CHILLICOTHE — It was like climbing Pike’s Peak and then discovering Death Valley.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers experienced the highest and lowest emotional performances in a matter of four days.

After beating rival Portsmouth by 37 points on Friday and upsetting South Webster by one point Saturday in a highly-emotional game, Ironton found its low point Tuesday.

Shooting a dismal 29 percent and managing just 14 rebounds, Ironton lost 52-33 to the Chillicothe Cavaliers.

“You could see it coming,” Ironton coach Mark LaFon said. “We were coming off an emotional win and we were on the road. We couldn’t have played any worse.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well. We missed open shots and we had driving layups where the ball rimmed out. They couldn’t miss and we stood around. It was ugly.”

While Ironton was 12 of 41 from the field, Chillicothe shot 50 percent from the floor.

Dennis Gagai led Ironton with a game-high 15 points, but he didn’t score in the second half as he went 0-for-7 from the field.

Seth Dawes led a balanced Chillicothe offense with 10 points.

Gagai scored all nine of Ironton’s points in the first quarter as Chillicothe took a 15-9 lead.

The Cavaliers led by as many as 13 points in the second quarter before Gagai hit a pair of 3-pointers to get Ironton within 25-18 with 1:28 left in the half.

But a layup b Mike Newman made it 27-18 at the half. Newman came off the bench to score eight points in the first half.

Ironton fell behind 39-20 before Brandon Walker, Alstan Carter and T.J. Keith all scored to get Ironton within 39-26 to end the third quarter.

But Ironton didn’t score in the fourth quarter until J.J. Johnson’s layup with under five minutes to play.

Ironton9987=33

Chillicothe15121213=52

IRONTON (6-4): Dennis Gagai 5-20 (3-9)

2-2 15, Alstan Carter 2-4 (0-1) 0-1 4, Marc Carter 1-4 (0-1) 0-0 2, Brandon Walker 1-6 (0-2) 0-0 2, Michael Phillips 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, T.J. Keith 1-1 (0-0) 2-2 4, Trevor Allen 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Troy Allen 0-1 (0-1) 0-1 0, Andy Colegrove 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, J.J. Johnson 1-3 (0-2) 1-4 3, Bub Johnson 0-0 (0-0) 0-1 0, Jared Murphy 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Zach Christensen 1-1 (1-1) 0-0 3. Totals: 12-41

(4-17)

5-11

33. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 8-6=14 (Keith 3, Walker 2, Gagai 2). Assists: 4. Steals: 10 (A. Carter 4, Keith 2, M. Carter 2). Turnovers: 11.

CHILLICOTHE (4-5): Caleb Knights 2-3 (0-0) 3-4 7, Anthony Hitchens 2-9 (2-8) 5-7 9, Chris Givens 4-12 (0-0) 0-0 8, Tyler Longpre 2-2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Seth Dawes 2-3 (0-0) 6-6 10, Juan Barnes 1-1 (1-1) 0-0 3, Mike Newman 4-5 (0-0) 0-0 8, Stuart Beverly 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2, Austin Drewyor 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1, Pat McCorkle 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Josh Grant 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 18-36 (1-2)

15-19

52. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: Knights. Rebounds: 9-22=31 (Dawes 7, Givens 6, Longpre 5). Assists: 11 (Knigts 4, Hitchens 3). Steals: 2. Turnovers: 17.

RESERVES:Chillicothe 45, Ironton 41.