A marathon week of play finally caught up to the Warren East boys’ basketball team, who fell to Red Bank (Tenn.) 76-53 in the championship game of the bcbs Holiday Classic on Friday at South Warren High School.

Playing for the sixth time in seven days, and third time in 24 hours, Warren East (7-2) struggled to get into an offensive groove – allowing Red Bank to pull away in the second half for a convincing victory.

The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Raiders.

“We had a busy week,” Warren East coach Kyle Benge said. “Six games in seven days, to finish 5-1 for the week I am proud of our guys. You could definitely tell early on we just didn’t have it. Give them credit. They really out-physicaled us. They got to 50-50 balls. They outrebounded us.”

Warren East got off to a strong start, with six straight points pushing the Raiders in front 11-5 with 2:52 left in the first quarter. Red Bank responded with six straight to tie the score and would go on to take an 18-14 lead after closing the period with five straight points.

The Lions continued to shine on the offensive end, shooting 53% in the first half. A pair of buckets by Kendrick Lloyd pushed the margin to 36-26, with Warren East hanging within striking distance trailing 40-32 at the break.

Red Bank quickly put the game out of reach, scoring the first eight points of the second half to double the advantage. Warren East tried to frantically mount a comeback, but couldn’t overcome a poor shooting second half. Despite some quality looks, Warren East finished 8-for-30 in the second half, 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

“We were shooting 55% from (2-point range) coming into this game,” Benge said. “We probably missed 11 or 12 shots from five feet in. A lot of that has to do with legs. A lot of that was they sped us up and I don’t think we controlled the game like we wanted to.

“ … It wasn’t an all around great game for us, but I am still proud … 5-1 with a young team in one week, there is a lot to build off.”

Kaleb Prince led Warren East with 19 points, while Brenden Bratcher added 10 points.

Lloyd paced Red Bank with a game-high 27 points, while Anthony Bonner added 22 points.

“With a young team like we have, we still have to deal with adversity well, especially losing seven seniors last year,” Benge said. “When we had those moments last year we had a bunch of upperclassmen that had been through it. Until you’ve been through it, you really don’t know what to expect. I thought our guys, we competed. But in the end, we just didn’t have enough to win.

“They are a really good team. They were 10-2 coming in. They are well-coached. They just played better than us tonight.”

Warren East will return to action on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., facing Hardin Valley Academy (Tenn.) in the Smoky Mountain Winter Classic in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

RBHS 18 22 22 14 – 76

WEHS 14 18 13 8 – 53

RB – Lloyd 27, Bonner 22, Johnson 6, Wilbur 6, Mitchell 4, Tanner 2, Collier 2, Rice 2, Stewart 2, Crutcher 2, Rizer 1.

WE – Prince 19, Bratcher 10, Barber 8, Hogue 6, Pedigo 4, Sloan 3, Rigsby 2, Clark 1.