After a bump in the road, the South Warren boys’ basketball team has started to get back on track just in time for the postseason.

The latest course correction was a 69-63 win over Allen County-Scottville on Tuesday at South Warren High School. South Warren (15-9) took control in the third quarter and held off a late charge to make it back-to-back wins for the first time in a month. The wins come on the heels of a season-high, six-game losing streak.

“We got out to a good start this year and lost our mojo a little bit,” South Warren coach Carlos Quarles said. “A lot of injuries and sickness. A lot of people are dealing with that, but it kind of affected us a little more than we thought it would. We had to figure out how to get ourselves back into playing how we normally play. We are slowly getting back to that. I was proud of the guys for getting it out tonight.”

South Warren got off to a slow start on Tuesday, with Allen County-Scottsville (11-15) leading 12-9 after one and extending the margin to 19-11 after five straight points from De’Ante Grainger.

The Spartans picked up the pace and scored seven straight to get within a point. After a 3-pointer from Ethan Knight tied the score 21-21, the Patriots briefly regained the lead before South Warren finished the half with seven straight including a layup by Knight in the final seconds to give the Spartans the 29-25 halftime lead.

“Initially I was trying to protect our injuries a little bit by not being as aggressive as I normally am,” Quarles said. “Then it got to a point where I was like, let’s just go play. Whatever happens, happens. We will get our energy going, see what happens and go from there.”

The lead was still 35-31 midway through the third when South Warren got some distance, an 11-0 run over a three-minute span that pushed the advantage to 15 points.

Allen County-Scottsville was able to get as close as five in the fourth, but was unable to get any closer.

Clay Willis led the Spartans with 17 points.

“Even though we were on that losing streak, we still kept the same mentality that we are going to push hard and always play harder than the other team,” Willis said. “If we kept the same effort, kept our head up then we would still get the win.”

Owen Shively added 13, with Isaiah Bridges also adding 13 points off the bench.

“(Bridges) came in and brought us a lot of good energy,” Quarles said. “We fed off that and it kind of got other guys going. We had multiple guys come off our bench and give us quality minutes like Ethan Knight and Caden McIntyre and Isaiah. They really brought something to the table tonight.”

The Patriots had four players in double figures.

Kyler Pedigo finished with a game-high 18 points, eclipsing the 1,000-point scoring plateau for his career at Allen County. Aiden Grainger had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. De’Ante Grainger added 12 points and Braden Spears finished with 11 points.

ACSHS 12 13 10 28 — 63

SWHS 9 20 19 21 — 69

ACS — Pedigo 18, A. Grainger 16, D. Grainger 12, Spears 11, Turner 6.

SW — Willis 17, Bridges 13, Shively 13, Perkins 11, Pratt 9, Knight 5, McIntyre 1.

Girls

ACS 64, South Warren 35

Avery Morris scored 33 points to eclipse the school career scoring record as the Lady Patriots rolled to the win on Tuesday.

“It was a great win,” ACS coach Gary DeWitt said. “We did exactly what we planned to do. Yesterday in practice we worked a lot on our (defenses) and we did all of that really well tonight. Hats off to Avery Morris. She is just an outstanding player that works so hard and deserves everything she gets. Now she is the leading scorer in the history of Lady Patriot basketball. What a storied program we have had. That is a great feat for her.”

Morris entered the night 16 points behind Morgan Rich’s career scoring mark of 2,433 points. She only needed one half to reach that milestone.

Back-to-back steals and layups by Morris gave Allen County-Scottsville (19-7) a 19-8 advantage after one. The lead grew to 20 with the Lady Patriots leading 30-11 when Morris hit the mark with a 3 from the left wing with 2:27 left in the second quarter.

“I push myself to my limits and my teammates do too,” Morris said. “I appreciate that from my teammates. I couldn’t do it without them — them or my coach. It’s made me proud to be part of something that is that big at Allen County.”

Allen County-Scottsville led 35-11 at halftime, with the advantage growing to as many as 37 in the second half.

In addition to her big scoring night, Morris added eight steals and four assists.

“I pride myself on my defense and working hard, because defense is all effort,” Morris said. “Facilitating the ball and getting my teammates involved, that is going to win games. I can’t do it all by myself and my teammates know that. They step up when it comes time.”

Debora Patrick just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, while Allie Ford added 11 points.

Averi Fugate led South Warren (8-16) with nine points.

ACSHS 19 16 18 11 — 64

SWHS 8 3 11 13 — 35

ACS — Morris 33, Patrick 11, Ford 11, P. Marr 5, K. Marr 2, Byrn 2.

SW — Fugate 9, Calvert 5, Anderson 4, Osborne 3, Flourney 3, Price 3, Salyer 2, Gatewood 2, Shively 2, Reynolds 2.