South Warren escaped upset at the hands of Warren East on Tuesday and won its first ever senior night, a 43-33 defensive struggle.

South (15-8, 4-4 District 14) also clinched the No. 3 seed in the league standings after going on a 12-4 run to end the game. The Spartans beat East 64-43 on Dec. 14.

“Yeah, they’re a good team – they’ve really gotten a whole lot better since we played them the first time,” SWHS senior Caleb Holloway said. “They came to play tonight and we just had to fight back and compete.”

East (8-16) sits at 0-7 in the district standings and will conclude district play by hosting first-place Bowling Green on Friday.

“Well, at this point, the way we’re in it right now – we’ll be the underdog,” WEHS coach Casey Simpson said. “We continue to play older, bigger, stronger teams, and our kids are really playing well right now. We’re trying to get them to pay a little bit more attention to detail.”

The Raiders cut a SWHS deficit to two twice in the fourth quarter. The first came on a Chris Duncan putback to start the quarter and then WEHS had a chance to tie or take the lead after a defensive stop.

But South’s Daniel Turner came up with a steal and was fouled going in for a layup on the other end. East was then served a technical and Lane Embry made one of two freebies.

The Spartans missed a chance to convert the 1-and-1 after that, but Holloway was there for the tip-in, making it 31-26.

East answered immediately with a Duncan drive through the right side, layup, foul and free throw to cut it back to 31-29 with 6:13 left. The Raiders scored four points the rest of the way.

The only thing that kept it close was South’s continued struggles at the offensive end. Turner helped give SWHS some breathing room by driving to the right corner, drawing a double team only to turn and hit Josh Bartley cutting through the lane for an easy layup and 37-29 lead.

“Offensively, it was a little bit of a struggle, but our defense really came back and helped us out a whole lot,” Holloway said. “We tried doing some things different to change it up and it didn’t really work. Then we went on spurts a little bit and that helped us a whole lot.”

It looked like business as usual for the Raiders early on as they jumped out to a 9-3 lead and got seven from leading scorer Cody Stumbo in that run.

Jarvis Evans’ turnaround baby hook in the paint got WEHS back within 10-7, but Stumbo answered on the other end with a 3 from the top of the key.

The senior forward finished with 11 of his game-high 19 points in the first quarter as South took a 13-8 lead.

In the second, East turned up the full-court pressure and Adarius Barnett began to assert himself by taking the ball to the hole. Barnett scored six in the quarter and the Raiders forced six SWHS turnovers. Still, Stumbo completed a 7-0 run, making it 22-14 with a slice down the lane, taking a pass from Embry and laying it in at the 1:03 mark.

— Click here for more photos from last night’s high school baskeball games.

South had all the momentum heading into the locker room, but Bartley was called for an infraction for running the baseline trying to inbound the ball under East’s basket. With 2.9 seconds left, Dalton Whitney found Duncan heading to the hole wide open and Duncan laid it in to make it 22-18 at the half.

The third quarter was anything but offensive as both sides totaled six points, leaving South with a 28-24 lead. East went 2 for 10 from the field in the frame, and while South was 80 percent better, the Spartans only took three shots.

Stumbo had four points in the second half, all from the free-throw line and all in the fourth quarter.

“South Warren hit 10 two-point shots and hit two 3s. We hit 10 two-point shots and two 3s,” Simpson said. “But they got 18 of 21 from the foul line and we go 7 for 9. … That was the difference in the game. We held Stumbo under his average, but the bottom line is, you score 33 points in a varsity basketball game, you’re not going to beat too many people.”

Duncan led the Raiders with 12 points. Bartley added 13 and Embry dealt six assists in the Spartans’ third straight win.

South travels to Franklin-Simpson for a 7:30 p.m. contest Thursday.

WEHS 8 10 6 9 – 33

SWHS 13 9 6 15 – 43

WEHS – Duncan 12, Barnett 8, Evans 4, Bryant 3, Dunn 3, Stockton 2, Whitney 1.

SWHS – Stumbo 19, Bartley 13, Easley 4, Embry 3, Holloway 2, Turner 2.

Warren East 62, South Warren 32 (Girls)

Amy Barnett gave Warren East a boost early and Sarah Simpson picked up the slack late as the Lady Raiders (7-16, 3-4 District 14) locked up third place in the district standings with a 62-32 win at South Warren on Tuesday.

Barnett scored a game-high 18 – all in the first half – while Simpson scored 15 in East’s third straight win.

“Our past couple games we’ve done really good,” said Simpson, a junior whose blonde hair was dyed with streaks of red and blue. “I think we’re just working together and communicating.”

The Lady Raiders pulled away from South (2-21, 1-7 District 14) with a 12-2 run in the second quarter. That helped WEHS jump out to a 34-20 lead at the half and they were never threatened from there.

Warren East has now won as many games in a row – three – as it did in a 16-game span that started Dec. 10.

“The past three games have been very good basketball,” Simpson said. “We just all work together and all the things we’ve put together have come together.”

Chelsea Cartmill had eight points and seven rebounds for South, which trailed 14-12 after a Chelsea Forrester rebound, coast-to-coast drive and three-point play with 6:47 to go in the second quarter.

East also got 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals from Brittany Duncan. The Lady Raiders host Bowling Green at 6 p.m. Friday, but will also start to think about its first-round matchup in the District 14 tournament against Greenwood – one that Simpson believes her team has a chance in.

“It’s possible,” she said. “(We have to) keep working together. Defense (is key), for sure – and shut down Molly Lamb.”

South Warren travels to Franklin-Simpson for a 6 p.m. contest Thursday.

WEHS 14 20 13 15 – 62

SWHS 6 14 8 4 – 32

WEHS – Barnett 18, Simpson 15, Duncan 12, Martin 6, Chatman 4, Britt 3, Hendrick 3, Parker 1.

SWHS – Cartmill 8, Burnette 6, Taylor 6, Forrester 3, Garden 3, Harris 3, Hoover 3.