It was a great start. Or maybe it wasn’t.

Generally, if a team starts the game by pitching a shutout in the first quarter and leads 14-0, it’s a good thing. But when you’re defense relaxes and has a fight on its hands, then it has a few flaws.

Despite the ups and downs of Ironton’s defense Saturday night, the Fighting Tigers knocked off the Groveport Cruisers 56-47 on Senior Night.

“Getting ahead 14-0 was the best thing that could happen to us and then it might have been the worst thing,” Ironton coach Mark LaFon said. “We played great defense and then we lost our intensity and started making some bad passes.

“But, we got things back together in the second half and made some plays. Groveport is a very athletic team. That was a good win for us.”

Ironton (13-5) was led by seniors Dennis Gagai and Brandon Walker. Gagai had 16 points and seven rebounds while Walker scored 13 points and grabbed five boards.

Gagai had a three-point play, Walker scored four points, J.J. Johnson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer as Ironton held the Cruisers to 0-for-5 shooting from the field and led 14-0.

It was 16-0 before Kenny Grey’s layup at the 7:07 mark got the Cruisers on the scoreboard.

The Fighting Tigers had five turnovers in the second quarter as Groveport managed to get within 26-17 at intermission.

The Cruisers (9-9) got within 31-27 midway through the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Gray. A three-point play by Marc Carter put Ironton in front 40-28, but two costly turnovers led to five unanswered points to end the quarter and it was 40-34.

Tevenn Jones made a layup to start the fourth quarter for Groveport, but Walker drained a trey with 5:07 left that upped the lead 45-36. Gagai hit a 12-footer with 2:18 left that gave Ironton a 51-40 lead.

“We’ve been working on our defense in practice. We rotated pretty good,” Walker said. “After the first quarter we thought we had them and quit playing defense. But we were able to get back to playing.

“This was good for our seniors. We won and it was against a quality opponent.

Jones scored 15 points and Gray added 11 points.