Seek and ye shall find.

Whatever the Ironton Fighting Tigers were looking for Tuesday night, they found it in a 71-38 rout of the Wayne (W.Va.) Pioneers.

Dennis Gagai came off the bench to score 18 points and Derique Bacon had 10 points and seven rebounds as Ironton placed 10 of its 15 players in the scoring column.

The Fighting Tigers shot 43.3 percent from the field including 10 of 23 from 3-point range for 43.5 percent. They had 15 assists as Joe Zornes had five, Brigham Waginger four and Josh Sands three.

"We got good balance, which is what we're looking for," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said. "We passed the ball well. What we were looking for is to hit the open man."

Gagai didn't start, but he entered the game early as Wayne came out in a tightly-packed zone.

"When other teams go to a zone, you're going to get Dennis," coach Zornes said. "He can shoot and his defense is getting better. It means we have a smaller lineup, but I like our smaller lineup."

Tracy Jackson had 13 points and six

rebounds for Wayne. Justin Clagg added 11 points.

Gagai hit a 3-pointer just before the end of the first quarter to put Ironton up 14-8.

Gagai came out and hit a 3-pointer and a layup to start the second quarter as the lead grew to 19-8. Wayne was within 28-17 on a layup by Robert Kennedy.

Ironton then went up 34-19 at the half thanks to 3-pointers by Waginger and Andrew Harvey at the buzzer.

The Fighting Tigers extended their lead to 46-25 on two foul shots by Joe Zornes with 1:39 left in the third quarter. The Pioneers were down 46-30 on a 3-pointer by Clagg, but Kevin Williams answered for Ironton with a 3-pointer of his own to make it 49-30.

The defense held Wayne to just 8 points in the fourth quarter on 2 of 9 shooting, and Ironton grabbed its biggest lead at 70-37 on back-to-back baskets by Harvey with 1:16 to play.

In the reserve game, Ironton (11-0) won 54-19 as Brent McBride scored 16 points, Greg Linn 10 and Shawn Miller and Steve Elswick 7 each. Nick Newell had 7 points and Andrew Woods 6 for Wayne.

Wayne811118--38

Ironton14201522--71

WAYNE:

Ryan Wellman 1-7 (0-3) 3-4 5, Kyle Wellman 1-9 (0-4) 0-0 2, Justin Clagg 4-5 (1-2) 2-3 11, Tracy Jackson 5-7 (0-0) 3-4 13, Robert Kennedy 1-3 (0-0) 0-3 2, Josh Power 1-4 (0-2) 0-0 2, Adam Adkins 1-2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Jacob Dillon 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Andrew Woods 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Nick Newell 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Josh Toney 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Jordan Williamson 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Garrett Rakes 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 14-40

(1-11)

9-16

38. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 5-15=20 (Jackson 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 9. Assists: 2. Steals: 7 (Clagg 2, Powers 2). Turnovers: 23.

IRONTON (10-1):

Josh Sands 3-10 (2-5) 0-0 8, Brigham Waginger 2-5 (1-2) 0-0 5, Joe Zornes 1-8 (1-4) 3-4 6, Derique Bacon 4-6 (0-0) 2-6 10, Patrick Kouns 2-6 (0-0) 1-4 5, Dennis Gagai 8-14 (3-8) 1-1 18, Nick Collins 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Kevin Williams 2-3 (2-3) 0-0 6, Brent McBride 1-2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Andrew Harvey 3-3 (1-1) 0-0 8, A. J. McKnight 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0, Steve Elswick 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Jeff Pleasant 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Marcus Williams 0-0 (0-0) 1-4 1, Tyler McDaniels 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 26-60 (10-23)

9-21

71. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 18-21= 39 (Bacon 7, Zornes 7, Kouns 7). Teams/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 15 (Zornes 5, Waginger 4, Sands 3). Steals: 9 (Bacon 3, Gagai 2, Zornes 2). Turnovers: 13.