ATHENS — Fans and scouts got a good look at the Ironton Fighting Tigers Monday night.

And as far as Ironton coach Mark LaFon could see, his team got a good look at themselves.

LaFon wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort despite a 76-52 rout of the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes in the Division III district semifinals at Ohio University.

“We stood and stared the first half in our press and that’s not good,” said LaFon. “We had some kids play hard, but we had some who thought they were playing hard and they weren’t. We can’t do that against Peebles.”

Ironton (19-3) will play Peebles (21-1) at 9 p.m. Saturday at for the district championship. Peebles — ranked seventh in the final Associated Press poll — beat Lucasville Valley 73-57 in the first game.

The Fighting Tigers had little trouble on offense as five players reached double figures. Timmy Kochendoerfer led Ironton with 18 points but played sparingly in the second half when he was dazed after hitting his head on the floor.

Zac Carter scored 15 points, Trey Fletcher had 12 while Travis Elliott and Malcolm Morton scored 10 each.

A key for Ironton came on the glass as they dominated the rebounding 51-27. Fletcher grabbed 11 boards, Elliott nine and Kochendoerfer eight

“We had a lot of rebounds, but we didn’t do a good job screening the boards. They should never have gotten a second shot,” said LaFon.

Erin Edens had six steals for Ironton.

Nelsonville-York (10-12) was paced by Mychal Mitchell with 14 points and Jared Dexter with 12.

Neither team had problems scoring in the first quarter as Ironton took a 23-18 lead. The game was tied four times and the lead exchanged hands three times in the opening stanza.

Two foul shots by Fletcher gave Ironton the lead for good at 14-13 with 3:18 left in the quarter.

Ironton went ahead 30-20 on a layup by Fletcher off a pass from J.P. Taylor. The Buckeyes trailed 35-27 on a long 3-pointer by Tyler Goodin, but two free throws by Kochendoerfer and Fletcher’s layup made it 41-29 at the break.

“We weren’t guarding in the first half. We were letting them run to the basket. We fixed that in the second half,” said LaFon.

Carter’s layup with 2:30 on the third quarter clock opened up a 55-38 lead as Ironton began to pad its cushion.

Even with the backups in the game the Fighting Tigers continued to pull away in the fourth quarter. They enjoyed as much as a 25-point lead when Michael Turner hit a foul shot with 1:21 left to make it 74-49.

Nelsonville 18 11 13 10 = 52

Ironton 23 18 16 19 = 76

NELSONVILLE-YORK (10-12): Mychal Mitchell 5 0 4-4 14, Daniel Kline 1 0 1-2 3, Dillon Stalling 1 0 0-0 2, Kyle Moore 2 0 1-2 5, Connor Bunting 4 0 0-0 8, Jared Dexter 4 0 4-7 12, Tyler Goodin 1 1 0-0 5, Joe Frazier 0 0 0-0 0, Justin Kurtz 0 0 0-0 0, Nathan Dean 0 0 0-0 0, Garrison Breeze 0 1 0-0 3, Casey Cox 0 0 0-0 0, Alec Swingle 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-57 10-16 52. 3-point goals: 2-9. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 12 offense, 15 defense = 27 (Mitchell 7, Moore 6). Team rebounds: 4. Assists: 8 (Mitchell 5). Steals: 8 (Bunting 2, Goodin 2). Turnovers: 22. Blocked shots: 4 (four with 1 each).

IRONTON (19-3): Malcolm Morton 3 1 1-2 10, Travis Elliott 4 0 2-8 10, Timmy Kochendoerfer 5 1 5-6 18, J.P. Taylor 1 0 0-0 2, Erin Edens 2 0 0-0 4, Zac Carter 2 2 5-6 15, Trey Fletcher 5 0 2-2 12, Josh Murphy 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Turner 0 0 1-2 1, Trevor White 0 0 0-0 0, Charles Stewart 1 0 0-0 2, Jonathan Norris 0 0 0-0 0, Nick Culbertson 1 0 0-0 2, Nolan Johnson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 28-65 16-26 76. 3-point goals: 4-13. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 24 offense, 27 defense = 51 (Fletcher 11, Elliott 9, Kochendoerfer 8). Team rebounds: 6. Assists: 15 (Morton 7, Taylor 3). Steals: 15 (Edens 6). Turnovers: 19. Blocked shots: 3 (three with 1 each).