The Warren Central boys’ basketball team was locked in a heavyweight fight with visiting Glasgow on Tuesday.

Glasgow kept punching and gave the Dragons everything they had before Warren Central was able to deliver the knockout blow, using a late surge to pull away for the 81-64 win.

Warren Central (15-1) exploded for a 28 points in the fourth quarter to turn a two-point game into a double-digit decision and run its win streak to 12.

“We had to pull it out late, but they fought us,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said. “We didn’t play with enough energy early. We had distractions. We hung in there and found a way to win, which is what we’ve done all year. For about 29-30 minutes, they fought. We just had that late run. We made shots though. That is the best thing about it. I told the kids that they came out and threw some punches and you pulled it out and still win by 17 points. You are a pretty good basketball team.”

The Dragons led for most of the night, but the decision was in doubt until midway through the fourth quarter.

Warren Central led 17-12 after one quarter and pushed the advantage to 27-16 after a 3-pointer from KJ Johnson. Glasgow (10-8) closed the half with a 12-4 spurt to pull within 31-28 and opened the second half with a 3 from Jaylen Bradley to briefly tie it.

The Dragons responded with eight straight to regain control and extended the margin to 48-27 after a 3 from Ian McDaniel with 2:10 left in the third quarter.

The Scotties answered right away, chipping the deficit down to five at the end of the third. The surge continued with Glasgow pulling within 56-54 on a layup by Carter Hodges with 5:38 remaining.

Warren Central finally started to get some distance, scoring the next five points to make the score 61-54. The Scotties got within five twice, and missed chances to get closer with six straight missed free throws, before Warren Central sealed the win with a 15-2 run in the final minutes.

“That’s what we are going to do,” Unseld said. “We are going to wear you down, but we didn’t have our best defensive effort either. We didn’t have our best grit, our best fight. We missed (Dominique Anthony, out with an illness) a little bit out there. We didn’t battle. It was just one of those games where we didn’t play well. It was a lot of self-inflicted wounds. We got up 11 or 12 multiple times and were ready to take off and would go crazy on defense and they’d go on a 6-0 run. Give them credit. They kept fighting and kept fighting.”

Jeremiah McCombs had a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds – nine offensive boards – to pace the Warren Central offense.

“My coach told me to keep rebounding,” McCombs said. “I didn’t shoot some of the rebounds I got, but he told me to be physical and help us out tonight because we were missing Dominique.”

Armani Byrd added 18 points, while Johnson finished with 13 points.

“We were just making silly mistakes,” McCombs said. “We just had to dig down and focus. We are a better team, but we can’t let them hang around like that because we will end up getting beat on any night.”

Bradley led Glasgow with 19 points. Jerrick Martin added 14 points and Landon Minton finished with 10 points.

“These guys are used to playing big minutes for us,” Glasgow coach Brandon Stockton said. “They are used to finishing games out. I thought down the stretch some shots didn’t fall. We missed like six free throws right there in the fourth quarter. You could say, ‘Hey, maybe they were tired,’ but the game was kind of slower at times and they made some big shots. When you make 13-14 3s in a game it is hard to beat a team like that, especially on their home place. Warren Central is the top team in the region for a reason. We are just going to keep battling and keep competing and hope to see them again.”

GHS 12 16 20 16 – 64

WCHS 17 14 22 28 – 81

GHS – Bradley 19, Martin 14, Minton 10, Hodges 8, Norris 7, England 6.

WC – McCombs 20, Byrd 18, Johnson 13, Carter 8, Daniel 6, Prince 5, Murrell 4, Cousins 3, Ry. Hulbert 2, Duncan 2.

Girls

Glasgow 56, Warren Central 34

The Lady Scotties used a fast start to take control and snap an 11-game losing streak.

“The girls were as frustrated as we are as far as seeing that win-loss column,” Glasgow coach Kelsey Kirkpatrick said. “We looked at it at practice. We looked at different things we needed to do and I think they came out with the right mindset tonight, minus the missed layups and easy shots we let rim in and out.”

Glasgow (4-14) never trailed, using a 9-2 surge to build a 17-6 lead late in the first. The margin grew to 24-12 at halftime, with Glasgow leading by as many as 23 points in the second half. The Lady Scotties defense forced 38 turnovers.

Reece England led Glasgow with 22 points, while Jayla Craine added 10 points.

Myra Mayberry had 25 points and 14 rebounds to lead Warren Central (4-16).

GHS 18 6 20 12 – 56

WCHS 8 4 13 9 – 34

GHS – England 22, Craine 10, Green 9, Kirkpatrick 5, Goodman 5, Lightfoot 3, Stephens 1, Jolly 1.

WC – Mayberry 25, Tisdale 5, Posey 2, Bowman 1, Basham 1.