When school resumes on Monday, look for coach Mark LaFon to be teaching Basketball 101.

LaFon was pleased with the Ironton Fighting Tigers 49-31 win over Gallipolis on Friday, but he said his team needs a few lessons in how to play against a team as disciplined and well-coached as the Blue Devils.

“Our defense played well and we did some good things on offense, but we just have to learn to take better shots and to be smarter with the ball,” said Ironton coach Mark LaFon.

“We need to know the situation of the game. We took some bad shots and we took some shots when we didn’t need to be shooting. We need a better understanding of the game. Gallipolis loves to control the tempo of the game and we can’t let them do that.”

Ironton does know one thing about Friday’s win. The Fighting Tigers are 6-2 overall and now lead the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League South Division with a 3-0 record.

Chillicothe knocked Portsmouth from the division lead with a 68-42 win on Friday.

“It’s nice to be where we’re at, but there’s way too much basketball left,” said LaFon. “We still have to play Portsmouth twice and go to Chillicothe as well as everyone else on the schedule.”

A foul shot by Erin Edens, a triple by Tim Kochendoerfer and a putback by Travis Elliott staked Ironton to a 6-0 lead out of the gate, but Gallipolis was able to get within 12-7 at the end of the quarter.

Tommy Waginger’s follow up shot and a short jumper by Johnathon Schweickart opened up a 16-7 lead to begin the second quarter, but the Blue Devils got a layup from John Troester and a tip-in by Ethan Moore at the buzzer to trail 19-15 at the break.

Quinton Nibert hit two foul shots to begin the second half and get Gallipolis within 19-17 and it was 23-19 after a layup by Kyle Mitchell.

But Dustin Green drilled a 3-pointer to ignite an 11-0 run and Malcolm Mortaon’s layup with a minute on the clock opened up a 34-19 lead.

Gallipolis (3-4, 0-2) trailed 38-28 on layups by Mitchell Beau Whaley, but Elliott scored off a pass from Green and Lukas Morris’ layup at the 3:53 mark built a 42-28 cushion.

Schweickart had 11 points and seven rebounds for Ironton while Kochendoerfer finished with nine points, four steals and three blocked shots.

Ironton 12 7 17 13 = 49

Gallipolis 7 8 6 10 = 31

IRONTON (6-2, 3-0): Travis Elliott 3 0 0-0 6, Tim Kochendoerfer 1 1 4-4 9, Lukas Morris 2 0 0-0 4, Dustin Green 1 2 0-1 8, Erin Edens 1 0 2-4 4, Johnathon Schweickart 5 0 1-2 11, Tommy Waginger 1 0-0 2, Malcolm Morton 1 0 0-2 2, Geoff White 1 0 1-2 3. Totals: 19-37 8-15 49. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 3-9. Rebounds: 10-22=32 (Schweickart 7, Morton 5).

GALLIPOLIS (3-4, 0-2): Quinton Nibert 1 1 2-2 7, Ethan Moore 1 0 0-0 2, Chris Armstrong 4 0 1-1 9, Kyle Mitchell 4 0 1-3 9, John Troester 1 0 0-0 2, Nick Mitchell 0 0 0-0 0, Beau Whaley 1 0 0-0 2, Zeke Maher 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13-40 4-6 31. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 1-14.

RESERVES: Gallipolis 50, Ironton 49, OT (GAHS made two FTs with no time on the clock). Ironton scoring: Mac Carter 8, Tres Wilkes 7, Michael Lawless 13, Wayne Evans 9, Josh Murphy 8, Robbie Webb 2, Mason Weisgarber 2. Gallipolis: Jordan Cornwall 17, Corey Eberhard 9, Nate Allian 9.