Warren’s girls basketball team took a 25-24 lead with 6:27 left in the game, and held off McDowell 32-26 on Tuesday at Warren Area High School.

Point guard Riley Childress was held scoreless in the second and third quarters, but scored 7 of Warren’s 11 fourth-quarter points. She hit two free throws to give the Dragons a 25-24 lead with 6:27 left, and scored two buckets in the next minute-and-a-half; the second on a nifty feed from Emma Ruhlman.

Childress drove the right side and found Halle Kuzminski underneath the left side of the hoop at 2:44 for a 29-24 lead.

Sammie Ruhlman iced it with two free throws late.

Times Observer Photo by Jon Sitler McDowell’s Sadie Feronti (21) boxes out Gracie Ruhlman during the Dragons’ 32-26 Region 6 win on Tuesday at Warren Area High School.

“12-8 at halftime … that is not fun,” said Warren coach Lisa LaVan, “but we went into the locker room and said, ‘let’s look at the bright side of this. We just held a good team to 8 points.’ So, defensively, we’re really starting to come along. We just struggled on the offensive end. We had looks; we just didn’t put them in as much as we normally do.

“They executed our game plan perfectly,” added LaVan. “We had a couple mix-ups here and there, which you’re going to have, but for the most part, we did what we wanted to do. Everybody did their job; that’s what was so important.”

Emma Ruhlman scored 9 of Warren’s 12 first-half points (Childress the other 3 points). Ruhlman was 8 for 8 at the line and finished with a game-high 15 points. Childress had 11.

Warren improves to 10-2 overall and 3-0 in Region 6. McDowell is 6-4 and 2-2.

McDOWELL (26)

Gebhardt 1 0-0 3, Spano 3 2-2 8, Hetz 1 0-2 2, Ferber 0 0-0 0, Feronti 1 2-2 4, Nelson 1 3-3 5, Bennet 2 0-0 4, Russo 0 0-0 0, McQuaid 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 7-9 26.

WARREN (32)

SRuhlman 0 2-2 2, Kuzminski 2 0-0 4, Farr 0 0-0 0, Winkle 0 0-0 0, Childress 3 5-8 11, Stuart 0 0-2 0, Madigan 0 0-0 0, ERuhlman 3 8-8 15, GRuhlman 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 15-20 32.

3-point goals–Gebhardt, ERuhlman.

McDowell 4 4 9 9 — 26

Warren 8 4 9 11 — 32