The postseason is less than a week away, and Warren Central has been busy sharpening its skills.

All that work in the gym during practice – and before, then after – was fully evident Tuesday night as the Dragons sliced through Allen County-Scottsville for an 85-34 road victory that was never in doubt.

Warren Central (24-3), already bigger and faster than most of its opponents this season, has steadily boosted its skill level throughout the season as an offense that at first relied heavily on standout senior guard Skyelar Potter continues to diversify.

“We’ve been putting in work after practice,” Dragons senior Jordan Cousin said. “We’ve been staying after practice, putting in more work as a team without the coaches having to say something about it because we just want it even more now.”

Of course, Potter is still a nice fallback option when things aren’t working out. A Wright State signee, the 6-foot-4 Potter did more than his part with a game-high 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting along with game-highs in rebounds (seven) and steals (three). He had plenty of help against the Patriots, who never could get going on their senior night.

After falling behind by 11 points Saturday to Mercer County to open their matchup in the Wes Strader Schoolboy Classic at Warren Central, the Dragons turned the tables on ACS (9-17) by racing ahead to a 24-4 lead capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from Potter.

By the end of the first quarter, Warren Central held a commanding 33-6 lead and the Patriots never did recover.

Potter ended up hitting 4-of-5 from 3-point range, while Cousin (17 points) drained three 3s and the Dragons hit 11-of-27 overall from beyond the arc. Warren Central connected on 30 of 56 shots (53.6 percent) from the field.

“The last few days they’ve come in on their own,” Dragons coach William Unseld said. “We’re a good shooting team, but it’s like anything else. If you don’t work on it, it’ll leave you. So they’ve put in some work on their own. I think Skye had shot about 400 shots before we came up here today on the shooting machine.”

Jamale Barber added 11 points for the Dragons, who had 12 players score in the win.

“We’re really starting to click,” Unseld said. “We’re healthy and we’re finding a rhythm.”

Brett Rippy and Charlie Calvert had eight points each to lead the Patriots, who return to action Monday against Monroe County in the District 15 semifinals at Glasgow High School.

Warren Central has one regular-season game left before opening District 14 tournament play. The Dragons visit LaRue on Friday.

Warren Central 33 20 19 13 – 85

ACS 6 13 1 14 – 34

WC – Potter 31, Cousin 17, Barber 11, Mee 6, Esmic 4, Pillow 3, Smith 3, Bibb 2, Borden 2, Brown 2, Nishimwe 2, Richardson 2.

ACS – Calvert 8, Rippy 8, M. Carter 6, Cooper 4, S. Carter 3, Carver 3, Clarke 2.

Girls

ACS 53, Warren Central 36

Allen County-Scottsville juniors Sarah Sutton and Mason Towery helped make sure senior night would be a happy memory for five of their teammates on Tuesday against Warren Central, combining for 45 points as the Lady Patriots picked up a 53-36 victory.

Sutton tied her career high with 30 points with a blistering shooting effort (14 of 18 from the field) and pulled down eight rebounds in the win.

“Whenever I get rebounds, I try to create shots for myself and I think that really helps,” Sutton said. “Rebounding is really big and really important to us. The more offensive rebounds we get, the more shots we can put up.”

Towery had 15 points and a team-high three steals for ACS (17-11).

Warren Central (3-24), led again by interim coach SeSe Helm as head coach Joe Hood recovers from illness, hung around for much of the first half and were tied at 13-all after Tiffany Taylor hit a running bank shot with 4:03 left in the second quarter.

But ACS responded with a 9-0 run after that to create some separation and ended the half with a 26-18 lead.

Another quick 6-0 run to open the second half stretched the Lady Pats’ advantage to 32-18 to put the game out of reach.

It was a solid final tune-up for ACS, which opens District 15 tournament play Monday against Glasgow at Glasgow High School.

“We just want to sharpen on some things on both ends of the basketball court,” ACS coach Brad Bonds said. “Obviously the big game is Monday and there’s some things we need to work on. I felt like we got some work in and got some of their skills sharpened up a little bit.

“We’ve had some adversity here lately with a lot of kids sick. I thought the kids responded really well.”

Saniyah Shelton led the Lady Dragons with 15 points and five rebounds. Warren Central is back in action Thursday at Daviess County.

“One thing we’re going to continue to preach to our girls is to believe,” Helm said. “And we’re going to preach consistency, and in practice we’re going to make it a little more difficult so that they can understand that even at the end when they start to get a little bit fatigued and a little bit tired that we’ve still got to mentally be in the game.”

Warren Central 7 11 10 8 – 36

ACS 11 15 17 10 – 53

WC – Shelton 15, Lewis 7, Taylor 5, Shanklin 3, Leach 2, Simmons 2, Whitfield 2.

ACS – Sutton 30, Towery 15, B. Cook 3, Alderson 2, Mutter 2, McReynolds 1.{&end}