Everyone for the Ironton Fighting Tigers had been driving toward the basket all night except Dennis Gagai.

That is, until the final shot.

Gagai spent some of the game shooting from outside and other times passing to teammates or sitting out with foul trouble.

But for the game's final play, Gagai took the Russell Red Devils to school on a driving layup with two seconds to play that lifted Ironton to a 59-58 win Friday night.

Johnathan Vanhoose hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds to play that gave Russell a 58-57 lead and hopes of an upset. But Ironton proved it was unbeaten for a reason as Gagai took the inbounds toss with 11 seconds left, dribbled up the floor and took his defender to the basket for the winning shot.

The final seconds were an example of how the entire game was played. Ironton kept driving to the basket while Russell lived on the 3-point shot. The Red Devils were 8 of 28 from behind the arc.

Taking the ball to the basket forced the Red Devils to foul. However, Ironton was unable to take advantage of its foul shots as the Fighting Tigers converted just 18 of 33 attempts. They also were just 19 of 49 from the field as they continually missed layup attempts.

"When you don't shoot well, it makes everything look bad. We missed enough layups and foul shots to win going away," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said. "But that's the makeup of a good team when you don't do things real well and find a way to win."

Finding a way to win gave Ironton a 14-0 record. The resurging Red Devils fell to 8-9.

Brigham Waginger led Ironton with 17 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five steals. A 70 percent foul shooter, Waginger was just 7 of 14 at the line including 4 of 8 in the final three minutes.

"Dennis and Brigham don't shoot like that. That's not the usual Brigham at the foul line," coach Zornes said.

Joe Zornes had a solid game with 15 points including a key 3-pointer with 4:45 to play that gave Ironton a 51-47 lead. Marcus Williams added 10 points.

Vanhoose led Russell with 16 points. Austin Blair scored 12 points

and Derek Sloan grabbed 10 rebounds.

The game was tied four times including 27-27 at the half and the lead changed hands seven times, but only once in the second half on Vanhoose's late basket.

The Fighting Tigers had the game's biggest lead at 40-30 on a steal and layup by Waginger with 4:05 to go in the third quarter.

Ironton center Greg Linn suffered a sprained ankle with 4:14 left in the third quarter. His status is uncertain for Tuesday.

In the reserve game, Ironton won 41-36 as Brandon Walker had 11 points and Marc Carter 10. Pat Clark had 11 for Russell.

Russell13141318-58

Ironton15121715-59

RUSSELL (8-9):

Johnathan Vanhoose 5-18 (4-12) 2-3 16, Austin Blair 5-8 (2-4) 0-0 12, Casey Clarke 3-7 (1-3) 1-2 8, Chris Fain 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Trey Edwards 3-5 (1-3) 0-0 7, Jeremy Lavender 2-4 (0-1) 1-1 5, Cameron Martin 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 21-51

(8-28)

6-9

58. Fouls: 26. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 6-25=31 (Sloan 10, Lavender 5, Blair 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 6 (Sloan 3). Steals: 5 (Edwards 2). Turnovers: 14. FG% 41.2. FT% FT% 66.7. 3-pt% 28.6.

IRONTON (14-0):

Dennis Gagai 4-10 (1-3) 0-1 9, Brigham Waginger 5-14 (0-2) 7-14 17, Joe Zornes 4-10 (2-5) 5-6 15, Cliff Howard 2-7 (0-0) 0-0 4, Marcus Williams 3-5 (0-0) 4-9 10, Brent McBride 1-1 (0-0) 1-1 3, Greg Linn 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Patrick Kouns 0-1 (0-0) 1-2 1, Brian Wirzfeld 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 19-49

(3-10)

18-33

59. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 12-22=34 (Waginger 9, Williams 6, Gagai 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 1. Assists: 8 (Waginger 5). Steals: 11 (Gagai 5, Waginger 5). Turnovers: 9.

FG% 38.8. FT% 54.5. 3-pt% 30.