The Ironton Fighting Tigers shifted their game into a higher gear and began to pass everything in their way.

Well, they passed the Capital Cougars.

Ironton’s passing generated 16 assists that led to some nice layups as the Fighting Tigers upset the Cougars 71-58 Friday.

“We passed the ball extremely well. We did a great job of seeing the floor and getting the ball to the open man. We passed up a lot of shots to get a better shot,” Ironton coach Mark LaFon said.

Ironton not only improved to 11-5 on the season but avenged an earlier 81-59 loss to Capital, also 11-5.

The passing clinic was led by Dennis Gagai who had seven assists. Despite an off night in shooting, Gagai still had a solid game with seven rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.

Alstan Carter had a big game for the Fighting Tigers with 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Brandon Walker finished with 11 points and six rebounds while Marc Carter scored 10 points and five rebounds. Michael Phillips had five rebounds.

On the negative side, Ironton was guilty of 24 turnovers, the same as Capital.

“The pace of the game was so fast that we got ahead of ourselves at times,” LaFon said. “But I can’t fault our effort. We played with confidence and we played extremely hard the whole game.”

Capital was led by Ron Hall with 20 points. Mike Hurd, who had 19 points and five 3-pointers in the first meeting, scored 15 points and Malik Witten added 14.

The Fighting Tigers led most of the game including 13-8 at the end of the first quarter.

The Cougars took their first lead at 21-20 on a 3-pointer by Hurd with 2:56 left in the half. Ironton came back on a layup by Walker off a pass from T.J. Keith to lead 32-26 with 15 seconds left.

However, Travis Lewis made a foul shot with less than a second left for Capital and it was 32-28. Ironton’s inbounds pass went out of bounds untouched giving the ball back to the Cougars and Hall hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer and it was 32-31.

Hurd and Witten made layups to start the second half and put Capital ahead 35-32. Ironton came back to take the lead on a layup by Phillips off a nice pass from Troy Allen and Ironton had the lead for good at 39-37 with 4:28 on the clock.

Ironton scored the final 13 points of the quarter to lead 49-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

A free throw by Gagai with 3:40 left gave Ironton its biggest lead at 59-44 and the Fighting Tigers were 7 of 8 from the line over the final 52 seconds - Marc Carter was 5 of 6 - to seal the outcome.

Ironton was 16 of 24 from the line, all in the second half, and 10 of 16 in the fourth quarter when Capital was forced to foul over the final five minutes.

Capital813621=58

Ironton13191722=71

CAPITAL (11-5): Travis Lewis 2-9 (1-5) 3-4 8, Ron Hall 8-15 (2-4) 2-4 20, Malik Witten 6-12 (00-3) 2-3 14, Mike Hurd 5-16 (3-12) 2-2 15, Isaac Holstein 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tyrone Goard 0-2 (0-1) 0-0 0, Kenneth Booth 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Andre Beasley 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Clyde Armstrong 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, James Parker 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Chris Roseberry 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Carl Lee Straughter. Totals: 20-58

(6-24)

9-13

58. Fouls: 22. Fouled out: Goard (4th 5:15).

Rebounds: 5-21=26 (Hall 6, Lewis 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 6 (Hall 2). Steals: 13 (Hall 4, Witten 4). Turnovers: 24. Blocked shots: 6 (Holstein 4).

IRONTON (11-5): Dennis Gagai 4-13 (1-9) 3-4 12, Alstan Carter 4-8 (1-1) 3-5 12, Marc Carter 1-6 (1-2) 7-8 10, Brandon Walker 4-7 (2-2) 1-2 11, Michael Phillips 3-4 (0-0) 1-2 7, T.J. Keith 4-5 (0-0) 1-2 9, Trevor Allen 2-3 (0-1) 0-0 4, Troy Allen 3-4 (0-1) 0-1 6, J.J. Johnson 0-2 (0-0) 0-0 0, Jared Murphy 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Andy Colegrove 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 25-52

(5-16)

16-24

71. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9-29=38 (A. Carter 8, Gagai 7, Walker 6, Phillips 5, M. Carter 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 16 (Gagai 7, A. Carter 5). Steals: 14 (Gagai 4, Walker 2, Johnson 2, M. Carter 2). Turnovers: 24. Blocked shots: 2 (Gagai 2).

RESERVES: Capital 25, Ironton 23. Ironton scoring: Drew Kuehne 10, Nick Lewis 7, Zach Christensen 2, Shannon Hensley 2, Bubby Johnson 2. Capital: Glen Whitestone 6, Chas Leonard 5, Karl Lee Straughter 4, Andrea Beasley 4, Vince Britton 2, Brett Borst 2, Tim Booth 1, Andy Thomas 1.