In a season where the Warren East girls’ basketball team has reached heights the program hasn’t seen in nearly a decade, the Lady Raiders cleared one of the biggest hurdles Friday, beating visiting Warren Central 72-45.

Warren East (9-8 overall, 1-1 District 14) led wire-to-wire to snap a 55-game losing streak to District 14 opponents – the first victory since beating South Warren 49-46 on Dec. 30, 2011.

“I told the girls tonight that this is a big thing for them – this is history,” Warren East coach Orlando Hayden said. “For our seniors, they hadn’t won any district games, so this was big for them. They broke the ice.”

Senior forward Cailyn Howard, who finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds, said it was a big win for the program.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Howard said. “I’ve been playing varsity basketball since eighth grade. We refused to lose it.”

Warren Central was playing without head coach Joe Hood, who announced on Twitter on Friday afternoon that he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma over Christmas break and began seven weeks of chemotherapy Dec. 29.

“I will have to be a fan for a few but will be back soon!,” Hood said in his post.

Warren Central assistant coach SeSe Helm said it’s a setback for the coach, but one his players and coaches know he can fight through.

“Coach Hood is fighting a battle and we are fighting it with him,” Helm said. “We have rallied together. We’ve come together – the four coaches – and he is still helping. He’s watching film and talking to us. He’s still coaching. He just has to coach from afar right now.

“Like I told the girls, we have agreed when he returns he is going to be able to be in a place where we can all shine. We are pulling for him and fighting with him and he’ll be back.”

Warren Central (2-13, 0-1) was within 10-6 after a jumper from Lay Lewis with 3:11 left in the first quarter, before Warren East closed the quarter with a 9-0 spurt to take a double-digit lead.

The Lady Raiders extended the margin to as much as 20 in the second quarter, but the Lady Dragons were able to trim the deficit to 40-26 by halftime.

Warren Central was unable to get any closer, with the Lady Raiders leading by 31 points in the second half.

Cressida Duncan added 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Raiders, who improved to 8-0 this season in games where they score 61 points or more.

“I keep telling the girls that as long as (we) put up 60 points a game, we can win a ballgame,” Hayden said. “I think the style of ball that we play, we probably play a little faster than most people, and it’s a little bit faster than what (our opponents) are used to.”

Saniyah Shelton led the Lady Dragons with 17 points.

“We knew they had bigs, but we had bigs too,” Helm said. “Like I told my girls, I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for us. Give it to Warren East, they were prepared and they did the little things. They got after it. (Howard) made a huge difference and stepped up when she needed to.”

Warren Central will play at Barren County at 6 p.m. Saturday, while Warren East hosts Barren County at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

WCHS – 6 20 8 11 – 45

WEHS – 19 21 23 9 – 72

WC – Shelton 17, Taylor 9, Conner 6, Lewis 4, Whitfield 3, Johnson 3, Leach 2, Shanklin 1.

WE – Howard 29, Duncan 21, Hymer 8, Abney 4, Hendrick 2, Patterson 2, H. Blankenship 2, Miller 2, Young 2.

Boys

Warren Central 59, Warren East 48

Warren Central boys’ coach William Unseld said it was your typical ugly District 14 game, a game his team was fortunate to win.

The Dragons used an early surge to take control and survived a couple of late surges by the Raiders to take the victory and improve to 12-2 overall, 1-0 in District 14.

“It’s a district win, but I think we played about as bad as we could have played,” Unseld said. “It’s the second-worst game we played this season.

“The kids came out and instead of playing team basketball they tried to make it personal. We missed some open guys. We kind of went away from what we’ve done and we’ve got some things we are going to correct.”

Warren Central trailed 5-4 early, but closed the first quarter with a 12-2 run to build a 16-7 advantage.

The Dragons extended the advantage to 24-11 midway through the second period, but Warren East got as close as six before WCHS pushed the margin back to 27-18 by halftime.

Warren Central stretched the lead to 12 on several occasions in the second half, with Warren East unable to get closer than six points in the final minutes.

“I thought we played extremely hard,” Warren East coach Brandon Combs said. “We did a lot of good things. I’ve coached a lot of basketball and seen a lot and I’ve felt like the first half is what did us in.

“We did things that we practiced for three days and were successful in those opportunities, but it just comes down to performance. We have to be focused enough to finish those opportunities.”

Skyelar Potter led Warren Central with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Jordan Cousin added 13 points and Tegra Muleka added 10 points off the bench.

“(Muleka is) a talented kid and he’s just a sophomore,” Unseld said. “This is his fourth game for us. He has a chance to be really good for us as the season keeps going. He’s the kind of guy that can really score the basketball.”

Brevon Whitney and Tashawn Neal had 14 points each to lead Warren East.

Both teams’ next opponent will be Barren County. Warren Central will play at Barren County at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, while the Raiders host the Trojans at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

WCHS 16 11 14 18 – 59

WEHS 7 11 12 18 – 48

WC – Potter 17, Cousin 13, Muleka 10, Barber 7, Mee 4, Bibb 4, Esmic 3, Pillow 1.

WE – Whitney 14, Neal 14, Barber 9, Maxey 5, Perdue 4, Wallace 2.{&end}