Seneca won its second game in Warren County in 24 hours, defeating Warren 55-42 in a nonregion game Saturday afternoon at Warren Area High School.

After defeating Eisenhower on Friday night, the Bobcats used an 18-8 second quarter to pull away and hold off the Dragons.

“That’s pretty much exactly how I thought it would go if we played the same way we played against Bradford,” said Warren coach Jeff Berdine, whose Dragons are 2-2 overall. “They’re a good team. They run a lot of good stuff offensively. … We came out right off the bat making mental mistakes, got down 6-0, and I don’t think it really ever got better in the first half. Every time we had an opportunity to make a run at them, we’d make a mental mistake or we’d miss a free throw.”

Neither team shot well from the line, but Seneca had many more opportunities, going 11 for 26, while Warren was 8 for 17.

“They’re a playoff team from last season,” said Berdine. “One of the reasons we wanted to play them is they had everybody coming back this year. I thought it was a good opportunity to play another good nonregion team in December … to kind of see what we have. We’re still trying to find some things offensively with the different pieces and parts that we have, and once again, when (returning starting point guard) Tommy (Nyquist) comes back, that will make a difference.”

Nyquist, a sophomore, has missed Warren’s first four nonregion games due to injury, but is expected back for the start of Region 5 play in January.

In his absence, senior JT Blum has handled the ball, which changes the rotation. Sophomore Brady Berdine also comes off the bench to play point after playing the better part of junior varsity games.

“December basketball is about getting yourself ready for region play,” said coach Berdine, “and this is one that I thought we’d have to play very well to beat them, and we didn’t.”

Jacob Young, a 6-foot-7 senior center, leads Seneca in scoring and did on this day as well with 17 points. Senior guard Bobby Yost added 15 points, including four 3-pointers — all in the first half.

Junior Parks Ordiway had six of his team-high 14 points during a first quarter after which Warren trailed by just two. No other Dragon finished in double figures. The Dragons had just two field goals in the second quarter and four in the third.

Warren is right back at it on Monday at St. Marys.

Warren’s junior varsity team outscored Seneca 28-14 in the second half on Saturday, winning 52-34 prior to the varsity contest. Johnny Corbett scored all seven of his points in a decisive 17-6 fourth quarter for Warren. Konnor Hoffman led Warren with 12 points, Brady Berdine added 11 and Braylon Barnes 7 in the win.

SENECA (55)

LRupp 1 1-2 4, DeFazio 0 1-2 1, Young 7 3-10 17, Seabury 0 0-0 0, Shouey 0 0-0 0, Moffett 0 0-0 0, Kibbe 2 0-1 4, Trimble 1 3-6 5, Walker 3 2-3 9, BYost 5 1-2 15. Totals 19 11-26 55.

WARREN (42)

Ordiway 4 3-3 14, Barnes 1 1-2 3, Berdine 3 0-1 6, Rich 0 0-0 0, Blum 2 2-5 8, Vega 2 0-1 5, Becker 0 2-5 2, Blair 1 0-0 2, Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Greene 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 8-17 42.

3-point goals–LRupp, Walker, Yost 4, Ordiway 3, Blum 2, Vega.

Seneca 12 18 13 12 — 55

Warren 10 8 10 14 — 42