Senior Night can bring some distractions, and it did for the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

Although the Fighting Tigers seemed to be looking around at the festivities, they didn’t overlook the Marietta Tigers and the posted a 61-47 win Friday.

“We just didn’t seem to be as focused as we normally are. I don’t know what it is, but we never play well on Senior Night,” said Ironton coach Mark LaFon.

“We didn’t come out with the effort we needed and we gave up a lot of easy baskets that we never do. We can’t play like this in the tournament. We have to turn up our intensity.”

The win was the 15th in a row for the Fighting Tigers, now 17-2 and 13-0 in the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League.

Ironton played at Portsmouth on Saturday night looking to finish unbeaten in the league.

Senior Timmy Kochendoerfer led Ironton with 25 points including four 3-pointers. Freshman Trey Fletcher had 15 points and 14 rebounds as Ironton dominated the glass 43-19.

Ironton jumped out to an 8-2 lead before Cory Kriechbaum hit a pair of 3-pointers to get Marietta within 11-8.

Fletcher and Marietta’a Adam Arnold traded layups and it was 13-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Two foul shots by J.P. Taylor and a trifecta by Kochendoerfer put Ironton up 18-10 at the start of the second quarter.

Marietta climbed to within 22-18 on a 17-footer by Wes Riley only to have Kochendoerfer answer with his own basket and it was 24-18.

Keith Schwendeman hit a 15-footer and Riley a foul shot to close the half and Marietta trailed 24-21.

Ironton’s defense stepped up in the third quarter and forced five turnovers and held Marietta to 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting. Fletcher scored 8 points in the quarter for Ironton who went on a 13-4 run to end the quarter and build a 44-29 lead.

Kochendoerfer’s spinning layup started the fourth quarter and it was 46-29. He hit another trey and Zac Carter had a layup to open up a 56-38 cushion with 3:25 left.

LaFon began emptying his bench moments later.

Morgan Wynn and Kriechbaum had 11 points each to lead Marietta (4-15, 2-11).

The Fighting Tigers will play in the Division III sectional tournament at 5 p.m. Saturday at Jackson against the winner of Tuesday’s Coal Grove vs. Minford game.

Marietta 10 11 8 18 = 47

Ironton 13 11 20 17 = 61

MARIETTA (4-15, 2-11): Tyler Davis 0-1 0-0 0, Adam Arnold 2-4 1-2 5, Perry Wheeler 0-1 0-0 0, Tim Grosel 1-5 1-1 3, Wes Riley 3-9 1-2 7, Jon Sewell 1-3 0-0 2, Morgan Wynn 5-7 0-1 11, Chris Stollar 1-1 0-0 2, Keith Schwendeman 3-3 0-0 6, Nathan Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Kriechbaum 3-10 2-4 11, Conner Hess 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 19-46 5-10 47. 3-point goals: 4-16 (Grosel 0-1, Riley 0-2, Hess 0-1, Davis 0-1, Kriechbaum 3-8, Wynn 1-3). Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 4 offense, 15 defensive = 19 (Stollar 5, Grosel 4). Team rebounds: 2. Assists: 8 (Grosel 4). Steals: 6 (Grosel 2, Schwendeman 2). Turnovers: 17.

IRONTON (17-2, 13-0): Malcolm Morton 1-3 0-0 2, Travis Elliott 0-2 2-4 2, Timmy Kochendoerfer 9-19 3-4 25, J.P. Taylor 2-6 3-5 7, Erin Edens 3-7 0-0 6, Zac Carter 2-9 0-0 4, Josh Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Trey Fletcher 7-9 1-2 15, Michael Turner 0-0 0-0 0, Charles Stewart 0-0 0-0 0, Jonathan Norris 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Culbertson 0-0 0-0 0, Trevor White 0-0 0-0 0, Nolan Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-55 9-15 61. 3-point goals: 4-14 (Kochendoerfer 4-9, Carter 0-1, Taylor 0-4). Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Taylor (4th 4:52). Rebounds: 16 offense, 27 defensive = 43 (Fletcher 14, Taylor 6, Edens 6). Assists: 10 (Morton 6, Fletcher 2). Steals: 7 (Morton 4). Turnovers: 17.

RESERVES: Marietta 35-30 (OT).