginger 11). Steals: 14 (Waginger 6, Williams 3). Turnovers: 11.

RIVER VALLEY (8-6):

Chris Roush 3-5 (1-3) 0-0 7, Darren Clark 2-12 (2-8) 1-2 7, Derrick Smith 1-1 (0-0) 2-5 4, Colby Reese 3-7 (0-2) 6-9 12, Steven Harder 6-10 (0-0) 2-3 14, Cory Ehman 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1, Michael Cordell 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Kyle Tipton 3-5 (0-0) 1-2 7, John Castro 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tyler Thompson 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Marcus Frazier 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Matt Nibert 0-1 (0-0) 2-4 2, Brian Morrow 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 19-42

(3-13)

15-27

56. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 7-9-16. Team/deadball rebounds: 7. Assists: 4 (Roush 2, Smith 2). Steals: 2. Turnovers: 19.