Behind big outings from Skyelar Potter and Jordan Cousin and a momentum swinging third quarter, Warren Central rolled to a 68-42 win over Warren East on Friday night at Warren Central High School.
Potter scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Cousin finished with 19 points to help the Dragons (20-3, 6-1 District 14) outscore East 23-9 in the third and take control.
“They’re hard to deal with when they buy into playing around the rim,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said. “For us to win, they’ve gotta buy into playing around the rim, and that’s what they did in the second half.”
The Raiders (13-10, 2-4) used a big three pointer to tie the game at 15-all after the first quarter and only trailed by eight at halftime, but the disastrous third quarter dealt them their fourth District 14 loss of the season.
Brevon Whitney carried Warren East with 13 points in its setback.
The two sides exchanged baskets throughout the first quarter.
“I really thought the first half we did an excellent job of changing defenses and we played at our tempo,” Warren East coach Brandon Combs said. “The second half, they came out and got after us a little bit and we didn’t take care of the ball. I thought in the third quarter we took some quick shots which led them to transition buckets.”
Warren East led 7-6, and then Warren Central took an 8-7 lead. The Raiders and Dragons were later tied at 12-12 before Bryson Wallace’s three pointer just before the buzzer knotted it at 15-all after one.
A score inside by Cousin put Central up four, and Kemal Esmic followed with a basket of his own to push the Dragons’ advantage to 26-18 at the 2:22 mark of the second. They then took a 28-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“Our shots weren’t falling,” Potter said. “In the locker room at halftime they told us to get to the rim because they couldn’t do nothing with us around the rim. We got around the rim, got our easy buckets and played defense. (Coach) really emphasizes defense – play defense, no matter if our shots are falling or not.”
Potter was already up to 15 points and eight rebounds at the break, while three different Warren East players had each tallied five points. Warren Central outrebounded the Raiders 17-9 in the first half and forced eight turnovers.
The Dragons completely took over in the ensuing half.
“We guarded better and did a better job of getting the ball around the rim,” Unseld said of the second half turnaround. “It’s like I told the kids, sometimes the offense doesn’t come witcha. The defense is always witcha. We guarded our tails off this game. (Warren East) played hard. They fought us in that first half.
“A couple balls just went our way in that third quarter and we did a good job of moving the ball and getting it into the paint.”
Warren Central built a double-digit lead of 32-20 early into the third quarter, and Potter’s and-one pushed it to 37-22 at the 4:29 mark. Adante Barber nailed a three to help Warren East cut its deficit to 11, but just before Cousin scored to put the Dragons back up 14 at 39-25.
Cousin scored five straight points and Central took a comfortable 51-29 lead into the fourth after outscoring East 23-9 in the third.
Whitney converted back-to-back and-ones for the Raiders, but they were still in a 22-point hole with under three minutes remaining. From that point, the Dragons were able to use their bench and cruise to a big district victory.
“Just continue to do what we’re doing,” said Unseld of Warren Central’s approach moving forward. “We had to get refocused. We went through a stretch there and really weren’t focused. But we got our focus back and it’s a tough district, so if you’re not focused, you’re gonna give teams a chance to play with cha and beat cha.”
Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @_TylerMansfield.
