As has been the case now for a dozen meetings, Warren Central was too much for Warren East.

A competitive first half turned into a blowout in the last 16 minutes with Warren Central cruising to a 68-42 home win against Warren East on Friday night, the Dragons’ 12th straight win in the series against the Raiders.

Skyelar Potter finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Dragons (20-3 overall, 6-1 District 14) and Jordan Cousin added 20 points.

Warren East (13-10, 2-4) trailed 28-20 at halftime before being outscored 23-9 in the third quarter.

The Dragons face a quick turnaround with a trip to Elizabethtown on Saturday at noon.

“We guarded better and we did a better job getting the ball around the rim,” Dragons coach William Unseld said. “We guarded our tails off this game. We got back to that. They struggled with our length a bit. They played hard and fought us in that first half. A couple of balls went our way in that third quarter and we did a good job moving the ball and getting in the paint.”

Once Warren Central stopped settling for long shots and instead worked the paint, the Dragons took off. Despite going 0-for-7 from behind the arc, Warren Central was efficient inside by shooting 22-of-31 on two-point shots in the first three quarters and had 12 points on putbacks for the game.

“Coming out, everyone wants to shoot the jump shot,” Potter said. “If it’s there, you want to take it. We’ve got a bunch of shooters and that’s what we want to do, but we realize the shots aren’t falling and we have to buy in and get inside.

“After halftime, he was telling us to get to the rim. They want us to shoot the 3s because they can’t do nothing with us around the rim. So, we got around the rim and we got our easy buckets and play defense.”

Warren East was hot from behind the arc in the first quarter. The Raiders hit three triples with Bryson Wallace’s trey at the buzzer sending the game into the second quarter tied at 15.

The Raiders cooled off with just two field goals in the second quarter while Warren Central mounted a 7-0 run. Potter had 15 points in the first half and the Dragons held a 28-20 lead at the break behind 48 percent shooting.

A 10-2 run to start the second half pushed the Dragons lead to 15 points, then they stretched it as far as 27 points late in the game.

“Second half they got after us a bit and we didn’t take care of the ball, which was kind of the recipe from when we played them the first time,” Raiders coach Brandon Combs said. “It seemed like the start of the third quarter, that first three to four minutes of the second half are when you need to be at your best, and with us down (eight) at halftime, we certainly needed to be our best and we didn’t.”

WEHS 15 5 9 13 – 42

WCHS 15 13 23 17 – 68

WE – Whitney 13, Neal 9, Barber 5, Perdue 5, Maxey 4, Wallace 3, Yoakem 3.

WC – Potter 20, Cousin 20, Bibb 6, Esmic 6, Pillow 5, Smith 3, Barber 2, Mee 2, Muleka 2, Rigsby 2.

Girls

Warren East 57, Warren Central 51

Saniyah Shelton’s best efforts weren’t enough for Warren Central to overcome its own miscues. Warren East capitalized and it didn’t matter that the young Shelton put up a career night.

The Warren Central seventh-grader led all scorers with 28 points, but Warren East took care of business in the second half to win 57-51 at Warren Central High School on Friday.

Shelton had 18 points in the first half and put Warren Central (3-22 overall, 0-7 District 14) in front 28-24 at halftime.

Warren East (15-10, 4-3) pushed ahead in the second half behind 20 points and 12 rebounds from Cressida Duncan. The Lady Raiders have now won six straight.

“That’s one of those games where you come here thinking you’ve got five wins and it’s going to be easy,” Lady Raiders coach Orlando Hayden said. “Everyone isn’t going to lay down for you. You’ve got to come out and play like it’s the first game in the district. It’s crunch time.”

Shelton was on fire in the first half. She hit her second 3-pointer of the game to put Warren Central ahead 10-8 after one quarter. A 7-0 run built on a pair of Cailyn Howard layups and a Ally Hendricks 3-pointer put Warren East ahead 17-14 in the second quarter.

Shelton hit two more triples in the final 80 seconds of the first half, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that put Warren Central ahead 28-24.

“She got hot,” Hayden said. “She started hitting 3s and she’s so long and they were coming over the screens. Our main problem tonight is we weren’t switching off screens.”

Shelton went scoreless in the third quarter as Warren East regained the lead and never gave it up. The Lady Dragons pulled back within 43-41 on back-to-back layups from Shelton, but turnovers on the next three possessions allowed Warren East to pull away.

Howard’s triple made it a double-digit lead with under four minutes to play.

“Warren East did well and stayed composed,” Warren Central interim coach SeSe Helm said. “I was proud of our girls because I told them before we came out, ‘I want you to dictate. I want you to determine what’s going to happen on our floor.’ I wanted them to compete and believe. … We need to work on situations and being up and down, what we need to do. It’s just a maturity and age thing, and they’ll get it. It’s coming.”

Shelton’s 28 points bested her previous career high of 25 points scored against Caverna on Dec. 4.

“It makes me extremely proud, especially for a seventh-grader,” Helm said. “She has great things ahead of her. It’s hard for a seventh-grader to take a team and put them on her shoulders, but she has the potential. She’s willing to do it and I’m not going to hold her back.”

WEHS 8 16 17 16 – 57

WCHS 10 18 9 14 – 51

WE – Duncan 20, Howard 18, Patterson 5, Price 5, Hendrick 3, Aymer 3, Kieffer 2, Forrester 1.

WC – Shelton 28, Taylor 10, Lewis 10, Johnson 2, Roy 1.{&end}