COLUMBUS - When you play the Ironton Fighting Tigers, you don't have to read the fine print.

With Dennis Gagai scoring 23 points including two pressure foul shots and Brigham Waginger getting 14 points, nine assists and eight pivotal steals, Ironton held off the Archbold Blue Streaks 70-66 Friday in the Division III state semifinals at the Schottenstein Center.

"Ironton is everything as advertised. They're strong kids, they play hard, aggressive and play good defense," Archbold coach Doug Krauss said. "Gagai and Waginger are as good as advertised."

Ironton (26-0) advanced to the championship game Saturday against No. 1-ranked North College Hill, but not without another close win. In their past four tournament games, Ironton has won by no more

than six points.

For the third time in four games, Ironton saw a double-digit lead whittled away late in the game when the opposing team began to bury long-range 3-pointers.

The Fighting Tigers led 57-42 on a 3-pointer by Gagai with 7:12 to play in the game. But Archbold, which had just four 3-pointers over the first three quarters, hit six trifectas including a 30-footer by Gene Goering with five seconds to play that cut Ironton's lead to 68-66.

The Blue Streaks fouled Chad Miller on the inbounds play with four seconds left and Miller went to the line shooting two.

Miller's first shot hit the front of the rim and bounced twice before dropping in. After an Archbold time out, Miller hit nothing but net to make it 70-66.

Gagai also hit two pressure foul shots with 15 seconds left that put Ironton up 68-63.

"I knew we would win it the whole game, but at times I was nervous because they didn't miss. But we made some clutch free throws at the end and that clinched it," Gagai said.

The Ironton junior guard had 13 of his points in the second half. He was 7 of 16 from the field and 5 of 10 from behind the arc.

"I got the shots I wanted, but I wasn't feeling it. They weren't all falling. I thought a couple of them were good but they didn't fall," Gagai said.

Joe Zornes, playing his third straight game on a bad ankle, said the clutch foul shooting was crucial down the stretch as Ironton won in front of a crowd of 13,886 fans.

"I was just praying (Miller) was going to make those shots. We just had to sink our foul shots," Joe Zornes said.

Miller finished with 10 points off the bench. Cliff Howard had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Joe Zornes added 7 points.

"You couldn't pay me to sit out. You can get me some extra tape or braces, but there's no way I'm going to miss this game," Joe Zornes said.

Dan Borcherdt, who averaged 23 points a game for Archbold, finished with just 15 points and was held scoreless the first half on four field goal attempts. He hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter comeback.

Coach Zornes was happy with his team's defensive effort.

"The whole idea coming in was to try and wear them down. We were pretty successful the first half," coach Zornes said.

"We didn't do anything special. You're not going to shut them down. We just got them off-rhythm. The second half they found that extra energy and hit some big shots."

Waginger turned several of his eight steals into easy, uncontested layups including

"I knew their point guard was kind of shaky with his handles, but we knew he could shoot it so I wanted to stay up in him," Waginger said. "He kept it back their on the spin move and I got it."

Coach Zornes said Waginger's play wasn't anything different than it had been all season with an average of nearly seven steals.

"If you drag the ball behind you and spin, you'll see the ball going the other way," coach Zornes said with a grin.

David Borcherdt, who averaged just under 10 points a game, led the Blue Streaks (24-2) with 20 points. Goering had 12 points and nine rebounds while Kirk Weldy finished with 11 points.

Archbold's only lead of the game was 7-6 on a 3-point play by Weldy with 3:13 on the first quarter clock. Waginger hit a baseline jumper to make it 8-7 and ignite an 8-1 run to end the quarter as Ironton never trailed again.

The Fighting Tigers led by as many as 7 points in the second quarter. Gagai's short jumper with four seconds left made it 33-27 at the break.

A 3-point play by Patrick Kouns opened up a 43-36 lead for Ironton with 6:42 left in the third quarter and Miller's putback at the buzzer extended the lead to 54-40 heading into the fourth quarter.