Dragons fall flat in loss to Corry
Corry opened the game at Warren with an 11-4 run and never trailed as the Beavers spoiled the Dragons’ Senior Night with a 64-37 win.
Beaver senior Albert Jiang scored eight of Corry’s first 11 points on his way to a game-high 19 on the night.
“This game was the exact opposite of the first time we played,” Warren coach Jeff Berdine said. “Our defense was awful. We gave up eight points in the first two minutes to Jiang and it gave them confidence.”
The Dragons answered the Beavers’ hot start with a 6-0 run of their own to pull within one at 11-10. That was as close as Warren would get for the rest of the game as Corry led 13-10 after the first quarter.
The Beavers ran the lead to 21-10 just two minutes into the second quarter as they continued to drain perimeter shots. The Dragons meanwhile were ice cold from outside, missing their first six three-point attempts.
“We gave them easy looks early and they played downhill,” Berdine said. “I knew we were in trouble.”
Warren trailed by 11 at the half and the break did nothing to improve the Dragons fortunes. Warren just couldn’t find any rhythm offensively, while Corry was firing on all cylindars. The Beavers pushed the advantage to 47-28 after three and just ran away in the fourth.
Four Beavers scored in double digits, including Jiang. Micah Knapp had 15 points while Brandon Elchynski and Reagan James added 10 each.
Jake Kupchella, Colby Johnson and Griffin Suppa shared the scoring lead for Warren with eight points each. The Beavers held the Dragons leading scorer, Caleb Ei, to just two points on the night.
Warren will look to turn things around quickly as the Dragons travel to DuBois tonight.
In the bigger picture, Conneaut defeated Harbor Creek, 52-44, meaning Warren locks up second place in Region 6 and will host a playoff game Friday. The opponent will be announced later today.
Corry also won a closely contested junior varsity contest, 48-46. Owen Carey had a game-high 18 points for Corry, while Lucas Nichols added 10 points in the win.
Mitchell Grosh led Warren with 12 points.
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CORRY (64)
Elchynski 5-0-0-10, Carey 1-0-0-2, Knapp 7-0-0-15, James 4-1-1-10, Jiang 7-0-0-19, Willis 3-0-0-8, Zajac 0-0-0-0, Nichols 0-0-0-0, Jaquith 0-0-0-0, Gentilman 0-0-0-0, Love 0-0-0-0, Johnson 0-0-0-0, Riedel 0-0-0-0
WARREN (37)
Kupchella 3-0-0-8, McMeans 3-0-0-6, Johnson 3-0-0-8, Morrison 2-1-4-5, Ei 1-0-0-2, Suppa 1-5-6-8, Davis 0-0-0-0, Grosch 0-0-0-0, Funari 0-0-0-0, Gustafson 0-0-0-0, Rafalski 0-0-0-0
By Quarters
Corry 13 18 16 17 – 64
Warren 10 10 8 9 – 37
Three-point FGs: Corry (9) – Jiang (5), Willis (2), James, Knapp; Warren (5) – Kupchella (2), Johnson (2), Suppa