If turnovers were money, the Chillicothe Cavaliers hit the lottery Tuesday night.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers were giving the ball away like it was a multi-million dollar jackpot in a 58-35 loss to the Cavaliers in a key Southeastern Ohio Athletic League South Division game.

Ironton was guilty of a season-high 25 turnovers that enabled the Cavaliers to get easy run-out layups.

“They can turn turnovers into points as quick as anything and you saw that tonight,” said Ironton coach Mark LaFon.

“The first half we played hard but didn’t play right, and we played hard in the third quarter but didn’t play right. The bottom line was they came out and got up in us and we didn’t do the things we needed to do.”

Besides the turnovers, Ironton hurt itself from the field by shooting just 11-of-41 and scoring only two points in the third quarter and six in the fourth quarter.

With the loss Ironton fell to 9-4 overall and 5-2 in the SEOAL South. Chillicothe is now 9-2 and leads the division at 6-1.

Chillicothe was up 14-8 in the first quarter when Dustin Green came off the bench to hit a pair of trifectas and get Ironton within 17-14.

Green drained another trey to start the second quarter to tie the game and the score was tied five times until Chillicothe went on a 7-0 run to lead 30-25.

Travis Elliott hit two foul shots for Ironton with 51 seconds to play in the half and it was 30-27, but Caleb Knights converted a three-point play with four seconds on the clock and the Cavaliers were up 33-27 at the break.

Neither team shot well in the third quarter, but Ironton managed only a basket by Erin Edens midway through the quarter and fell behind 42-29.

A layup by Malcolm Morton and a driving basket by Tim Kochendoerfer got Ironton within 44-33 with 6:27 to play, but turnovers reared their ugly heads once again as the Cavaliers began to pull away.

“We can’t play them one-on-one offensively. We can guard them, but we didn’t do it tonight for whatever reason so I had to play more zone and we shouldn’t have had to play zone,” said LaFon.

Kochendoerfer had 10 points and six rebounds for Ironton.

Knights scored 17 and Turner 11 for the Cavaliers.

Ironton 14 13 2 6 = 35

Chillicothe 17 16 9 16 = 58

IRONTON (9-3, 5-1): Malcolm Morton 2 0 0-0 4, Tim Kochendoerfer 3 0 4-5 10, Lukas Morris 1 0 0-0 2, Erin Edens 2 0 2-2 6, Michael Lamb 0 0 2-4 0, Dustin Green 0 3 0-0 9, Tommy Waginger 0 0 0-0 0, Travis Elliott 0 0 0-0 0, Johnathon Schweickart 0 0 0-0 0, Robbie Webb 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-41 10-13 35. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 3-12. Rebounds: 10-18=28 (Kochendoerfer 6, Edens 4, Green 4, Lamb 4). Assists: 2 (Green, Schweickart). Steals: 2 (Elliott, Lamb). Turnovers: 25.

CHILLICOTHE (8-2, 5-1): Caleb Knights 7 0 3-5 17. Michael Turner 4 1 0-0 11, Ronnie Smith 0 0 3-6 3, Greg VanVolkenburg 2 0 0-0 4, Seth Dawes 5 0 5-8 15, James VanVoorhis 1 0 0-0 2, Donta Thompson 1 1 1-2 6, Jalen Ragland 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-57 12-21 58. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 2-10. Rebounds: 16-17=33 (Knights 7, Smith 7). Assists: 7 (Knights 2). Steals: 11 (Knights 4). Turnovers: 10.

RESERVES: Chillicothe 52, Ironton 50, overtime. Ironton scoring: Mason Weisgarber 1, Tres Wilkes 11, Michael Lawless 4, J.P. Taylor 18, Jon Norris 5, Josh Murphy 8, Robbie Webb 1. Chillicothe: Tyler Manion 4, Isaac Beverly 2, Jalen Ragland 13, Shay Netter 6, Brandon Beverly 7, Madison Simmons 5, Laden Beverly 5, Zach Bayless 4, Nate Winston 6.